We do support other z-wave products. You can use the basic z-wave command classes from our controller for any surrent z-wave product line. There are some advanced things you can do with our IlluminEssence lighting that you can't do with basic command class devices, but you can still create scenes, turn on and off lights, and map scenes to audio video activities.

Funny you should ask about the trigger option. In the future, other CE manufacturers will hopefully incorporate z-wave chipsets natively into their devices so we could (for example) talk to a sony DVD player through the RF z-wave without the need for translation devices.

I do know of a company called Boca Devices (http://www.bocadevices.com) and they make a z-wave 8 port relay for things like projectors and screens called the "Relay-Z".

JP -

Our AV100 and AVL300 remotes have the IR codeset for the LUTRON ir dimmers and switches as well. Our IlluminEssence lighting line communicates with the AVL300 via RF, so you don't need to be within line of site to talk to a switch. The real advantage here is that without pulling ANY new wires, you can talk to 200+ lights in your home. A good example is how I use this feature in my house. I created a scene called "goodnight" which turns off about 10 lights, dims my daughters table lamp to 10% (shes only 4 months old) and turns on this little "fish tank" toy my wife bought her that is attached to her crib. I can then turn it off from our bedroom after she falls asleep. Now if we could only make any IlluminEessence product that will wake up at 2 and 4 am every night to feed her......... ;)

Hey Erik,

I'm just glad that a product of ours is creating this level of interest.

To answer your API question, we plan on keeping the open source build available for anyone to add upon. Once enhancements have been made, Monster will need to evaluate them, add the proper wrappers and incorporate them into the Einstein platform. Honestly I don't know how often something like that will actuallly happen. We have worked with out developers for more than a year building a new version of the platform that is designed specifically for the hardware we are adding. I'm not really sure how well that kind of effort will translate to an opensource community. for examplle, our new GUI supports some sofisticated alpha blending that has to be done on a custom MB and GP architecture. That's sort of the problem with any open source application that tried to behave like a CE appliance. Tivo is built on Linux but the reason it works so well is that the Tivo OS is really designed around getting the most out of their series 2 and 3 hardware designs. Same thing here with Monster. You could run the app on any old X86 processor but how is it going to perform?

To resond to Adam, yes this product is definetly targeted at teh CEDIA crowd for the first release next year. It's a difficult message. Media over IP, home automation, control, etc. Not really a big box product. However the programming costs we hope to be minimal. We have been working with our retailers and gettiing their input on what connected devices they are installing so that we can make sure those elements can be integrated into Einstein as just a plug-and-play connection. The mistake that other developers are making is that they create the API and then just hope that manufacturers will deisgn products that fit within their architecture. We've spent the last 4 years doing the heavy lifting in the back-end so that we don't have to wait. I'd rather write the drivers and figure out the MAC addresses of gear that my dealers like to use than wait for Panasonic to make an IP camera that will work natively. I'd be waiting for decades. In addition to all that work with non-standards based legacy and IP equipment we are also working with UpNP, DLNA, Z-wave, Windows DRM, and others.

Okay....given dont like our cables (Which is fine. You don't have to buy them and if you do buy them and don't like them you can return them). What does that have to do with Network Entertainment and Control devices? Our cables are hardware. This is software. Two COMPLETELY different groups of engineers. In fact the lead hardware designer isn't even on cables. He has done work in our power categiry before. Are you thinking that by being able to move media over IP and control everything in your house "you won't be able to hear a difference because it's snake oil"? I don't get it.