Electronic Home Expo 2008

I was lucky enough to attend the Electronic Home Expo (EHX) in Orlando this past weekend. The conference is a dream come true for anyone who is a fan of home theater networks. Home automation and video/audio streaming devices of all price ranges were demonstrated and displayed. Albeit, most of the price ranges were in the high end and something the average middle class person can’t afford.

Here’s a list of my notable highlights from EHX:

1. ControlWare software from Superna was really easy to use and could control multiple home automation protocols. Not to expensive either.
2. The Z-wave Alliance demo room showed off different manufacture’s devices all working together. Some of the other protocols, such as Zigbee are having big problems with interoperability.
3. PMC demo speakers, which cost $120,000 just for the left and right pair. Although a little pricey, the trailer for 300 never sounded so good.
4. Niveus and other HTPC manufactures were showing off their products. Some included CableCard support.
5. Window’s MCE plug-ins were everywhere so it was nice to see Pluto-CI demoing LinuxMCE.
6. Multiple companies showed off their home automation system and how it can be controlled by an HTPC.