The City of Fort Collins Utilities has selected Siemens Energy, Inc. for the implementation of eMeter EnergyIP meter data management system (MDMS) for their Advanced Meter project, funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Fort Collins is a progressive utility located in northern Colorado and serves both electric and water consumers. Fort Collins was looking to work with a company that could help achieve business process efficiency, facilitate peak reductions, realize system and operational improvements, and provide consumers with more flexibility.

While much of the smart grid development in Europe mirrors programs underway in North America and other parts of the globe, there are important differences in priorities and emphasis. In particular, aggressive goals for energy efficiency and carbon emissions reductions are major drivers for smart grid and smart meter deployments in Europe. Over the next five to 10 years, these deployments will be closely linked with the achievement of 2020 carbon reduction goals in the European Union.

Opower and Honeywell announced plans to collaborate on the development of a home energy management solution.  Honeywell will offer its expertise in control system and Opower, their data analysis solution.  The first solution expected from the partnership is a Web-connected programmable thermostat that measures, analyze and reports on the homes' electricity use.

DIRECTV has selected Pace HR34 Server to launch its Home Media Center solution.  The HR34 digital home solution, said Pace, is the satellite industry’s first fully multiroom DVR platform. Both companies are looking forward to consumer response, according to DirecTV’s CTO, Romulo Pontual, the Home Media Center will be a first for DIRECTV.  Home Media Center will be able to record and playback different programmes at the same time and offer management access from different devices.

Leading digital component suppliers have partnered to integrate THX Media Director into their solutions.  At CEDIA 2011 Quantum Data, Sigma Designs, Analog Devices and Silicon Image announced that CE manufacturers using their component is new devices can now benefit by having THX Media Director already integrated.  It is now easier to integrate THX into devices such as AV receivers, Projectors, Blu-ray players and Televisions.

After two years of development Embedded Automation has release a new version of its mControl application. The new mControl v3 is said to offer support for more devices, richer user interface, plus much more.  mControl v3 also supports other Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication standards that will allow solutions providers to develop solutions that interface with other systems in the home.

Last year at CEDIA Sony released its first 3D home projector, this year they launched the world’s first 4K home front projector, the VPL-VW1000ES.  The projector offers the highest resolution for a home theatre projector, over four times that of a HDTV.  The VW1000ES also employs an entirely new SXRD 4K panel, which produces outstanding deep blacks; when combined with Sony's Iris3 technology, the projector can achieve an incredible 1,000,000:1 dynamic contrast.

Sensinode an embedded applications and web service vendor has released two reference applications for machine-to-machine (M2M) solutions developers.  Finnish based Sensinode said the two reference applications; one for the connected home and the other for commercial lighting will help M2M solutions vendors to develop and deploy their solutions faster. The Connected Home application supports automated monitoring and control of electric and electronic devices for energy savings, safety and security.

Verizon Wireless and Trilliant, a global Smart Grid communications leader in delivering solutions that enhance energy efficiency, utility operations and renewable resource integration, today announced that Trilliant's next-generation CellReader, the leading cellular wireless Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) solution for Commercial and Industrial (C&I) Utility metering, has been certified as compatible with the Verizon Wireless network.  CellReader products operating on the Verizon Wireless network complement Trilliant's SecureMesh smart grid networks and UnitySuite™ head-end softw