[EHX] Superna Shows Home Automation Gadgets for SideShow

Mar 10, 2007 Superna Systems is one of the first home automation companies to demonstrate gadgets for SideShow. Gadgets are the little pieces of code that allow applications to run on SideShow devices, a new breed of low-cost interfaces made possible by Windows Vista.

Superna CTO Eran Gampel said dealers themselves will be able to configure these gadgets so that consumers can have access to the most critical functions of their Superna home-control system--maybe whole-house scenes, or the control of specific lights, for example.

"They [dealers] can create gadgets just like any other [automation] screen," Gampel said.

Traffic was brisk at the Superna booth during the Electronic House Expo. Newly appointed VP of sales and marketing Avi Rosenthal said that dealers were finally understanding Superna's message of system flexibility.

"They like the openness," he said. "They like that Superna works with a variety of formats. They can use whatever products or operating systems they want."

He added, "They also like that we have over 1,500 drivers in our database."

Gampel said that Superna is unique in its ability to stream media across a variety of formats, including Vista, Media Center, XP and Linux.

Superna demonstrated the flexibility of its system at EHX, where a Vista Media Center PC was "pushing" television content to a remote television via an inexpensive Linux settop box.

Gampel explained that the cross-platform communications is innovative, but the fact that content can actually be pushed to a remote TV, rather than requested from a TV is an especially complicated feat.

From one touchscreen, a user can select a TV show or song to send to any TV on the network.

At EHX, Superna also demonstrated its evolving Vista Media Center interface, which should ship in a couple of months.

Superna won a CEA Mark of Excellence Award for Best Integrated System.