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It's 2001...Ready for Home Automation?

Techstination feature for Friday, January 5, 2001

It's 2001. Are you ready for home automation? I'm Fred Fishkin with Bloomberg Bootcamp. It's been a little more than a year since IBM spun off Home Director... .a company focused exclusively on home automation systems. President and CEO Mary Walker says what that means today... .are systems that let you share technology throughout the home...

"As people buy more and more computers and as they get broadband, basically it's not affordable, nor do you want to have multiple cable or DSL lines to your house. So you want to be able to have one high speed line but you want to be able to have all your computers and computing type devices use that high speed line. On the entertainment side, more and more digital cable and satellite coming to the home, but again, you don't want to have a set top box necessarily for every TV in your house."

What Home Director offers are systems for new homes... and soon, retrofits for existing homes... that will allow the integration and distribution of phone lines, computer networking, audio and video ... .to any room of the house. And Walker says the technology is more affordable than most people think...

"We actually have homes that... .installed price for a new home... is in the five hundred dollar range and it goes all the way up to say thirty five hundred dollars for a new home and it really depends upon the size of the house and how many rooms you want to do."

Home Director has growing numbers of installation partners around the country. You can find more information at homedirector.com. Bootcamp, I'm Fred Fishkin, Bloomberg Radio.