That same focus on quality, accountability and consistency has made Humane Interface one of the leaders in Crestron programming. Now, we're taking it to the next level, with Try-Z training.

Try-Z is a continuous improvement process developed and perfected in the Japanese automotive industry, which has become the standard for Quality, Cost, Delivery processes in many different industries. Humane Interface is instituting global training of it's programmers in the Try-Z system, beginning in April, with implementation at all branches by June.

Training in the program will be done personally by Peter J. Paola, CEO and Founder of QCDSM, a leader in quality improvement training who counts Kraft, Richard-Allen Medical, and Amway among their customers.

The client, a well-known entertainer, sought a fully integrated experience across his large compound.  Multiple door stations, a dozen video rooms, and 16 cameras feeding to multiple touchpanels that doubled as intercom's provided the client and his family with ease of use throughout the property.

The Virtual ML600 is a onscreen replica of the popular Crestron remote control, but can provide 2-way feedback for volume and source selection.  All functionality of a physical remote can be replicated, but the Virtual ML600 runs as a eControl application on the customer's PC or laptop. 

As with other eControl projects, the Virtual ML600 can be run from anywhere in the world if there is a internet connection back to the customer's home.  

 In addition to the Virtual ML600, HumaneInterface also demonstrated virtual keypads that can be used to provide the customer with quick desktop access to lighting or other simpler functions.

AMX New Zealand, formerly AV Technology New Zealand, has been established in New Zealand for the last 12 years. Nagle will be responsible primarily for growing that presence further in the integrated systems market.

The unit allows automatic or remote bath preparation, including a unique temperature management system that can keep the bathtub at a set termperature.  They also have a premium version which adds dispensing of frangrances, bath oils or bubble bath, and an in-line heater for silent termperature management without excess water usage.

The unit comes with a local, water-resistant touchpanel for use within the bathroom, but the unit is also controllable through TCP/IP from a PC, a Crestron system, or an AMX system.

As is widely known, the Crestron TPMC-4X is based on the Nevo hardware platform, so early speculation was that the TPMC-4X would soon be discontinued.  Crestron has assured dealers that the TPMC-4X would not be discontinued anytime soon, with a new 801.11G version to be shipping soon and a firm committment from Nevo to continuing building the underlying platform.

Crestron's new Zigbee-based remote will likely be added to the release schedule soon after the beginning of the new year, and provides an excellent future replacement not only for lower-end installations currently using the TPMC-4X and also as a more feature-rich alternative to installations using the ML600.

DirecTV reportedly has no plans to sell ReplayTV units, but made the purchase for the intellectual property portfolio which will strengthen their legal position.  It's unfortunate that their rival, EchoStar (parent of Dish Networks) didn't make the purchase given their recent legal loss against TiVo.  This may further hurt Dish, which provided DVR service to it's customers well before DirecTV.

Dish remains strong, with a cap of almost 17B and 1.63 EPS, but their customer base lags behind at 13 million to DirecTV's 16 million.  Dish nearly acquired DirecTV in 2002, but the deal was squashed by the FCC