The DECT Forum, the international association of the wireless home and enterprise communication industry, is pleased to announce that CETECOM ICT Services GmbH (Germany) and Nemko AB (Norway) have been appointed first CAT-iq 2.0 test laboratories.

The CAT-iq 2.0 certification program is on track and will start in September, enabling the market launch of CAT-iq 2.0 products before the end of 2010. The DECT Forum has appointed CETECOM and Nemko as Qualification Laboratories to assess and test products submitted by applicants in accordance with the test plan and the other procedures required by the CAT-iq 2.0 Qualification Program allowing products to be certified according to the specification. In addition to meeting the requirements for CAT-iq certification, both laboratories are accredited by their national accreditation bodies as being compliant with the standard ISO/IEC 17025.

“With the appointment of CETECOM and Nemko as the first test houses for CAT-iq 2.0 certification we are confident that we have selected the most experienced and reliable partners”, says Daniel Hartnett, Chairman of the CAT-iq Working Group within the DECT Forum. “With these appointments, the certification of CAT-iq 2.0 can start in September 2010. I am expecting market launch of certified CAT-iq 2.0 products before the end of this year.”

“We are very pleased to be selected by the DECT Forum as a certified test house for the CAT-iq 2.0 certification”, says Andreas Ehre, Head of Business Development, CETECOM ICT Services Germany. “Our long expertise in global testing and certification services in communication technologies – including our role as qualification test laboratory for CAT-iq 1.0 certification – guarantees that we will be able to meet the strong demands of the DECT Forum and the entire wireless communication industry.”

“Nemko services include full testing and certification of wireless telecommunications products“, says Frode Sveinsen, Chief Engineer, Nemko Norway. “Our laboratories are all highly recognized in their respective markets. We are pleased that Nemko as a test house will be part of the deployment of the CAT-iq technology from the very beginning.“

Grid Net, the smart grid communications provider known for championing WiMAX as the best option for transmitting energy data between meters, utilities and consumers, announced that it is partnering with Oracle’s utilities division to sell network and meter management software.

Oracle delved deep into the smart grid software space last year, when it launched an end-to-end solution for utilities integrating smart grid systems into their offerings. This bundle includes Oracle Utilities Meter Data Management and Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing. Essentially, it offers software to help utilities parse all the data flowing in from smart meters into actionable information, and to help them more efficiently serve their customers.

Grid Net will be selling these products to complement its own software offerings: the PolicyNet SmartGrid Network Management System and Smart Network Operating System. Basically, it has landed a plum alliance with this Oracle deal, buddying up with one of the companies that has been serving utilities for years.

That said, Grid Net is not the only firm Oracle has formed this kind of relationship with. It is also working with other smart grid software providers eMeter and AMX International, as well as smart meter builder Sensus.

Software is an increasingly vital component of the electrical grid. Updating hardware, like meters, substations and the like only happens once every couple of decades. Now that many of these have been revamped with modern technology, software can be used to update them in the interim.

The deal between Grid Net and Oracle is advantageous for both parties for several reasons. It will allow Grid Net to quickly expand and diversify its relationships in the utility industry and to move outward from its core WiMAX strategy before it gets pigeonholed. It will also give Oracle another valuable startup partner in providing utilities with all the tools they need to further their smart grid strategies.

Grid Net has been on a roll lately, recruiting its new chief strategy officer, Andres Carvallo, fresh off a successful run at Austin Energy, one of the first utilities in the U.S. to deploy smart meters. In March, Cisco Systems took a large stake in the company, taking an obvious interest in its WiMAX technology.

Based in San Francisco, Grid Net has raised several rounds of funding from Intel Capital, GE Capital, Catamount Ventures, and Braemar Energy Ventures.

Landis+Gyr and CURRENT’s European entity CURRENT Technologies International GmbH, have signed an agreement to deliver smart, open and interoperable energy management solutions. The agreement is a key ingredient in addressing the challenge to come in implementing smart grid and smart metering technologies in Spain and Portugal.

Landis+Gyr and CURRENT have joined efforts to deliver standards-based smart grid solutions by integrating CURRENT’s PRIME technology into the Landis+Gyr Gridstream advanced product line.

Due to increased pressure on European distribution systems to handle intermittent renewables, increased load, and new forms of electricity generation along with new two-way communications and data management systems, traditional energy infrastructure is shifting to real time smart systems.

As the world’s leading provider of integrated energy management solutions, Landis+Gyr is also a key member of the PRIME Alliance along with CURRENT. For the deployments with CURRENT, Landis+Gyr combines its state-of-art E450 residential smart electricity meter, which implements PRIME power line communication technology, with its Gridstream AIM software solution – both essential ingredients for establishing powerful smart metering infrastructures, a key step towards realizing the smart grid.

Under the terms of the cooperation agreement, Landis+Gyr will now offer CURRENT Smart Grid® products, which provide seamless integrated solutions, making grids more reliable and efficient. The offer includes the full range of CURRENT hardware and software smart grid products. CURRENT hardware includes the meter data concentrator, intelligent sensors and advanced communications equipment. CURRENT’s OpenGridTM software makes advanced metering possible and optimizes the operation of the distribution grid.

This partnership provides customers in Spain and Portugal with an end-to-end solution that is market proven, designed for simple and speedy implementation.

Pierre Yves Plaza Tron of Telefónica I+D, and Project Coordinator at Beywatch will speak about BeyWatch, the project on energy efficiency for the Home environment and Neighborhoods, related to technical issues like wireless vs wired, system requirements around smart grid for home appliances/consumer electronics, OS platforms, role of the operator etc.

About Telefónica I+D
Founded in 1988, it contributes to the Group's competitiveness and modernity through technological innovation. To achieve this aim, the company applies new ideas, concepts and practices in addition to developing advanced products and services.

It is the largest private R+D centre in Spain as regards activity and resources, and is the most active company in Europe in terms of European research projects in the ICT sector (Information and Communication Technology).

It currently collaborates with technological leaders and numerous organizations in 42 different countries - among which figure more than 150 universities located in different parts of the world. It also participates in the most important international forums on technological know-how, thus creating one of the largest innovation ecosystems in the ICT sector.

Products such as the public phones in the booths currently used by Telefónica (1990), the large fixed and mobile network management systems (1990), data switches (1991), Internet access services (1996), developments for digital homes and connected cars (2000), the prepaid system for mobile phones (1999), interactive a la carte digital television (Imagenio) (2004), new services for television and the new business models on Internet (2006)... are just some of the projects the company has worked on.

Over the last few years, within the global market Telefónica I+D has grown to become a network of centres of technological excellence that stretches far beyond the Spanish borders, extending its R+D activities to offices situated in Barcelona, Granada, Huesca, Madrid, Valladolid, São Paulo (Brazil) and Mexico.

about Beywatch
BeyWatch is a 30-month research project supported by the European Commission (DG Information Society and Media) aiming at ICT tools for environmental management and energy efficiency. BeyWatch will develop an energy-aware and user-centric  solution, able to provide intelligent energy monitoring/control and power demand balancing at home/building & neighbourhood level.

To reach its objectives, BeyWatch has undertaken the following:

• Design ultra-low energy-consumption white-goods

• Implement methods, techniques and services to reduce the power consumption in smart/green homes/blocks/neighbours by intelligent control of electrical devices

• Generate hot water and electricity from renewable energy sources at building level,

• Elaborate business plans and business support system (BSS) applications that will help the users and providers to reach beneficiary contracts

• Motivate user's awareness, towards less CO2 emissions on the whole energy value chain (production, transportation, distribution, supply) and cleaner environment.

The attendance fee for the two day conference on 19/20 october 2010, High Tech Campus, Eindhoven, The Netherlands is for:

DECT Forum members
€ 599,- (19% VAT excluded)

Others
€ 699,- (19% VAT excluded)

You can register online and pay online.

According to a new research report from the analyst firm Berg Insight, the installed base of smart electricity meters in Asia-Pacific will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 91.0 percent between 2009 and 2015 to reach 116.5 million at the end of the period. Penetration for smart metering technology is projected to soar from very low levels to 25.0 percent by the end of the period. By the mid-2010s, the majority of all electricity meters shipped in the region is expected to have advanced functionalities and networking capabilities. Berg Insight anticipates that the leading economies in the region will have close to 100 percent penetration by 2020.

Australia and New Zealand commenced with massive installations of smart meters at the end of the last decade. Victoria will become the first Australian state to achieve full penetration by 2013. Mandatory rollouts are also being considered in other territories such as New South Wales. In New Zealand, the adoption of smart metering is driven by the energy industry. While many other countries have introduced regulations for the new technology, New Zealand’s government has decided not to interfere with the process.

The CAT-iq technology has more and more impact on the global communication market for telecom, IT, consumer electronics and home automation products. Facing the challenges and the opportunities of CAT-iq now and in the future, the Conference will bring together the whole ecosystem of companies currently deploying CAT-iq technology, building the CAT-iq infrastructure and designing the applications to make this a success.

The Conference will tackle technical challenges, discuss efficient and innovative solutions, show new business opportunities and will give an outlook into the CAT-iq future.

With the standardisation and imminent certification program for CAT-iq 2.0, the industry has reached an important milestone and technology inflexion point, enabling innovative products and wireless services for IP based broadband home communication.

The first CAT-iq Conference will provide first-hand information about the entire process of CAT-iq certification as well as for future applications and next generation CAT-iq profiles. 12-15 presentations (25 min. plus Q&A), a panel discussion and an exhibition area will concentrate on topics of interest related to different CAT-iq challenges.

Instructions for abstract, presentation, posters and demonstrators:
The abstract as base for the submission of a paper should contain the title, author(s) name(s), email address of the corresponding author and the involved company (ies) followed by a short summary of not more than 250 words, which clearly summarizes the presentation paper and its key messages. 

6 conference topics
We are looking for speakers to adress the below six topics from a marketing and /or technical perspective.

Standardisation, Certification, Qualification

• What is the status of the standard currently?


• What are the challenges for a successfull certification program.

Home automation, Smart home, Smart metering

• Market size/potential, applications, competing technologies.

HD-voice / Telecom integration, Multi room audio / music

• Challenges, Opportunities, Competing technologies

DECT Low Power

• What is needed to make DECT the technology of choice for low power wireless applications?

Enterprise systems and applications

• Challenges, Opportunities, Competing technologies

Development tools (Hard-, software and systems), Operating systems / Platforms and API

• Can Android win out in the DECT high end market, Is linux/symbian an option.
• Can a Generic API unlease the potential of CAT-iq?

The abstracts will be made available on the conference website seminar progamm. The presentation paper will be made available for download for the participants after the conference.

We are looking for...

• Technically and/or marketing wise challenging presentations that will provide a better understanding of technologies and/or markets
• Practical information that can be immediately put to use back in the work place
• Speakers with a desire to share their expertise and vision
• Speakers with strong organizational and speaking skills and good presentation materials

We are NOT looking for...

• Presentations that focus on the features and benefits of your company's latest products

Contributions can now be submitted by using this form.

If you have questions about submitting abstracts, please contact: Pieter Hermans at p.hermans@jakajima.eu.

Sponsorship
Additional sponsoring opportunities are available for exhibitors. Please contact Dick Vreeswijk at d.vreeswijk@jakajima.eu for information on how to exhibit at the CAT-iq developers conference.

The DECT Forum, the worldwide association of the home and enterprise communication industry, and Jakajima are pleased to host the first Global CAT-iq Market and Developer Conference in Eindhoven (The Netherlands) on October 19-20, 2010. The Conference will provide first-hand information about the entire process of CAT-iq Certification as well as future applications and next generation CAT-iq profiles. The delegate pre-registration for the CAT-iq Conference is open now at www.cat-iqconference.com.

CAT-iq technology is already impacting the global communication market for telecom, IT, consumer electronics and home automation products. Facing the challenges and the opportunities of CAT-iq now and in the future, the CAT-iq Conference will bring together the whole ecosystem of companies currently deploying CAT-iq technology, building the CAT-iq infrastructure and designing the applications to make this a success.

“With the standardization and imminent certification program for CAT-iq 2.0, the industry has reached an important milestone and technology inflexion point, enabling innovative products and wireless services for IP based broadband home communication”, says Erich Kamperschroer, Chairman of the DECT Forum.

“The Conference aims to leverage the technical development and market deployment of CAT-iq systems and products in 2010, and will assist in developing ideas for new application opportunities beyond voice”, says Daniel Hartnett, Chairman of the CAT-iq Working Group within the DECT Forum.

This event will tackle technical challenges, discuss efficient and innovative solutions, show new business opportunities and will give an outlook into the CAT-iq future. For more information about the first Global CAT-iq Market and Developer Conference – the program, online registration, sponsoring and exhibition opportunities – please contact Jakajima or visit www.cat-iqconference.com/contact.html.

The Conference will take place in the Conference Centre at the High Tech Campus in Eindhoven (The Netherlands): a stimulating high-tech environment for an innovative conference.

About CAT-iq 2.0 Certification Program:
The CAT-iq certification program promotes CAT-iq to market stakeholders as a technically credible implementation of conformity to a set of standards that will add value to their industry/lives. It ensures interoperability of devices from multiple manufacturers for functionalities defined in CAT-iq. Furthermore the certification program ensures a mandatory level of quality for specific product parameters to achieve consistent user experience for the various stakeholders. All manufacturers, test houses, certification laboratories, and further interested companies, who intend to test and certify CAT-iq devices, will be able to purchase the certification test equipment.

CAT-iq is a registered trademark (in 47 countries worldwide) owned by the DECT Forum, it references features and procedures to corresponding ETSI specifications. Only end products can be approved through the certification program (fixed part and/or portable part). Application for CAT-iq certification is restricted to Full members of the DECT Forum. Please find an overview of the CAT-iq certification program at www.cat-iq.org.

read in connectedplanetonline.com by John McDonald

As CAT-iq offers ultra low power solutions for smart grid we found this article relevant for you.

Creating a smarter grid is the “checkered flag” our industry has been eyeing for years — long before the term “smart grid” was coined. We’ve developed the technology and assembled the pieces, but deployment has been confined to local exits from the slow lane.

Now, with stimulus funding and increasing consumer awareness, it’s time to move smart grid into the express lane. We have a phenomenal opportunity to accelerate smart grid deployment, and we’ll need a strategic road map in place to optimize the integration of smart technologies into our infrastructure. We also need to shift gears from traditional “siloed” processes to a strategic, holistic drive toward energy delivery.

Driving holistic strategies
The strategic road map to a smarter grid starts with open, collaborative strategies from key drivers of smart grid solutions.

Read the complete article.

John D. McDonald, P.E., is an IEEE Fellow and past president of the IEEE Power & Energy Society (PES). He is also a member of IEC Technical Committee (TC) 57 and Working Groups (WGs) 3 and 10, the VP of Technical Activities for the U.S. National Committee (USNC) of CIGRE, and the past chair of the IEEE PES Substations Committee. Additionally, Mr. McDonald is the General Manager of Marketing for GE Energy T&D.

This Kit offers a relatively easy and cost-effective way for homeowners and renters to get the security benefits of Internet-connected home monitoring, including mobile alerts. Designed for quick and easy installation by the user (D-Link claims that the system can be installed from scratch in about 30 minutes, using pre-set default settings) the system connects using the broadband router in the home. Once installation is complete, in-home activities and security options can be remotely monitored and controlled through a personalized Web portal account at mydlink.com. Alerts from wireless sensors around the home are instantly relayed by text, e-mail and voice-call to system owner. It’s also possible to set up alerts for designated contacts, or for activities at certain times of day.

Once the Starter Kit is installed, the system can be expanded with a number of high-end features that are available as optional accessories, including infrared motion detection, door/window contacts, keypad, personalized key fobs, fire, carbon monoxide, and water leak detectors. The system can be used for low security applications too, such as letting working parents when their kids get home safely from school, or even monitoring pets during the day. A home video option is available with D-Link IP cameras which can capture and record events with remote access to the images available through the Web site or via mobile phones.

A green companion to the Home Monitor is the D-Link Home Energy Monitoring Starter Kit. According to D-Link this Kit lets consumers measure the energy consumption of all electrical appliances in the home, turning the Home Monitor into the ultimate smart energy 'Green Machine'. Once the Energy Monitor is installed and linked to the Home Monitoring Starter kit, consumers can use the MyDLink portal to program devices to power-down when the home is empty, helping reduce carbon emissions and reduce utility bills by saving electricity.

The energy monitoring kit is equipped with two power-usage sensor adapters (additional sensors may be purchased separately) that plug into the home's wall sockets near where the electrical appliances are located. By plugging the appliances directly into the kit's sensor adapters, users can automatically download energy consumption data to their personal mydlink.com Web page where they have access to real-time power usage levels; daily, weekly and monthly breakdowns; cost conversions and graphical analysis.

These two kits make a smart package for homeowners interested in upgrading their security and energy consumption options with one integrated and expandable solution.