The ZigBee Alliance and its members work each day to create the best wireless connection to the hundreds of devices we count on every day to make our lives more convenient, productive, comfortable and safe. The following awards represent peer and industry recognition of the importance and relevance of the ZigBee standard. They are also a testimony to the innovation, vision and leadership of the Alliance and our members.

Initiative. The ZigBee Alliance was presented the Initiative Award for their promotion of the ZigBee wireless technology. As a global open standard, ZigBee is paving the way for dramatically different devices to communicate for the first time, while offering more control and convenience options than ever before. This year, the ZigBee Alliance began a new initiative to provide solutions for energy management and efficiency by addressing growing concern around the environment and predicted energy shortages. Numerous states and countries are pushing ultra-efficient new homes and buildings, and only ZigBee addresses such a broad challenge.

Held in
conjunction with EHX Fall 2007, the 2007 Multi-Room Awards recognized significant contributions to the multi-room audio, video and lighting markets based on innovation and achievements in design and engineering. The Colorado vNet Wireless Lighting & Control System received the Multi-Room Award for Best Retrofit Lighting Control System-that which includes one or more keypads or touch panel interfaces allowing users the ability to toggle power to lights and fans, dim lights, and program lighting levels. read full article.

Ember was presented the Best New Wireless Product award for their ZigBee wireless technology platform. Ember’s ZigBee wireless technology is being used in building automation, integrated home automation and advanced metering initiatives to help make our living and working environments safer, smarter, more comfortable and energy efficient. In the building automation market, Ember’s ZigBee system is the platform of choice for innovative and leading companies. Ember’s low-power ZigBee networking system is the comprehensive solution for all of building automation needs - reliability, easy installation of network nodes, low system costs and long battery life.

Wireless Design and Development Magazine selected Freescale's MC1322x Platform in Package™ for Editor's Technology Award. The MC1322x platform is engineered to support battery life of up to 20 years, doubling the expectations for current ZigBee solutions. Freescale’s MC1322x is available in a Platform in Package™ (PiP) solution that integrates the essential components of a ZigBee application within a single package, thereby reducing component count and system cost. The MC1322x platform contains a 32-bit microcontroller (MCU), a fully compliant IEEE® 802.15.4 transceiver and RF matching components — all integrated into a small-footprint, land-grid array (LGA) package that virtually eliminates the need for external RF components. The platform solution also features a TurboLink™ technology mode, engineered to increase data rates by up to 2 megabits per second between nodes. read full article.

MeshNetics was recognized with the “Excellence in Technology Award in the field of wireless sensor network (WSN) solutions based on ZigBee” award for providing state-of-the-art capabilities that enable the convergence of building automation subsystems such as lighting, HVAC, and security into one interoperable ecosystem. Currently there are hundreds of thousands, even millions of disconnected devices that perform daily functions invisible to people—such as metering and sensor devices taking measurements, industrial and access controls. MeshNetics addressed this critical need of connecting these devices and integrating their collected data into enterprise systems by developing the M2M gateway server for wireless data integration. The gateway helps to integrate data into existing enterprise IT systems using existing interfaces, such as Web Services, OPC and others. That was essential for the introduction of new business processes. read full article.

Niles Audio Corporation, the First Name In Custom Installation®, has received two prestigious awards, both for their iRemote® TS - an elegant user interface for operating the award-winning IntelliControl® ICS whole house distributed audio/video system and automating sophisticated home theater systems. Named an Innovations 2008 Design and Engineering Awards honoree by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) and also named the winner of the Audioholics 2007 Consumer Excellence Award in the Remote Control Category. read full articles -