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[paulr]

I just read an article by MIT's Technology Review about a new wireless standard called ZigBee ( http://www.zigbee.org/ ).  It looks very promising.

I can envision a "home control center" that would allow control of all media, lights, air conditioning, security, etc.  I think that because this is an industry standard, it will be huge.  No more proprietary devices.

Have you guys looked at this yet?  I think it would be fantastic to have support for this in the next year (as devices start being released to market).

[gbdesai]

Looks interesting, but it is effectively a low-power consuming, low-rate wireless technology for remote sensing and control.  That means it will be good for simply control and data aquisition, but won't do much for media streaming apps.  The problem I see is that its huge member list of 90 companies is made up of one-off leaders.  For example, Vantage is listed, but Lutron is not (for lighting control), Elan is listed, but Crestron is not (for control systems).  This technology is nearly useless unless everyone really gets on board.  Will be interesteting to see what develops or doesn't.

[paulr]

There are a number of big names associated with it though.  If it starts to catch on, I am sure it won't be long until the others join in.  But, like you said, we'll have to wait and see.

As for streaming, I agree.  However, it would be nice to have a single application that would control everything in one's home, including the HTPC or whatever other method used to deliver media to the entertainment system.  Some of this can be done with a variety of current applications and hardware, but having a unified system would make it much more accessible for people - and probably cheaper.