LonMark International Presents Open Systems Experts with ‘Best of the Year Awards’ for 2007

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LonMark honors achievements, which advance the controls market, celebrating energy-conscience solutions and growing end-user benefits.

November 19, 2007 – Amsterdam, the Netherlands – LonMark International announced the winners of its Best of the Year Awards on November 15 at LonWorld 2007. The event was characterized by a remarkable gathering of integrators, vendors and IT experts, all of whom LonMark commended for their innovative products and acknowledged intelligent solutions, forward-thinking initiatives, as well as the individuals and companies that drive them.

“This year’s awards mark an impressive achievement in the industry and recognize the great people and solutions that make the transition to complete plug&play interoperability possible,” said Ron Bernstein, Executive Director of LonMark International.

The six award categories—Best Multi-vendor Project, LonMark Certified Device, Infrastructure Product, Software, Industry Initiative, and Visionary—represent an exceptional group of technology developers, solutions providers, and market leaders who are dedicated to advancing the market of intelligent and sustainable controls solutions in all areas of application.

The annual awards program received 34 nominations in the six different categories from companies around the world. “The quality and quantity of the nominations was outstanding this year. With so many noteworthy projects and products it is difficult to single out just one winner in each category”, added Bernstein. The LonMark International Board of Directors consisting of 23 members had the dubious task of selecting the winners via an extensive set of criteria defined for each award category. All nominations are listed on the LonMark website at: www.lonmark.org.

The Best Multi-vendor Project award is attributed to an open solution consisting of products from many manufacturers, with benefits such as open front-end software, which highly benefits the end-user. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was presented the award for its efforts in researching and designing one of the most comprehensive open control systems based on LON® technology. The complete system covers a running total of 37 buildings and manages and controls water, HVAC, and metering. The U.S. Army Corps has been working with LON since 2001, when it agreed to the Energy Savings Performance Contract (ESPC) to help conserve and manage energy use in government building. Its cutting-edge solution is now the standard for all buildings to increase energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The Army Corps of Engineers has also taken great steps in educating the market through various workshops and demonstrations of their system, focusing on best practices and implementation of open solutions based the LON Guide Specs developed specifically by the Army Corps.

The LonMark Certified Device of the Year was presented to Somfy GmbH from France in recognition for its Animeo LON 4AC Motor Controller. The Animeo LON 4AC Motor Controller controls sun blinds, shutters, awning and windows with the intelligent use of natural resources to manage indoor climates. Utilizing daylight and sun energy to light and warm rooms, the Animeo LON 4AC is energy-efficient and helps reduced the amount of electricity needed for lighting without affecting the level of user comfort. The LonMark Certified Product helps end-users implement energy-saving practices in their every day lives.

[an error occurred while processing this directive] LonMark presented Echelon the Infrastructure Product of the Year in honour of its i.LON 100 SmartServer, newly designed this year. The i.LON 100 combines routing and Internet services with graphic capabilities provided by Adobe®, to monitor and manage almost any electronic device, and offers energy-conservation advantages for every industry segment, including building automation, street lighting, smart homes, and transportation. The intelligent server enables scheduling and demand response programs to optimise energy efficiency and with its wide range of applications is a tribute to moving towards sustainable controls solutions.

4HomeMedia, a California based software company, is the developer of an advanced ControlPoint , for OEM hardware manufacturers and service providers and is the winner of this year’s Software award. The intelligent software is used to provide control applications and services for the connected home. End-users can monitor their homes with value-adds such as Web access on the television, remote control of home devices from a mobile phone, and the ability manage all smart home functions from an intuitive user interface. ControlPoint is an innovative software solution that allows users to track energy consumption in the home down to the device level, putting energy management into the control of the end-user.

In the category of Industry Initiative of the Year, the winner was Constellation Energy’s New Energy Alliance, an initiative to bring leaders in the building automation together with the energy supply and distribution market to tackle the issues and opportunities of Demand Response (DR). Constellation is leading the charge to bring greater intelligence and control into the process of managing electrical power usage. The initiative has set aggressive goals to help facilities reduce their energy loads, decrease their costs, and help energy suppliers manage the loading on the power grid. Recently Constellation Energy joined LonMark International as a sponsor member with the intent to drive the standards and solutions to enable Demand Response to an even greater market.

Finally, in acknowledgement of Tracy Markie’s on-going efforts to drive the market forward, LonMark International presented him the Visionary award. Mr. Markie is co-founder and President of Arizona-based Engenuity Systems, Inc. and has 15 years of experience in LON systems. As a pioneer with LON technology and open systems, Markie has been a pillar in the industry, serving as Chairman to the LonMark International Board of Directors and consistently pushing the value of interoperable solutions in the market as a key to creating higher product and system functionality for the benefit of the end-user.

LonMark International is proud to celebrate the on-going efforts of the award recipients and will continue to offer educational programs, professional testing, and work together with LonMark Members and Affiliates to meet the growing market demand for green controls solutions in all sectors of the market.

About LonMark International
Since its inception in 1994 and new corporate structure in 2003, LonMark International has become a major driving force in the establishment of interoperable guidelines for building, industrial, transportation, residential, and utility automation.

LonMark membership is open to any manufacturer, distributor, engineer, system integrator, or end-user committed to the development, specification, and use of open, interoperable products utilizing ANSI/CEA 709.1 and related standards.

LonMark International is a non-profit, mutual-benefit trade association with close to 600 members worldwide, and local affiliates in the Americas, Asia, and Europe. LonMark’s mission is to create, support, and promote the standards for open, interoperable LON -based products, systems, and professionals. For more information about LonMark International, testing, and educational opportunities please visit www.lonmark.org.

Products, which have been verified to conform to the LonMark interoperability guidelines, are eligible to carry the LonMark logo.

LonMark and the LonMark Logo are registered trademarks in the US and other jurisdictions. Other marks belong to their respective holders.

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