Echelon Technology Chosen as a European Standard for Household Appliance ManufacturersEchelon and LonMark International Collaborate on Standard to Help Reduce Energy Usage in Appliances(San Jose, CA - March 8, 2007) - Echelon Corporation (NASDAQ: ELON), a global networking company providing technology and solutions for controls, smart metering, and energy and environment management, and LonMark® International, a non-profit trade association, announced today that CECED, the European Committee of Manufacturers of Domestic Appliances, has adopted Echelon's technology as part of its Household Appliances Control and Monitoring – Application Interworking Specification (AIS) standard. The CECED AIS standard defines Echelon's control networking technology platform as one of the technologies for communication among household white goods such as ovens, washers and dryers. The creation of a CECED approved standard is an important step towards a mass market for smart appliances and home automation and control in Europe. According to Luigi Meli, Director General of CECED, "The CECED AIS standard provides a standard language and baseline to allow manufacturers to focus on innovation and the consumer experience rather than technology. The combined solution with Echelon's standard will support the growing demand for intelligent home appliances that are more energy efficient, user friendly and convenient." "Our organization is taking a leadership role in bringing these necessary standards to the market," said Ron Bernstein, Executive Director of LonMark International. "Together, the existing LonMark interoperability certification program and the CECED AIS standard take a significant step forward in making it easier and more cost effective for manufacturers' products and systems to work as one cohesive system – an absolute requirement for widespread consumer adoption. We believe that the CECED AIS standard is the key that unlocks the market for home owners to purchase products that are smarter, more energy efficient, and more easily integrated into intelligent homes." LonMark certified products meet rigid interoperability guidelines that insure that products from different manufacturers work together to deliver increased flexibility, greater efficiency, and more value to end-users. "The development of the CECED AIS standard is a significant win for both appliance manufacturers and consumers. The ability to have everyday household appliances automatically communicate with each other – regardless of manufacturer and without homeowner intervention – is a market enabler that allows manufacturers to address issues of energy consumption and conservation on a very large scale," said Anders Axelsson, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Echelon. "This important industry standard will, we believe, dramatically grow the market for more energy efficient smart homes." A key requirement for the home automation market is a common means of creating appliances that automatically install into a home network. This is essential in order to eliminate the need for technical knowledge on the part of the consumer. Echelon has created the Interoperable Self-Installation (ISI) technology, an integral part of the LonWorks platform, to satisfy this requirement by providing a simple, automatic discovery and installation process to enable home devices and appliances to communicate with each other without complicated user interaction and setup. As soon as power is applied or a "service" function is activated, the devices discover one another and configure themselves into fully functional control systems. System changes, such as the addition of a new device or a modification to a lighting scene, can take place at any time without any special user expertise or training. About CECED About LonMark International Products that have been verified to conform to the LonMark interoperability guidelines are eligible to carry the LonMark logo. More information can be found at www.lonmark.org. About Echelon Corporation Echelon has been a leader in the advanced metering infrastructure market, providing the underlying network technology for the world’s largest advanced meter management (AMM) project in Italy, with over 27 million connected electricity meters and more recently, winning tenders to provide the NES system to 700 thousand to 1.1 million customers for utilities in Sweden, The Netherlands and Australia. Echelon is based in San Jose, California, with international offices in China, France, Germany, Italy, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, The Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. Further information regarding Echelon can be found at http://www.echelon.com. ### Echelon, LonWorks, LonMark, and the Echelon logo are registered trademarks of Echelon Corporation registered in the United States and other countries. Pyxos is a trademark of Echelon Corporation in the United States and other countries. Other product or service names mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners. This press release may contain statements relating to future plans, events or performance regarding Echelon's products. Such statements may involve risks and uncertainties, including risks associated with the uncertain market acceptance of home control products by appliance manufacturers and consumers; the risk that appliances that incorporate the CECED AIS standard may not incorporate Echelon's products at all; risks associated with the ability of Echelon's products to perform as designed, including in the areas of energy usage, cost savings and customer service improvements; and other risks identified in Echelon's SEC filings. Actual results, events and performance may differ materially. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. Echelon undertakes no obligation to release publicly the result of any revisions to these forward-looking statements that may be made to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. Contact Information
|
||||||||