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| Built-in digital home entertainment system The Leviton Manufacturing Company and Dedicated Devices, Inc. (DDi), announced today that they have entered an agreement with the nation's largest homebuilder, Pulte Homes, to offer the award-winning networked digital home entertainment system, the Leviton Entertainment & Applications Platform (LE&AP), as an optional upgrade in approximately 1, 600 homes currently under development in Broomfield, Colo., a suburb of Denver. LE&AP will be showcased in the model homes at Anthem Highlands as well as Pulte Homes' showrooms throughout the Denver Area. Dynamark Technologies of Denver, a division of Global Telecom Inc., will install and service the systems for homeowners. "Today's new-home buyers are demanding that more technology be integrated into their homes when they are built, rather than deal with the cost and complexity of assembling a system on their own, " said Bruce Stokes, division president of Pulte Homes. "Providing DDi and Leviton's digital entertainment network gives our homebuyers a simple way to share Internet access and enjoy digital media such as music, videos and photos in any room of the house." Since the mid-1990s homebuilders have steadily increased the number of homes sold with complete Ethernet structured wiring. According to the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) and the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), 61 percent of the 1.9 million new homes expected to be built in 2005 will have structured wiring. By 2008, 10 million homes in the U.S. will have structured wiring systems in place, according to research firm Parks Associates. "Dynamark is proud to work with Pulte Homes to provide homebuyers with home networking technologies such as structured wiring and the structured media center cabinets that manage it, " said Frank Penn vice president and COO of Dynamark Technologies. "By integrating Leviton's LE&AP system with the flat-screen televisions, whole-home audio and turnkey home theaters we already install, GTI can provide builders a complete solution to support the digital lifestyles of today's home buyers." LE&AP is the first commercially available and affordable digital home entertainment network product specifically designed and built to utilize the Ethernet structured wiring homebuilders already include in the majority of new homes. LE&AP is placed at the center of a home's wired network to provide wired or wireless Internet access to PCs and laptops and whole-home access to digital audio, video and photos. For homebuyers, LE&AP will be an optional upgrade in the same way premium appliances or luxury carpets are chosen prior to the completed construction of their home. "Leviton is proud that LE&AP has been selected by Pulte Homes to be the company's first networked digital home entertainment product, " said Bob Becker, Vice President, Leviton Integrated Networks. "Offering homebuyers the option of a truly digital home demonstrates Pulte Homes' continued commitment to providing today's homebuyers with homes that fit their lifestyle." write your comments about the article :: © 2005 Networking News :: home page |