TAHI Commercialisation Programme
TAHI aims to achieve its Commercialisation programme in three main steps:
Each step is aimed at building and creating the environment and infrastructure to grow the market through consumer demand. At the same time a programme of promotion will highlight TAHI's activities and attract all the necessary stakeholders.
With the successful completion of its DTI sponsored trials, TAHI is now moving to turn experiment into reality. The trials have proved the concepts of Equipment management and the aggregation of services and have shown that organisations working together in a common cause can create the infrastructure to deliver the services and applications that people at home want and will pay for. We have shown the benefits for equipment manufacturers in managing and monitoring their equipment. We have shown just how things can be made to work together. Because we know and can show that things work, we do not need more trials or pilots. We need actual systems used by real people.
TAHI is now embarking on a determined programme of commercialisation that will turn our experiences and knowledge into commercial opportunity. The contention is that research or words are not enough; there must be commercially based action. Even backed by government initiatives however, adoption of all the benefits the connected home will take time. This programme will create demand and acceptance of the technology by wide-ranging showcases and deployments of the benefits arising from connectivity used intelligently by applying them to peoples' homes as they are built, refurbished and by occupiers refurbishing their own homes and telling the world about the benefits (with significant help from this programme).
TAHI does not believe that any organisation or group of organisations has the resources to tackle the whole market, rather we believe there are some sectors whose needs are higher and for whom the benefits are more readily apparent. Sectors where people will pay good money now for applications they really need. Early meetings of the TAHI Commercialisation Group have identified the following sectors as prime opportunities:
- Entertainment and Communication - this area will include all the normal audio visual systems but extend this to triple play with mobile communication and link into other home based systems.
- Energy Management & Sustainability - this area will include equipment management and remote monitoring of equipment in the home such as central heating systems, white goods and security systems
- Health, Telecare and Community - this area will include a wide range of systems that will help people to stay in their own homes longer, provide interactive contact, monitor their well-being and keep them secure.
- Building, Construction, Regeneration and Installation - this area will concentrate on the what the building industry needs to know and do to make houses smart and exploit the opportunities of connectivity.
Underpinning these groups, the TAHI Interoperability Group will be working to deliver definitive requirements specifications for a TAHI Interoperability Framework and specific Industry Sectors and Applications
This will take the form of a General Requirements document stating how systems will work together in the Smart House and it is intended that all specific systems and deployments will conform to the philosophy.
TAHI is working closely with the DTI and together we are planning the creation of regional deployments. We will be bringing together the people that will champion deployments in each region and will include politicians and government - both national and local, builders, architects, planners and the community to design cohesive communities of smart homes and bring intelligence to connectivity.
To promote this we are planning a series of workshops for each of the identified market segments together with national seminars.
The DTI has expressed their support for this and for the creation of regional deployments. We will be working with the DTI to build contacts in other Government departments, in the construction, manufacturing and services industry and in the regions.
The major objective of the TAHI Commercialisation Programme is to initiate a series of regional developments. These will consist of many types of housing with many differenct groups of people in them and the developments of these home will be from the 100s to the several 1,000s. The prospective home-based users will cover the whole demographic range (see below) from rich to poor, young to old although there will be emphasis on those sectors for which we have set up working groups as these are seen as more ripe for development than the unfocussed mass market.
There will be new build, refurbishment and many homes will be retrofitted by their owners.
For this task we will need to create teams of organisations with the skills to cover all the trdes and technologies required to make connected homes intelligent (and to upgrade homes with intelligent and green materials and techniques).
It will be the task of the Working Groups to find the organisations best suited to take part in the consortia as they are established. (TAHI Members will be given the first choice of positions in consortia and will benefit from the body of knowledge within the TAHI organisation).
Under the auspices of the Commercialisation Programme the consortia will be drawn as appropriately from the various WGs to address particular demographic requirements.
Figure 1. The Demographic user base for deployment
Figure 2 - Example User Profiles chosen from demographic
As developments and deployments take shape, their occupants will start to use and benefit from the new technology, applications and services that will be available to them.
The TAHI Programme will ensure that their experiences of this will be broadcast to their neighbourhoods and regions so that additional demand will be created.
This phase of the programme will be planned by the TAHI Commercialisation Group and become a major part of the groups activity as the programme proceeds.
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TAHI Supports the CENELEC SmartHouse Project