Residential Systems

Parks Associates is moving its next Forum — Forum 2001:  Leveraging Digital Opportunities — to December 12-14, 2001, in light of the tragic events in New York and Washington on September 11.  Forum 2001 will remain at The Regent in Las Vegas, Nevada, and its format and sessions will slightly vary from their original models.

Parks has assessed that, as a result of the tragedies, corporate travel will be widely curtailed for U.S. employees through the end of October 2001.  Parks ...read more

"When [the Internet Home Alliance] was created, it was seen as a marketing effort as opposed to technology developer.  We've seen plenty of the consortiums with the aim of creating a new standard for home networking," said Kurt Scherf, vice president of research at Parks Associates.  "What we hadn't seen was that they want people to leave their branding hats behind.  It's not about individual brands but about how the rising tide floats all boats."

Scherf continued, "The IHA wa ...read more

Despite well-publicized economic downturns in other industries, the residential home market does not seem to be taking any significant hits, according to Kurt Scherf.  Parks Associates estimates approximately  22 percent of all existing homes already have a security system (either monitored or non-monitored), and the market for home controllers will grow from $1.4 billion this year to $2.5 billion by the end of 2005.  They also place new housing growth at between 1.5 and 1.6 mill ...read more

According to Parks Associates, the residential structured wiring market is expected to be an area of significant growth, doubling in size by 2004.

From the article "Microtest Debuts Cable Tester."

So just how big is the structured wiring market now?  One research company, Parks Associates, has tracked emerging technologies for the home since the 1980s.  According to Kurt Scherf, VP of research at Parks, "Approximately 1.5 to 1.6 million homes are built in the U.S. every year.  More and more professionals in the construction industry realize that structured wiring is a way to differentiate their homes and quite frankly make more money."

Scherf, who specializes in home ne ...read more

Kurt Scherf, vice president of research at Parks Associates, defined a residential gateway as "a network interface device that terminates a wide area network that then connects to end user devices directly or through a network.  In addition to features common to any gateway, it should include an embedded broadband modem, some routing functionality and core level security."

....From the Parks Web site, "Current challenges to the industry include the need to develop appropriate ...read more

Parks Associates has released new data that says the residential gateway market, just now emerging, will grow to 25 million installed units at a value of $5 billion (end-user value) by 2005.

The residential gateway connects the wide-area network to the in-home network, and Parks Associates' research indicates that consumer adoption of solutions that gain value from a gateway device, particularly broadband services, will increase dramatically in the next few years.  The efforts ...read more

A group of some of the most recognizable companies in the country chose Parks Associates' 13th annual Forum in San Francisco, CA, to announce the formation of a new industry alliance.  Dubbed the Internet Home Alliance, the group is dedicated to enhancing consumers' understanding, appreciation and adoption of the Internet lifestyle.   Internet Home Alliance will try to fuel the market by promoting industry communication and assisting in the development of the entire "ecosystem," ...read more