The Connected Home

Petaluma's Threshold Corp. devises more affordable way to manage household technology

By STEVE HART
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Published: Thursday, June 26, 2008

In the 1960s, a cartoon family called The Jetsons brought us the original "smart" home, complete with robot servants, picture phones and other futuristic gadgets.

Forty years later, a Petaluma tech startup is launching a wireless automation system aimed at making the smart home a reality.

"The home of the future is going to be very connected," said James Martin, chief executive officer of Threshold Corp.

His 4-year-old company hopes to begin selling its system in August. It's built around a digital home controller that lets consumers manage all their electronics -- TVs, media players, clocks, lights, computers, security systems and temperature controls -- from a single point. The technology also shows homeowners how much energy they're using.

The U.S. market for home automation systems is expected to grow from $3.5 billion in 2007 to $6 billion by 2012, according to Parks Associates, a Texas-based consulting firm that focuses on home networking.

But today's technology is expensive -- costing $10,000 or more -- and usually requires professional installation, Martin said.

Threshold's basic system costs $500 to $600 and is easy for consumers to install and configure, Martin said. When consumers hold one device to another, the gadgets wirelessly "talk" to each other, programming themselves with passwords, network addresses, device IDs and other data.

The system will first be available online, but Threshold also is also talking with home improvement, electronics and appliance retailers, Martin said.

James Martin, CEO of Threshold Corp., creates wireless networking devices for homes, which allows users to control devices, such as lights, monitor their property and chart appliances' energy use on computer. 

Threshold was founded in 2004 by a small group of Telecom Valley engineers with experience at Nokia, Next Level, Diamond Lane and DSC Communications. They planned to release the home server in 2006, but delayed the launch to work on a suite of peripherals and a power-control module for tracking energy use. "We had to create more technology along the way," Martin said.

With utility prices soaring, Threshold saw energy management as a major selling point, Martin said.
"We felt we had to bring it into our early release," he said.

The energy-monitoring feature lets consumers track the consumption of various home electronics on Threshold's controller, personal computer or laptop.

Threshold also is offering the power-control module to manufacturers who want to add energy tracking to their own electronics.

In addition to the power module, the company has developed a set of cameras, sensors, adapters and controls to link different home electronics. To drive the network, Threshold also invented a low-power wireless standard, called ONE-NET.

The company has started volume production in China and the Philippines and is adding marketing, business and manufacturing executives to its staff.

Threshold, which has 15 to 20 employees in Petaluma, has raised about $2 million from private investors. It is now looking for $5 million in venture funding to take the business to the next level, he said.
"We're anxious to get into the revenue mode," Martin said.

You can reach Staff Writer Steve Hart at 521-5205 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

 To see the orginal article: CLICK HERE

June 23, 2008 - Threshold Corporation is pleased to announce the appointment of Toby Bartz as Director of Manufacturing Operations. Toby has over 25 years experience in supply chain management and is well respected among the major electronics components suppliers. He has managed a broad range of supply chain programs at companies such as HP-Agilent, Siemens and VeriFone.  Toby will manage Threshold’s component suppliers and manufacturing partners to enable a successful ramp to mass production.

James Martin, CEO of Threshold, says “Toby is a wonderful addition to the Threshold team. His expertise and experience will be very beneficial for our product production operations.”
 

Wireless Energy Monitoring Made Easy

New wireless products from Threshold allow you to control products and monitor their energy use.

May 20, 2008 | by Steven Castle

We’ve been covering energy monitoring and the huge hole that exists in the home control market to show your energy use in an easy way. (See “Saving Energy with Wireless Mesh Networks” and “Affordable Energy Monitoring.”) The really good news is that there are low-cost systems becoming available.

One of the most affordable and simple may be from Threshold Corporation, a Northern California company due to release a suite of affordable and easily configured wireless control products in August. Threshold will offer a smart box Home Controller along with home energy management and security devices ranging from motion detectors to temperature and humidity controls, alarm clock radios, video cameras, and energy monitors--all based on a WiFi standard called One Net that Threshold developed.

The Home Controller replaces or works with an existing wireless router in your home and features a readout screen that can display, among other things, the energy consumption of your electronics and appliances that are plugged into separate power control modules. The power control modules also allow you to operate these devices, while calculating the power usage and delivering that data wirelessly to the controller, says Threshold CEO James Martin.

Threshold says the controller will sell for sub $300 and each power control module for under $40. There are also plans for a $500 starter kit for home energy and security management. The controller can display power usage for the week, month or year. 

The big selling point for Threshold products are the way devices like security cameras and others can be easily added to the network, without the hassle of loading software and typing in all those pesky network variables. You just hold the devices near each other and all the necessary information to add something to the network is done. But we really like the energy savings potential as well.

“The next stage for consumers to get better at conserving energy will happen by feeding them data about their energy use,” says Martin. He adds that people don’t want to spend $600 or $700 just to look at data, but that a system will have value if you can use it for something else, such as home control.

“I think people will see some surprises [when they see how much power some devices use], and they’ll be motivated to turn them off and on.” 

For original story click here. 

Robert Scoble came to Threshold recently to interview CEO James Martin for an upcoming video that will appear on FastCompany.TV. Robert liked what he saw, and wrote up a nice story about Threshold for his famous technology blog, Scobleizer.

http://scobleizer.com/2008/05/03/the-smell-of-a-good-startup/

Threshold was featured in a story appearing on CNET's News.com titled "A Threshold for Wireless Home Gadgets" that was written by veteran tech reporter Stefanie Olsen.

Davis to lead Marketing and Evangelism for Threshold’s Innovative Products and technology

Petaluma, CA – December 26, 2007 – Threshold Corporation is pleased to announce the appointment of Fred Davis as Vice-President, Marketing. Fred brings over 25 years of experience in the PC industry, and has served as a corporate strategy and marketing consultant to the senior management of a number of large companies including Intel, CMP, and Adaptec.

Haggerty to Oversee Global Network of Business Partners

Petaluma, CA – December 10, 2007 – Threshold Corporation is pleased to announce the appointment of Steven Haggerty as Vice President, Business Development.

New standard optimized for residential and small business applications is supported by industry leaders

Petaluma, CA – November 14, 2006 – ONE-NET (www.ONE-NET.info), an independent, user-supported development community committed to open standards, today introduced its ONE-NET™ standard for low-power wireless connectivity. Optimized for residential and small business control applications, ONE-NET is specifically designed to use very low power and provide very good security at a very low cost. ONE-NET’s founding partners have brought together their collective expertise to develop the standard’s comprehensive design specification that will be distributed royalty-free so that more consumers can enjoy the benefits of wireless connectivity.