The Internet of Things (IoT) is "poised to change everything" IDC reports-- promising "huge potential" for new revenue and customer streams with global revenues growing from $4.8 trillion in 2012 to $8.9 trillion by 2020 with a CAGR of 7.9%.

According to the analyst the WW installed base of IoT "things" will reach around 212 billion by end 2012, a total including 30.1bn installed "connected (autonomous) things." Driving such growth are intelligent systems collecting data across both consumer and enterprise applications.

Ongoing developments in smart cities, cars and houses, enhanced connectivity infrastructure and an increasingly connected culture further aid growth.

Long-serving ALSO Holding chairman Thomas C. Weissman announces his stepping down from the ALSO board, to take place on the date of the company's 2014 annual general meeting.

"After 26 years working for ALSO it is time to make room for others," Weissman says. "The company is now a strong number three in Europe and displays a sustainable profitability which is substantially better than that of the competition, so I can place the fate of the company in other hands with a good conscience."

The chairman gives no further word on his retirement other than "personal reasons."

The fantastically named "carbon nanotubes" (CNT) might look like just another supposed silicon killer (such as graphene and its ilk), but Stanford University researchers manage to create a first-- a basic computer using the semiconductor material. 

First described in a Nature paper, the CNT computer consists of 178 logic gates, can count up to 32 and performs counting and number sorting tasks. It runs code written in MIPS, fetching instruction from memory before execution at a clock rate of 1KHz. 

In other words, it is a very basic machine but for one difference-- the logic gates are of the experimental 9-nanometer CNT variety, and make the latest 22nm gates look positively gigantic. It also proves the technology has actual potential to becoming a replacement to silicon.  Read more...

If you are in pro AV or residential installation, the most important subject for our future is Smart Building, the shift in building technology that parallels our own industry’s shift from analogue to digital technology.

The Smart Building Conference 2013, to be held at Dexter House, London, on Tues. Oct., 15th, will be keynoted by two of British industry’s most renowned authorities on energy efficiency and building systems, the organizers announced today.

The first keynote will be delivered by Dr. Steven Fawkes, chairman of Day One Energy Solutions and author of the Only Eleven Percent blog, which highlights the social and economic benefits of increasing energy efficiency.

A former government adviser who remains active in UK energy efficiency policy development, Dr. Fawkes is an experienced public speaker and was awarded the Energy Institute’s Individual Achievement Award in November 2012. Read more...