Louisville, Colorado, October 22, 2009—CableLabs® specifications for home security, energy management and home automation (SMA) have been adopted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for use in next generation energy-efficient Smart Grid networks.

CableLabs is the cable industry's technology development and innovation consortium. As part of its role, it helps establish common interface specifications enabling new services and devices to connect to and run over cable systems around the world.

"We greatly appreciate NIST including our work on behalf of cable operators and suppliers in this Smart Grid program," said Dr. Paul Liao, CableLabs President and CEO. "This lays the groundwork for broadband providers to deliver an array of services to help consumers manage their lifestyles and their energy needs," he added.

"SMA is an advanced IP-based architecture that can provide a standard platform for consumer Smart Grid energy management today. It represents the contributions of many next-generation home technology developers, and is based on widely accepted Internet standards," said Tony Werner, Comcast's Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer.

The SMA architecture enables deployments of robust home security services that provide the ability to protect lives and property through professional monitoring, notifying first responders for emergencies, and providing emergency alerts to home occupants.

In addition, web-based services are enabled that provide self-monitoring of the status and activity in the home from a myriad of sensors and devices. For example, when motion is detected by a motion sensor, real-time alerts and associated data, such as video or photo clips, can be sent to a user via email, text message, or smart-phone application. Smartphone applications can provide continuous, mobile, real time awareness.

The third element, automation, enables the intelligent control of lifestyle conveniences such as lighting, heating, cooling, and appliances through a touch-screen, web portal, or smart-phone application. The SMA architecture allows intelligent web-based applications to provide an open-ended suite of energy management features that will allow consumers and utilities alike to maximize efficient use and awareness of energy in the home.

The SMA specification was included in the NIST Framework and Roadmap for Smart Grid Interoperability Standards Release 1.0 as one of 31 standards that were found to have "strong stakeholder consensus."

About CableLabs: Cable Television Laboratories (www.cablelabs.com) was founded in 1988 by members of the cable television industry. A non-profit research and development consortium, CableLabs delivers innovations that enable cable operators to be the providers of choice in their markets. Cable operators from around the world are members. CableLabs maintains additional web sites at www.cablenet.org and www.ebif.tv.

CableLabs® is a registered trademark of Cable Television Laboratories, Inc. Other CableLabs marks are listed at http://www.cablelabs.com/certqual/trademarks. All other marks are the property of their respective owners.