Just noticed this announcement from HAI: http://www.homeauto.com/newsandevents/pressreleases/content/20080610WL3.asp

"WL3 for Windows Home Server...allows you to change your home’s temperatures, adjust the lights or security settings, or view any supported camera securely and easily.  WL3 automatically configures supported UPnP IP cameras on your home network and allows you to manually configure other IP cameras on your network or cameras that reside anywhere on the Internet.  It also allows you to view and record video from cameras in your home or from public IP cameras around town, such as traffic and weather cameras.  Regardless of the brand of camera, the video is displayed in the WL3 format so that all camera feeds have a consistent look and feel.  Easily select any camera, choose the frame rate and screen size, manually start and stop video recording, take a snapshot of the video image, and play, pause, or stop the video stream."

I've been a hard core home automation freak for a loooong time. My previous house boasted a mish-mash of stuff mostly based around X10, but my current house has a bunch of high-end systems (Lutron for lighting, Crestron for AV, Caddx for Security, Enerzone for HVAC, Panasonic for phone, and something I built myself for Irrigation and security cameras) all integrated together with a now-defunct, but amazingly well done, piece of software called Premise.  By the way Premise works great on Windows Home Server but www.premisesystems.com appears to be offline for good :-(.  With all this talk about "Smart Homes" I do need to disclose fully that my wife calls our house the "Stupid House".  But I'll get it all working reliably any day now :-).

Windows Home Server provides a phenomenal platform for home control and it is great to see multiple vendors embracing it and providing consumers with solutions:

• mControl by Embedded Automation: http://www.embeddedautomation.com/index.html
• ipsHomecontrol 2007 (German): http://www.ipshomecontrol.de/
• Home Intelligence Platform by LAGOTEK: http://www.lagotek.com
• WL3 by HAI:  http://www.homeauto.com/newsandevents/pressreleases/content/20080610WL3.asp
• And probably more I haven't heard of...

This category is just one of the dozens where people are targeting Windows Home Server as a platform.  You can find lists of 3rd party products that work on and with Windows Home Server at several enthusiast sites, including www.wegotserved.co.uk.

Cheers!

-cek