Every room, for example, has a lighting network that decides, when a person enters, whether to turn the light on and, if so, how bright to make it.

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In the very near future, the North American power grid will be populated by a bewildering array of distributed energy resources ranging from building-integrated solar photovoltaics and micro-cogen to intelligent control systems and mesh network lighting.

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Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) mulled rolling out Voice-over-Internet Protocol, or VoIP, features to its new fiber network, which Google began lighting up last month, said Milo Medin, vice president of Google Access Services.

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Itron (ITRI) has the leading market share in the global smart metering industry, and Echelon (ELON) provides network solutions and interfaces for street lighting, residential appliances and facility monitoring.

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In other words, providing the software and cloud-based tools to centrally manage lighting just as an IT professional would manage a corporate network.

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The BeoVision 7 32-inch LCD does so with its built-in DVD player, distinctive speakers and integration with the company's BeoLink network, along with a screen that automatically adjusts to ambient lighting conditions and can be swiveled via remote to an optimum viewing angle.

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According to the council the new lighting will reduce light pollution and "provide clearer and more easily identifiable coverage for York's CCTV camera network".

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