Here are some additional profiles from the more than 70 companies debuting products or technologies at this year's Demo@15 conference:

---

DEMO@15 spotlights security
No lack of cool at DEMO@15
Wireless gear, conferencing tools to debut

---

Unified messaging that makes sense?

We've been pretty skeptical about unified messaging systems in the past, as it involves a lot of legwork for IT managers installing new equipment, software and clients.

So we're pretty enthused about the Adomo Voice Messaging for Exchange appliance, which takes voice mail and tightly integrates it with Exchange e-mail and the Microsoft Active Directory. The system looks like it could eliminate work for IT administrators by using one database (unified messaging often used two separate systems); for end users, the system makes voice mail appear as a message in their main messaging application, Outlook.
"Unified Messaging made a lot of promises and didn't deliver on them," says Jeff Snider, CEO of Adomo. "The systems would often glue voice mail and e-mail together, but they often had two different systems."

The Adomo appliance connects to a company's PBX system (with IP PBX support coming) and the Exchange server to provide the integrated messaging capabilities. Users are grabbed from the Active Directory, eliminating the need for a separate user database.

Features for end users are impressive, too. When someone calls the end user and the person doesn't answer the call, the system runs through a bunch of different options that can provide more information than going directly to the voice mail. For example, if the caller is a trusted user (determined through caller ID and other identification methods), the system can check to see where the end user is located (through future integration with Microsoft Live Communications Server), and then check the calendar to offer a suggestion on when the end user will be available again. The system can then offer the caller alternatives to voice mail, such as requesting a meeting or forwarding the call to a different person. Or they can just go to regular voice mail.

When the end user becomes available, the voice mail message comes in as an e-mail message, with options for playing the message through any WAV file player, or the user can have the message played to a phone number (the system then calls the appropriate phone number and it plays like a regular voice mail message). For mobile workers, notifications can be sent via Short Message Service (SMS ), or in a wireless e-mail message (like to a BlackBerry or Pocket PC device). Or the messages can go to the user's regular phone and have the blinking light appear.

Adomo hopes to ship the system by the end of April, Snider says. Pricing for the system will be about $15,000 to $20,000 for the appliance and about $60 per seat (based on 1,000 end users, pricing subject to change), he added.

Easier home automation

Another technology that has been around a while is home automation. But most products fall into one of two slots: the hobbyist, inexpensive arena (Think X10 and Nannycams); and the high-end, needs a professional installer for about $50,000 area. Mass-market home control products have often involved technical installation procedures, which include IP address configuration, firewall port openings, and Web URL address memorization.

The iControl Home Starter Kit, which the company will show off at Demo, aims to eliminate the hassle of setting up a home automation system. The kit involves a home appliance that connects behind a DSL or cable modem (or you can plug it into a home router or gateway); a bunch of sensors such as motion detectors, wired or wireless cameras, door and window sensors, or thermostats; and a Web portal that provides a personal Web page where the system is controlled. The system is designed to be truly plug and play, in fact you don't even need a PC to install the system - just plug the appliance into the router or modem, plug in your sensors and the system does the rest. The portal includes a bunch of different settings that let a user receive alerts, view video from cameras, and monitor temperatures and other settings. In an interesting twist, the system can send an alert when something doesn't happen - for example, a door not opening between 2 and 3 p.m. might indicate that your child hasn't come home from school yet, which would be more of an alert than if they did return home on time.

IControl plans on selling the system to ISPs, telcos and other carriers as a way for them to increase revenue for their high-speed Internet services. It will be marketed, not so much as a home security system, but as a way to be at home or at your office when you're not actually physically there. We plan on using it to make sure our cats aren't getting into too much trouble.