The winners of the CEDIA Electronic Lifestyles Awards were  announced in Brisbane on Wednesday 9 May in front of 300 industry professionals. This year's awards had 77 project entries from 28 companies and from five countries: Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand and Taiwan. The winners of the CEDIA Electronic Lifestyles Awards were  announced in Brisbane on Wednesday 9 May in front of 300 industry professionals. This year's awards had 77 project entries from 28 companies and from five countries: Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand and Taiwan. [ + ]

Schneider Electric IT has announced the regional appointments of Olaf Moon as State Manager, ACT and Federal Government and Graeme Ridler as State Manager, WA. [ + ]

The Tasmanian government’s decision to reform its electricity market has been welcomed by the Energy Retailers Association of Australia (ERAA) following an expert panel review of the market. The decision will see the government introduce changes such as selling Aurora Energy’s customer base and introducing full retail competition (FRC) for the state by February next year. [ + ]

Malaysia is “comfortably outpacing” other countries in the Asia Pacific region with its High Speed Broadband (HSBB) network being built by Telekom Malaysia, according to recent figures released by Informa Telecoms & Media. [ + ]

ABB Australia has acquired Bob White Electrix and LE Jarvis for an undisclosed amount as part of a strategy to broaden its motor and generator repair and service business in Australia. ABB anticipates the acquisition will close in July. [ + ]

Royal Philips Electronics has announced the recent appointment of Alan McCarthy as managing director of Philips Electronics ANZ and general manager Philips Healthcare ANZ, effective 16 January 2012. [ + ]

Eaton Corporation will exhibit its new set of enclosure power distribution units and showcase a range of solutions for virtualised data centres and IT infrastructure at CeBIT 2012. [ + ]

Power and automation technology group ABB has signed an agreement with SPARQ Solutions, the IT services provider for Australian electricity distributors Energex and Ergon Energy. Under the terms of the agreement, SPARQ has licensed Ellipse 8, the latest release of the Ventyx enterprise asset management (EAM) and resource planning (ERP) solution. [ + ]

The energy supply industry has continued to urge the WA government not to allow the re-merger of Verve Energy and Synergy, following an Economic Regulation Authority (ERA) report that said the re-merger would not address the real drivers of rising energy costs. [ + ]

The Renewable Energy Corporation (REC) has received two European accolades: being awarded the ‘Top Brand PV’ seal by EuPD Research and being named as the number one European supplier of solar modules by IMS Research. [ + ]

GE and XD Electric Group have formed a partnership to deliver a full line of electric transmission and distribution (T&D) and grid automation solutions to customers worldwide. The companies say the partnership creates a global competitor to provide customers with technology offerings to build and upgrade their electrical infrastructure to meet the demand for reliable electricity. [ + ]

Fluke Networks and Cisco are collaborating to offer customers AirMagnet Planner for Cisco Small Business. The companies say the solution “will help Cisco Small Business resellers meet the challenges associated with deploying and planning an 802.11 a/b/g/n wireless network and help organisations better address emerging performance challenges associated with the bring your own device (BYOD) phenomenon.” [ + ]

Master Electricians Australia (MEA) has released a Federal Budget response, claiming the announcement of welfare packages is an “election sweetener” that will adversely impact business growth and therefore jobs. [ + ]

Brisbane’s Airport Link should be open by late July, according to Leighton Holdings. The company issued a media release stating that its Thiess John Holland (TJH) joint venture completed a review of the integrated commissioning activities and productivities to date on the Airport Link Project, which indicates that the project will be open by 20 August 2012 at the latest. [ + ]

The Mine Electrical Safety Association (MESA) will be holding its 23rd annual conference at the Sebel King George Square hotel, Brisbane from 4-6 July 2012. [ + ]