July 30th, 2010
In a major boost to the growing popularity of the ZigBee standards, an announcement by three leading Smart Meter Manufacturers combined to announce their adoption of the open source standards and also back the ZigBee family of protocols for their next generation of Smart Meters for homes and offices. The aim cited by the companies was stated by the representatives as “dramatically accelerate the rollout of gas and electricity smart meters in the UK“.
Smart meters are to be installed across UK by 2020 and a number of competing technologies are vying for the space in the hugely lucrative market where ZigBee is a leading standard adopted by leading companies. With announcement of financial incentives by energy regulator Ofgem, this space is going to get crowded and ZigBee is going to be adopted by more companies in times to come.
The adoption of ZigBee standards will give energy suppliers a range of smart meters and in-home displays that use current GPRS networks, but that will also be upgradeable to use other communication standards. This has also been proven by the rapid adoption of the standard across the range of companies in UK.
In another report recently, a company has recently launched a home energy monitoring system built around a ZigBee home-area network. The cube-shaped hub has been created to act as a central control point and separate devices, including smart plugs, communicate with the hub. The system also has the feature to view consumption data via a website and change settings from a mobile phone. The use of web technologies to manage ZigBee based devices is a first amongst numerous interfaces that are increasingly being used to control the smart devices based on the popular ZigBee standard.
In another innovative use of the technology and the flexibility of the standard, users can use smart devices based on the ZigBee standard to turn on the heat remotely via phone or change the settings during a holiday using a key fob. In addition, ZigBee kit can be used to automatically turn off heating or appliances left on standby when there is nobody using them.
The new series of devices available in the market and especially on www.vesternet.com promises to bring in a new impetus to the use of low power Energy Kits using the ZigBee standard. The coming days are promising to be good for customers who have been using ZigBee technology as new product launches are expected soon.
Tags: smart meters, zigbee, zigbee meters, zigbee smart energy
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July 13th, 2010
The second quarter of 2010 has been a very promising one for the ZigBee World. With a number of products working on the ZigBee technology being demonstrated in the CES 2010, its sure appears to be a very promising and bright quarter for the technology ahead.
Prominent among the products on display at CES 2010 were the ZigBee enabled 3D Glasses that come handy for spaces with multiple televisions or where line-of-sight is an issue. Monster, the company which manufactures the same demonstrated its RF synchronization technology for the first time during CES 2010. The company utilized IEEE 802.15.4 radios and ZigBee technology to keep glasses in sync with the TV. This was possible even if the user turns away from the screen or an interloper disrupts the line of sight – common issues that can create flicker with today’s typical IR-based 3D solutions.
Another important piece of news that found mention in web headlines was the comparison of Bluetooth version 4 and the ZigBee based products in the report available in Information Week’s website. The report states that the Bluetooth Special Interest Group had approved version 4.0 of the wireless networking specification, giving device manufacturers the tools to take advantage of the spec’s low-power technology. They SIG compared Bluetooth version 4.0 to existing ZigBee products and also commented positively on the low power usage of these products.
In another newsworthy report, WTRS (Wireless Sensor Network Technology Trends) Report analyzes and forecasts the market for wireless sensor networks. The report includes a thorough evaluation of emerging Wireless Sensor Network technologies and associated software including ZigBee, Bluetooth Low Energy, Wavenis, IEEE 802.15.4, Low Power WiFi, EnOcean, and others. The report is very favorable of the ZigBee and ZWave standards.
The new series of devices available in the market and especially on www.vesternet.com promises to bring in a new impetus to the use of low power Energy Kits using the ZigBee standard. The coming days are promising to be good for customers who have been using ZigBee technology as new product launches are expect soon.
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May 15th, 2010
Home Automation solutions have reached a stage where its not impossible for a regular guy living next door to conceptualize and implement a budgeted and efficient solution that is reliable and high on performance. Its wasn’t long back when we wondered after reading a CE@Home E-Magazine article describing the new $125m Bill Gates Lake Washington estate having Floor Based Lasers that operated when some one walked in the room to be only in the domain of the privileged and the novae rich. X10 based devices changed all this in the late nineties.
A lot has changed in the Automation landscape since then and new and better platforms have been developed and incorporated as industry standards. The two being discussed here are ZigBee and Z-Wave. The maturing of these standards represent that the industry has reached a technology cusp and also signifies how far has the technology come from where X10 stood.
The primary reason for the industry to adopt the new standards like ZigBee and Z-Wave is the security and reliability they offer. As against the lack of feedback to a signal sent from an X10 based Home device to a module, Z-Wave and ZigBee are built on a protocol that expects a feedback from the module and resends a command till it receives a feedback and completed the communication loop. Working in a mesh architecture, the new standards are designed to ensure that the communication is more or less foolproof. The more populated the area, the better the communication. Closing the loop is essential in the scenario where both security and efficiency are important.
While being mostly dependent on a wired interface, X10 suffered from a perennial issue of source interference, arising due to the effect of near and far induction, although it gave the convenience of using Power Line Controls (PLC) . Although this was rectified and improved in later implementation of X10, it still remained an issue. The wired interface necessitated the introduction of filters between neighboring modules – an increased cost as well as an increase in the implementation complexity. The new age Z-Wave and ZigBee have overcome this hurdle owing to their use of Radio wave technology in addition to the existing PLC.
Copper is perhaps the most expensive material used in the Home Automation planning and implementation. X10 is a primarily wire based solution and this leads to increased costs. Alternatively, ZigBee and Z-Wave are radio based and save on the copper and are definitely more eco-friendly, although reverse compatible with the wired technology. Add to this the cost of filters and associated circuitry that is eliminated when we have a wireless solution!
The other more important advantage that ZigBee and Z-Wave offer over X10 is the aspect of inbuilt security. The new protocols are based on a very secure communication and authentication mechanism which makes sure that all devices in the grid or the mesh are able to securely communicate with each other and only to authorized modules. However, in the case of X10, you can just tap into a power line and control any device. Not a very secure solution…
The choice moving ahead is definitely ZigBee or Z-Wave when we decide upon a new Automation plan for our Home.
Tags: Home, home automation, Lights, Radio Wave, Switches, X10, z-wave, zigbee
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March 17th, 2010
Just read that the next version of ZigBee Smart Energy will work over Wi-Fi – a certain fastrack to get the technology into millions of homes!
http://www.zigbee.org/imwp/download.asp?ContentID=17400
Tags: wi-fi, zigbee smart energy
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February 17th, 2010
Really interesting article about the future potential of Bluetooth Low Energy in healthcare: http://gigaom.com/2010/02/09/broadcom-bets-on-new-bluetooth-tech-for-mobile-health/
Open standard technologies really do drive adoption much more than proprietary systems mainly due to manufacturer interoperability.
We look forward to help bring people this new wave of health sensors through Vesternet
Tags: Bluetooth Low Energy, Wireless Healthcare
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February 3rd, 2010
Good to see the ZigBee Alliance are busy certifying more Home Automation products – they just announced 11 more: http://www.zigbee.org/imwp/download.asp?ContentID=17116
We’ve spoken to several of these manufacturers who tell us they’ll be commercially available shortly, with just samples ready at present.
Contact Us if you’d like us to source samples for you.
Tags: home automation, zigbee, zigbee home automation
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January 30th, 2010
Today we’ve vastly expanded our website to encompass lots of other wireless technologies apart from just ZigBee.
RFID, EnOcean, ANT+, Continua & Z-Wave are among the products we offer now.
Please checkout the new site at www.vesternet.com
Tags: ant+, continua, rfid, z-wave, zigbee
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November 5th, 2009
We’ve just noticed a new RF4CE remote control from Philips listed on the ZigBee Alliance website: http://www.zigbee.org/Products/DesignedForZigBee/tabid/234/Default.aspx
Is this the first RF4CE product…?
Called the Philips C210 + OVU-RF4CE/TID/1 – Remote control + receiver that work with RF4CE protocol; this is likely a pre-release version currently being certified (the Designed for ZigBee products listed here are normally at that stage).
Exciting to see this first wave of new remotes being released now!
Tags: rf4ce, zigbee, zigbee rf4ce
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September 29th, 2009
With the RF4CE spec now available, expect to see product announcements coming thick & fast over the following months.
The first of these comes from Samsung, who have just announced they’ve received ZigBee certification: http://www.eetasia.com/ART_8800584348_499488_NT_4949d7cf.HTM
Meanwhile, Philips have announced the first remote control solution using ZigBee RF4CE: http://zigbee.org/imwp/idms/popups/pop_download.asp?contentID=16386
And if this article’s prediction is correct, then vendors should start shipping devices by Christmas 2009, and top 160 million units by 2012: http://www.planetanalog.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=216403050
We’re really excited by the potential of this new wave of wireless consumer electronics, replacing infra-red technology that’s been around for many years.
Freescale have produced a nice video showing some of the technology benefits: www.freescale.com/rf4ce
Tags: rf4ce, zigbee, zigbee rf4ce
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September 17th, 2009
We’ve had quite a few enquiries about availability of the recently announced ZigBee Home Automation products.
Whilst the first 17 devices have been approved by the Alliance – many are not yet readily available for purchase from manufacturers.
As soon as they are, we’ll be the first place to stock – so please keep checking back. Or add your name to our mailing list on the right to receive updates.
Tags: zigbee, zigbee home automation, zigbee shop
Posted in Vesternet, ZigBee Market | No Comments »
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