The Zigbee Alliance, an organization of hundreds of companies creating, maintaining, and delivering open, global standards for the Internet of Things (IoT), recently announced an important movement within the Project Connected Home over IP initiative, forming a team dedicated to the development and promotion of the standard for commercial markets. According to the organization, this move is in alignment with the overall vision for the initiative, which is to develop and promote the adoption of a new, royalty-free connectivity standard, simplifying development for manufacturers and increasing compatibility for customers and consumers.
Offering compelling value across the IoT landscape, the standard is targeting devices in categories such as lighting and electrical, HVAC controls, access control, safety and security, window coverings/shades, TVs, access points, bridges, and others; addressing many of the needs of the high-growth commercial buildings category, where the install base of connected devices is expected to grow $1.7 billion in 2020 to nearly $3 billion by 2025, as reported in “The Internet of Things in Smart Commercial Buildings 2020 to 2025: Market Prospects in the Age of COVID-19” from Research and Markets.
“In today’s changing world, an IP infrastructure is the necessary backbone for any network to enable companies to leverage a digital architecture and connect their IoT-enabled devices,” said Manish Kumar, senior vice president of the Digital Buildings Business, Schneider Electric. “Companies will be able to easily build and add Project-based devices to their existing networks in a way that is IT-compliant with the current architecture and management infrastructure.”
To ensure commercial implementers can make the best use of the initiative, to date more than 50 industry leaders and vendors around the world have aligned to form the Project’s Commercial Strategy Group. This team will:
- Clarify the commercial use cases that can readily be supported by the Project’s initial specification;
- Define the new features required for additional commercial use cases;
- Facilitate conversation and collaboration among members to strengthen use and adoption of IP-based connectivity standards in the commercial market globally; and
- Advocate and encourage others to join and contribute to this market-leading effort.
“The industry is constantly investing in new technologies to achieve interoperability and offer an augmented use case experience to customers and tenants within commercial buildings,” said Murat Eti, vice president Strategy and Future Technologies, Legrand. “The Project will help drive the development and growth of a large, multi-vendor device catalogue that commercial solutions providers can tap into to drive value and efficiencies across both residential and commercial environments.”
This is an open group; new members are welcome and encouraged to join, contribute, and represent their applications and markets in the important conversations happening now. Companies interested in joining this Working Group can apply for Zigbee Alliance membership here – or contact [email protected] for more information.
