Will Matter be the KNX of the wireless home automation?
Late 2019, The society of smart home developers and integrators got the big news about a project connected home over IP (Project CHIP). Since Then – and through the hard times of corona viruses – the development of this didn’t stop although it has been delayed for multiple times.
The interoperability among the wireless devices was always the biggest headache for end users and the system integrators. Considering the different communication protocols for wireless smart home devices such as Z wave, Zigbee, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, so you had to make sure that all your different devices can communicate with each other seamlessly. This was really a challenge in the early days of the smart home. Since 2019 and till 4th October 2022 all the smart home society was following closely and waiting for the official announcement of matter, a project led by gigantic companies such as Apple, Google, Amazon and Samsung and more.
So, in simple words, what matter really is? Matter is a communication protocol standard developed to insure the interoperability among different smart devices from different manufacturers. Isn’t this ringing any bills! It’s as same as the KNS standard for wired smart devices communications where a device from ABB can communicate seamlessly and immediately with a SIEMENS device without any problem.
What is expected from matter?
On October 4th it was announced that matter 1.0 specification and product certification program are ready for the market. Manufacturer can now follow the new standard and get their products certified as compatible with matter. This huge improvement will give the confident to the customers and system developers that their selected smart devices will work with each other as long as all have the matter logo on it. Matter promises three big benefits for consumers, says Michelle Mindala-Freeman, the CSA’s head of marketing: greater choice in the products and ecosystems they can use, a simplified user experience (in terms of setup, security, and more), and lower costs (because of greater efficiencies in engineering, manufacturing, and more by not having to support multiple “works with” programs).
“Matter makes it easier for a consumer to experiment and enter the smart home market,” Mindala-Freeman says. “So choice, simplicity, and cost are great for both current users and for new users.”
Can we see matter-complied products soon?
There is a lot to be said about matter which is not the aim of this article, but we will come back to it in the coming posts. But still, we have many good news following this launch of matter we would like to share with you. First that we are expecting to see matter-complied devices by end of 2022 as manufacturers can start testing and certifying to the standard. This will be a huge push to the smart home devices market. In Zhome we have been following this subject since long time and thus – here is the second good news – our offered wireless smart home devices product ORVIBO has a certified product which is the MixPad S, you can check the certificate via this link < MixPad – CSA-IOT > .
At the end, we believe with all rapid developments in the smart home industries we believe that the golden days of the smart devices and IoT is nearer than ever. Tell we see you in the next post, stay smart and safe at your Zhome 😉