ZigBee Alliance Offers Home Automation Public Application Profile

  • Nov 02, 2007
The ZigBee Alliance, a global ecosystem of companies creating wireless solutions for use in consumer, commercial building and utility applications, recently announced the completion and immediate free public availability of the ZigBee Home Automation (HA) public application profile that offers manufacturers a standards-based approach to introducing new wireless home automation products globally, eliminating the need for proprietary technology.

HA allows reliable and interoperable home automation applications to be developed by product manufacturers for consumers everywhere offering unprecedented reliability, control, convenience, security and choice. The Alliance is also making publicly available its ZigBee Cluster Library (ZCL) that provides engineers with the building blocks for applications with common needs, reducing development effort and permitting leaner implementations tailored to their applications.

"Consumers have been primed for a variety of home automation applications, and the maturing technology ecosystem around home automation, with developments such as the ZigBee Home Automation profiles, are moving the market forward," said Jonathan Gaw, research manager at IDC. "The growing global focus on improving energy efficiency can play a key role in introducing consumers to the value of home automation solutions."

HA offers manufacturers a proven standard approach to making devices reliable, affordable, easy to install and operate for the new construction, do-it-yourself and retrofit markets. HA provides standard interfaces for the control of lighting, HVAC, power outlets, motorization, security, audio/video and other devices. It maximizes the numerous technical strengths of ZigBee including use of the globally available 2.4 GHz band, self-organizing and self-healing mesh networks, and proven operational co-existence with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and other systems. HA was created by industry leading ZigBee Alliance members, ensuring that the myriad of devices in the automated home work together and create a robust and secure solution regardless of manufacturer.

"Control4 chose ZigBee as the wireless control technology for our vision of the smart home. ZigBee is ideal because it is a standards-based technology with world-wide approval," said Will West, CEO of Control4. "We and our ecosystem partners will continue to introduce new products based on ZigBee with the assurance of compatibility."

"Colorado vNet chose ZigBee for our Wireless Lighting and Control System because we were confident it provided the reliability and scalability our customers demand and expect from us," said Colorado vNet CEO Bill Beierwaltes. "Since it's standards-based, ZigBee allowed us to easily adapt the technology of our wired system into a wireless solution. Moving forward, the HA profile offers the ability to communicate with a wide variety of ZigBee-based devices."

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