New Products Turn Conventional Lighting Products Into Smart Ones
Smart home technology had a solid presence at the Lightfair International trade show in Philadelphia this week, with the Friends of Hue program taking the spotlight among connected home companies. Silicon Labs and Signify announced they’re working on an extension…
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of the Friends of Hue program to enable ecosystem partners to develop smart light switches for Philips Hue systems. Silicon Labs is providing the software tools to help companies certified by the program design and produce light switches with its software development kit that are “guaranteed to work flawlessly” with Philips’ Hue smart lighting systems. Silicon Labs worked with Signify to define the Zigbee cluster and provide compliant software for advanced light switch functionality, including “user-friendly setup” in the Hue app and deployment firmware updates via the Hue cloud, it said. The SDK enables a variety of smart switch designs, increasing the choice of compatible switches for Philips Hue users, it said. Signify believes “smart lighting should be accessible to everyone, and convenient smart light control via the light switch is a key part of this vision,” said Duncan McCue, Signify’s head of partnerships. When consumers turn off smart lights using legacy wall switches, the lights can’t be controlled using apps, voice commands, schedules or sensors, said Silicon Labs. Friends of Hue switches enable “reliable Hue smart lighting control directly from wall switches, keeping the Hue lights ‘always-ready’ while providing a familiar interface everyone knows how to use,” it said. Lutron joined the Friends of Hue program and introduced at Lightfair the Aurora smart bulb dimmer, which mounts over a toggle switch, to keep Philips Hue smart bulbs and fixtures “ready for use.” Lutron noted that smart bulb users lose control of smart lighting when a light switch is accidentally turned off, and the wireless, battery-powered Aurora device prevents loss of smart control by locking the existing toggle switch in the on, or up, position.