Belkin’s WeMo range of home automation has now secured the backing of one of the largest light bulb and light fitting manufacturers in the world. Osram Sylvania has announced that the two companies have entered into a strategic agreement to collaborate on residential products, integrating the Osram Lightify range with Belkin’s WeMo ecosystem.
This is a big win for WeMo, adding a lucrative slice of the $6.85 billion in 2013 revenue that Osram Sylvania generated, of which 29% came from its LED division. The Lightify system uses ZigBee to communicate, so the WeMo hub or the Lightify hub will still be prerequisites for these lighting systems – as you need something to transfer the ZigBee messages to the smartphone.
Osram Sylvania will add WeMo compatibility to its iQ BR320 LED bulb, before adding the functionality to a broader portfolio of products – scheduled to appear after the European launch of its Lightify range in the fall. The WeMo bulbs will be available in the US in the coming months, primarily from e-commerce outlets including Belkin itself.
This will allow customers to control the bulbs via the WeMo app for smartphones, as well as through WeMo light switches and its NetCam HD+ cameras, as well as other IFTTT web services. This will allow IFTTT users to set up all sorts of alerts that trigger the bulbs – including novel cases such as flashing the bulbs when your favorite sports team scores and more functional use cases such as email or doorbell notifications.
“We started out with the goal of making WeMo the most approachable entry point to the smart home, and by working with Osram Sylvania, we are able to expand our ecosystem with touch points across people’s daily lives,” said Sunny Choi, VP Corporate Development at Belkin. “The addition of Lightify to our ecosystem enables more devices to communicate with each other to create a smart home easily and affordably, one solution at a time.”
Many people would swiftly dismiss this line of thinking, shrugging off lighting as just another thing that doesn’t need to be automated. But there is already a large market for security devices that will automate lighting patterns to give the appearance of occupancy while the owner is away from home. If you add in smart lighting as an extension of other security features, such as exterior motion-activated spotlights, you can begin replacing older exterior lighting systems with IP connected ones – allowing SMS alerts to be issued or IP cameras to be turned on if the gate moves of if the motion sensor pings the lights.
This sort of connectivity is the best example of the benefits of the IoT. It is a way of bringing new features to an existing product – not reinventing the wheel, but simply refining it. This is before you begin envisioning completely new use cases, such as the aforementioned alert lighting and IFTTT connectivity. This is the sort of deal that the IoT community should be praising more often, not snidely dismissing.
“As connected lighting becomes more mainstream, we are working with leaders in the IoT like Belkin to unleash the full potential of consumer’s homes by creating personal lighting experiences that promote comfort, convenience and joy,” said Jes Munk Hanse, Osram Sylvania’s CEO. “We are shaping the future of lighting by delivering not only long-life, energy saving LED solutions, but also by creating an experience that changes the way people think about their lighting.”