Zonoff Seeks to Become Fixture in Connected TV World
LAS VEGAS -- Staples opened its 33rd retail store with a Connect Home section last week on New York’s Upper West Side as part of what it called a “broad expansion” of its Connect Home and Office Automation program. A mock-up of the display Staples is using in stores was on exhibit at the private Zonoff suite in the Las Vegas Hotel (LVH) adjacent to the Las Vegas Convention Center during CES last week. Zonoff, software platform provider for the Staples Connect Home line, set up a facsimile of the 12-foot linear display in the suite to replicate what’s in Staples stores including products from partner companies including Linksys, whose hub powers the Zonoff system.
Zonoff also announced last week an expansion of its partner roster to include Kwikset, Netgear, Radio Thermostat, Centralite, Withings, Waxman, Goji, Koubachi and Rachio. They join Lutron, Philips, Linksys, Honeywell, First Alert, Yale, GE, D-Link, Cooper, Leviton, Schlage, Ecolink, Aeotech, Ivee and Doorbot. Applications for the Zonoff connected platform range from the broad-based -- including light switches, thermostats and IP cameras -- to the esoteric such as plant moisture sensors and water shut-off valves.
The Staples tablet-driven retail displays provide product information for each of the products offered in the Connect line, and customers can interact with products on display via an app that’s available on iOS and Android platforms. Staples stores stock a limited number of the more mainstream SKUs -- such as lighting dimmer switches, electronic door locks and thermostats -- and the rest of the roughly 200 products can be bought online, said Bob Cooper, chief marketing officer for Zonoff, during a walkthrough of makeshift display in a penthouse suite last week. In stores, Connect Home Customers can try out the apps as they would use them at home, Cooper told us. One of the displayed products, Philips’s HUE lighting system, is a significant part of the Connect concept, Cooper said. During the transition from incandescent to LED lighting, HUE is one of the products that’s “driving consumers to think about lighting in a new way,” Cooper said.
The Z-Wave Alliance has more than 1,000 interoperable products in its ecosystem, but Zonoff has narrowed the field in its endorsed product list, “helping to identify the best” when it comes to interoperability with the Connect Home system, Cooper said. “We want a great customer experience out of the box,” he said. Connect Home products were designed to be self-installable but consumers can choose to have Staples install them, along with a router, through Staples’s EasyTech service, Cooper said. Technical support is being handled first by Staples with individual companies providing backup support, he said. Zonoff is a third line of defense, if necessary, he said.
Zonoff plans to continue to expand the capabilities of the platform through compatibility with open standards and is “technology agnostic,” Cooper said. The system can be configured to work with ZigBee products, for instance, he said, although Z-Wave, Wi-Fi and Lutron Clear Connect radios are built into the Linksys hub that manages current Staples Connect Home products. Cooper wouldn’t comment on future retail partner plans, but the company wants Zonoff to become a feature in the connected world that’s offered on hardware such as smart TVs, he said. Set-top boxes are a possible extension for the Zonoff platform, Cooper said.