European Open Standard Bus Protocol Could Be Headed to U.S. Home Control Market

An open standard bus protocol developed by Siemens has seen adoption rates rise in Europe and could find its way to the U.S. home technology market, said CEDIA. In a blog post Monday, Education Director-CEDIA EMEA Simon Buddle said the KNX Protocol, developed from the European Installation Bus, offers end users a wide choice of products that interconnect and communicate without the need for costly bridges or interfaces. KNX brings a high level of control features, lower cost than other offerings and an ecosystem with multiple styles of keypads with dynamic displays, said Buddle. KNX, which communicates over a two-wire bus, has had increased installation in high-end homes in Europe “because it is not tied to a single manufacturer,” and there’s a wide selection of products, he said. A product carrying the KNX trademark has been certified by KNX-accredited third-party test labs and proven that its useful data has been coded according to KNX standardized data types, Buddle said. “Any manufacturer can get one of their products KNX certified should they wish,” he said.