Residio Technologies joined the Zigbee Alliance board. The company also will participate in the Connected Home over IP project, backed by Amazon, Apple, Google and others to simplify development and adoption a new, royalty-free connectivity standard to increase compatibility among smart home products (see 1912180053). The project is built on a “shared belief that smart home devices should be secure, reliable, and seamless to use,” it said. Building on IP should enable communication across smart home devices, mobile apps and cloud services; the group plans to define a specific set of IP-based networking technologies for device certification. The working group will take an “open-source approach for the development and implementation of a new, unified connectivity protocol,” it said, and it intends to use contributions from “market-tested smart home technologies from Amazon, Apple, Google, Zigbee Alliance, and others.” The decision to leverage these technologies is expected to accelerate development of the protocol and “deliver benefits to manufacturers and consumers faster,” it said.

With CES in Las Vegas in weeks, industry is focused on security and privacy, FCBA heard Monday. “We’ve been able to see industry all coming together” on those, said Melanie Tiano, CTIA director-cybersecurity and privacy. “We’ve seen everyone coming forward with their privacy principles.” Panelists said consensus is privacy should be addressed federally. Smart homes, smart speakers and home robots are expected to lead IoT growth in 2020, said Rachel Nemeth, CTA director-regulatory affairs. Devices are getting better at talking to each other, she said. Artificially intelligent devices like the Amazon Echo and Google Home are a category to watch, she said. “The better they get at doing what consumers want them to do, the more we see the adoption over time,” she said. “Demand is there because I keep getting called” about the IoT, said Jeffrey Marks, Nokia head-regulatory affairs, North America. “How is this private network going to work?” people ask, he said: “Do they need licensed spectrum?” Industry is ready, he said: Nokia is focused on finding trustworthy vendors and eliminating threat factors. Huawei and ZTE push “a false narrative” that without them, 5G deployment will slow, Marks said. “That’s just not true. It is going to thrive just fine.” Those two Chinese companies didn’t comment.

ConnectSense is shipping an in-wall smart outlet, it said Tuesday. The $79 device sends energy usage data to Android and iOS devices, has an onboard security chip said to provide end-to-end encryption, offers device scheduling and is compatible with Amazon Alexa, Apple Siri and Google Assistant for voice control, said the ConnectSense website. A lock feature allows power shut-off to the outlet at designated times, which the company pitched as a parental control feature.

Two-thirds of U.S. broadband homes planning to buy a smart thermostat prefer to use a physical retail store for their purchase, said Parks Associates Tuesday. One in seven households plans to buy a device in the next 12 months. More than a third plan to install it themselves, 18 percent plan to use a retailer for installation and 25 percent expect to use a home security provider, it said.

Just over half of security system owners who acquired their security system in the past 12 months self-installed vs. 10 percent six years ago, said Parks Associates Thursday. Some 88 percent said setup was “easy” or “very easy.” New do-it-yourself security solutions “are designed to deliver a smooth, painless experience on installation and setup,” said analyst Dina Abdelrazik. Newer DIY systems are designed to bring in customers who haven’t shown interest in traditional self-installed security systems, she said: As DIY products “evolve to deliver an easy off-the-shelf experience, security adoption will start to crack the 70% of households that do not have and do not plan to acquire a security system.”

Broadband service providers are committed to providing managed Wi-Fi, but few have a clear strategy for providing cybersecurity and connected home services, reported Maravedis Monday. The managed Wi-Fi market is expected to grow from 40 million households in 2020 to 294 million in 2025, when penetration is forecast to be 29 percent, said the market research firm. Wi-Fi quality of experience is a priority for most ISPs, moving beyond speed to include lower latency for 4K and 8K gaming and virtual reality applications. A few ISPs are attempting to monetize managed Wi-Fi, it said. A top priority for 51 percent of operators is to protect the network from new threats, abuse and unnecessary traffic, it said, coming ahead of protecting customers from new threats and privacy breaches. Other findings showed slow Wi-Fi speed is the leading trigger of service calls (49 percent) followed by unstable Wi-Fi (23 percent). Half of service providers plan to deploy Wi-Fi 6 after 2020, 55 percent want to support the EasyMesh certification program and 36 percent won’t let third parties develop software on top of their home gateway, it said.

Sales of networked cameras will reach 7 million units this year, blogged Parks Associates Thursday, though adoption has remained in the 9-10 percent range in the past five years. Wireless connectivity makes do-it-yourself Wi-Fi camera installation easier for consumers; 68 percent of owners self-installed cameras in Q4 vs. 49 percent in Q4 2016, it said. Retailers including Best Buy have helped raise the profile of the category through experience centers and device displays that demonstrate security and convenience, said analyst Dina Abdelrazik. Among U.S. broadband households planning to buy a networked camera, image quality is the most important factor in the purchase decision; competition in the next stage will hinge on which camera delivers the best user experience and value-driven use cases, said the analyst. The demand for high-quality video will also drive post-purchase revenue opportunities for video storage; today more than 60 percent of networked camera owners pay for video storage services, she said, and a third of camera owners have received a request from friends or family to view or share video from a networked camera. Twenty percent of camera owners control the device with smartphone voice assistant; 19 percent via a smart speaker, said Parks.

TP-Link announced two 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6) routers due to go on sale at Walmart next week. The next-generation routers are said to enable internet speeds up to three times faster than 802.11ac models. The $129 Archer AX3000 has theoretical data speeds of 2402 Mbps on 5 GHz and 574 Mbps on 2.4 GHz channels to support 4K video streaming and online gaming, said the company. The $69 AX1500 has maximum data speeds of 1201 Mbps on 5 GHz and 300 Mbps on 2.4 GHz.

Facebook beefed up features in its Portal video communications device, adding calling via WhatsApp and expanding outside the U.S. It began taking preorders Wednesday for the successor Portal ($179), redesigned with a larger 10-inch HD screen. The Portal ships Oct. 15, along with the $129 Portal Mini, both described as having a picture frame design. Facebook also introduced the Portal TV ($149) set-top box, which brings “smart video-calling” to a TV. It sits above or below a TV, allowing users to move around during calls. Under scrutiny for privacy practices, Facebook highlighted the devices’ privacy features, noting consumers can disable the camera and mic with a single tap or by sliding a switch. A red light next to the lens indicates the camera and mic are off; users can block the camera physically with a cover. “For added security,” said the company, the camera and sound technology in the second-gen Portal use artificial intelligence that runs on the device, “not on Facebook servers.” The company detailed Portal’s process for listening: If “Hey Portal” is enabled, the device listens for the wakeup phrase. If detected, Portal sends a “short audio recording” and transcript of the “Hey Portal” voice interaction to Facebook: “A trained team may review a sample to make our voice services smarter and more accurate for everyone.” Users can view, hear and delete any “Hey Portal” voice interactions, it said, and they can turn off voice storage, meaning, "your voice interactions are not stored or reviewed.” Other features include an adaptive display that adjusts brightness and color to the surroundings. The Portal and Mini have built-in speakers for music.

Netgear rolled out an engineering support service for integrators deploying AV solutions over IP networks, it said at CEDIA Expo Friday. Geared to small and medium partners without resources to leverage complex AV installations, it can cut complexity of AV solutions over IP, said Laurent Masia, director-product line management. M4300 switches are preconfigured for AV and Multicast Zero Touch network configuration.