A third of smart homes in the U.S., U.K., Germany and France have surveillance cameras, coming in second behind thermostats as the most widely adopted smart devices, reported Strategy Analytics Wednesday. Sixty percent of smart homes with a security camera have more than one, said the researcher. Surveillance cameras “have found a place in millions of smart homes, in spite of concerns over privacy and hacking, which suggests the benefits outweigh the risks for many consumers,” said analyst Jack Narcotta. Smart home companies can use safety and security to attract new customers, but selling those benefits will become more challenging for some brands as cameras become more of a mass market smart home device, said analyst Bill Ablondi: “Brands will need to create innovative features to help them find solid footing to compete with Nest, Amazon, and Arlo,” he said.

Ring introduced “Pre-Roll” on the Video Doorbell 3 Plus, a feature that captures the four seconds before motion is detected to let users see what triggered a motion alert. It’s the first commercial offering of the feature on a battery-powered video doorbell, said the Amazon-owned company. Ring Video Doorbell 3 Plus ($229) and Video Doorbell 3 ($199) are available for preorder on Ring.com and Amazon.com, with availability slated for April 8. Ring Chime and Chime Pro, which allow users to hear Ring notifications inside the home, will also be available April 8 at $29 and $49. Chime Pro adds a built-in nightlight, and a Wi-Fi extender to expand connectivity across a home’s Ring doorbells and cameras, it said.

Custom window-treatments supplier Hunter Douglas joined ProSource as a new 2020 "vendor partner," said the buying group Thursday. Adding Hunter Douglas gives members an opportunity to "capture new business" in the "booming shading category," said ProSource CEO Dave Workman. "As demand for the smart home and integrated systems rise, automated window treatments are an opportunity for integrators to enhance clients’ systems and grow their businesses,” said Scott Stephenson, Hunter Douglas director-product management, motorization.

Sixty percent of security systems bought in the past two years were self-installed vs. 7% purchased more than six years ago, blogged Parks Associates Thursday. Most do-it-yourself security owners are also self-installing add-on smart home devices, leading companies to expand their product lines to meet demand, said analyst Dina Abdelrazik, citing Abode, Array by Hampton and Blue by ADT. Demand for an easy-to-install, integrated solution is becoming more prevalent in the Apple HomeKit ecosystem, too, in DIY security systems and camera-related devices, she said. The traditional residential security channel is dominated by professionally installed, professionally monitored systems, but smart home device manufacturers are increasingly extending into the security space, said Abdelrazik. Some 33% of U.S. broadband households own a security system, up from 28% in 2018, said Parks.

Smart home companies have begun a shift from hardware to service-driven business models, but adoption has been “fairly limited,” said a Wednesday Navigant Research report. Services such as security monitoring, health and independent living, energy savings, HVAC performance monitoring and convenience have come to market, but while adoption of connected devices has grown dramatically, “consumers have not been convinced of the value in paying monthly fees for many of the home services available,” said the report. Services can give companies a way to generate recurring revenue to capitalize on their IoT investment -- while creating “stickier” relationships with consumers -- but getting consumers to adopt services “is proving challenging,” said analyst Neil Strother. Smart home providers need to determine a strategy for diversifying revenue streams and monetizing consumer data to overcome the challenge, “or this could become a missed opportunity.”

Nationwide partnered with Notion on a smart home kit designed to monitor the home for conditions that could lead to insurance claims. The Notion system -- available at launch in Alabama, Arizona and Illinois -- has sensors that monitor for open doors and windows, smoke and carbon monoxide alarm alerts, and water leaks. Leading causes of insurance claims are water damage (31.4%), fire and lightning damage (26.8%) and theft (2.1%), said the insurer. Customers opting into the program receive a discounted rate on the smart home kit while saving on their insurance policy, said the company. Rates and kit price weren’t given.

Smart home devices increase security dealers’ support costs, with 22 percent most often initiating a truck roll to resolve support requests, said Parks Associates Monday. Some 28 percent of dealers find it "very difficult" to integrate smart home devices with a security system, said analyst Dina Abdelrazik. “Dealers accept that they need to expand their offerings to include smart home devices in order to succeed, increase [recurring monthly revenue] potential, and compete effectively,” she said, but it requires that they expand their expertise to ensure proper installation and minimize support costs. In turn, there’s pressure on manufacturers to continue to improve the installation and operation of their products, she said. Honeywell, now Resideo, is the dominant brand for do-it-yourself security systems offered by dealers, followed by Interlogix and DMP, Parks said. Dealers not currently selling DIY are split on future intentions, with 45 percent saying they are likely or very likely to start offering DIY systems in the next year. While gaining some momentum with security dealers, DIY security systems are still a minority of system types sold, Abdelrazik said. For a successful business model, dealers should position DIY systems alongside traditional professionally installed offerings and clearly highlight differences to customers, she said.

Leviton’s Decora Smart voice dimmer ($89, Home Depot) lets homeowners turn lights on and off by voice and uses Alexa services without the need for an additional light or hub, the company said Wednesday. Users also have the choice to control lights by the switch or the My Leviton app remotely. With Alexa, they can dim and brighten lights, listen to news, get the weather, play music and control smart home devices, said the company. Features include “off means off” technology for low-wattage LED bulbs and custom settings for fade rates and bulb types, it said. The company also bowed a Decora four-speed fan controller, operable by Alexa or Google Assistant.

It’s “anybody’s guess” how the coronavirus outbreak will affect the Chinese supply chain after production workers are due to return from the Lunar New Year holiday, said Silicon Labs CEO Tyson Tuttle on a Q4 call Wednesday. “We’re reading the news just like everybody else,” said Tuttle. “Our forecast and guidance takes a normal return from Chinese New Year into account. Things just shut down, and we’re going to see if things start back up on a normal pace. Our hope is that that’s the case.” The stock closed 13 percent lower Wednesday at $102.76 after Silicon Labs reported a 30 percent operating-profit decline for the year that it blamed on "a challenging macro environment." Silicon Labs had been looking at “opening up” the Z-Wave standard “for quite some time” before doing so last month (see 1912200003), said Tuttle. “We are big believers in open standards, and to be able to drive broad adoption.” Z-Wave “performed very well in 2019,” he said. “We saw an opening,” he said of the timing to widen Z-Wave. A “number of customers” were looking toward Z-Wave as “the right solution for a sub-gigahertz standard,” he said. “It’s a very robust standard and it’s widely deployed. You’ve got 100-plus million units of devices deployed out in the market. As companies are looking for a sub-gigahertz standard, it was our belief that we have an opportunity to make sub-gigahertz the wireless standard for IoT.” Q4 sales fell slightly from the year-ago quarter to $219.4 million. They're expected to fall sequentially in Q1, to $209 million to $219 million, with "Infrastructure up, Broadcast flat, and declines in IoT and Access." The company said it may have a loss. "Despite a challenging macro environment, we are pleased to have outperformed the market with secular growth drivers in IoT and Infrastructure providing some offset to macro weakness," said Tuttle.

Veego Software, an Israeli artificial intelligence-based software-as-a-service for ISPs, is looking to expand its brand in the U.S., CEO Amir Kotler told us. Veego’s software provides “self-healing” for a home network, where possible, eliminating truck rolls. As subscribers add connected devices, service issues grow in complexity, he said. In many cases, problems aren’t the fault of the ISP, but are due to complications in the cloud, with other devices or external problems, he said. The Veego SaaS detects Wi-Fi anomalies that affect streaming, browsing, gaming and other services in a smart home, Kotler said. It analyzes the root cause, pinpoints the precise location and reason, and lets subscribers know whom to contact. In some cases, it can fix problems on the spot, he said. The software is compliant with the general data protection regulation, said the executive: It doesn’t store personal information; data sits on the subscriber’s route.