IFA 2022: Less energy consumption and better networking in the smart home
More economical heating, cloud-free interaction with Matter: the trade fair shows mega trends in the intelligent home. Only prominent manufacturers are missing this year.
After a two-year Corona break, the smart home is once again the focus of IFA. In view of the current energy crisis, a number of exhibitors want to show how smart components can be used to reduce CO2 emissions.
The building outfitter Schneider Electric is setting the pace: in her IFA keynote (September 3, 5 p.m., Hall 23), its chief strategist and sustainability director Gwenaelle Avice-Huet will address the climate protection contribution that smart households can make. At its own stand 123 in hall 5.2, Schneider Electric will be showing the right tools for this from the group’s point of view. The range includes wall boxes, KNX components and intelligent heating thermostats.
heating and cooling
AVM (Hall 10.2, Stand 101a), Bosch Smart Home (Hall 1.1, Stand 105), Netatmo (Stand 107) and the manufacturer Leedarson, who is still little known in this country (Hall 5.2, Stand 124). The latter also has an interesting gadget that is less trimmed to save energy: a bathroom fan with LED light and Bluetooth speakers that listens to Alexa.
Traditionally, new hardware and software for heating and cooling can also be expected from Tado during the IFA period – but this time definitely not for the public to see. The company only presents itself outside of the exhibition center to the professional world. With Philips Hue, Sonos, Nuki, Nanoleaf Homematic IP and Telekom Magenta, other important industry giants are missing at the exhibition center.
How everything fits together
The second important smart home topic at IFA 2022 is a perennial issue, namely the question of how as many components as possible from different origins can be managed with just one user interface. Three approaches are currently competing here.
The Tuya hardware platform, which has grown rapidly, is exhibiting the current line-up of reference components (Hall 5.2, Stand 121). Various manufacturers want to put their brand dress on this and make their devices equally accessible with the universal app from Tuya. Instead, Home Connect Plus (Hall 1.1., Stand 106), the young software subsidiary of Bosch, is currently using cloud-to-cloud interfaces to bring various manufacturers together at great speed. Gigaset and Netatmo were recently added. At the same time, Netatmo is pursuing a third networking path that is currently receiving a great deal of attention.
The company is showing its first sensor that receives switching signals via the Matter communication standard announced for autumn and shares them with other manufacturers. Unlike usual, commissioning and local operation should be possible purely via the home network without the cloud and with a large number of partner apps. In addition, Eve (Hall 5.2, Stand 117) will address Matter. Recently introduced products such as a roller shutter motor, motion sensor and garden valve should be compatible with Matter at the start of the standard.
Other manufacturers are much more cautious at the IFA as far as Matter is concerned. Other Matter competitors such as Bosch Smart Home, Samsung SmartThings (CityCube, Hall B) and camera and lock manufacturer Yale (Hall 5.2, Stand 116) probably do not want to address the overarching Smart Home standard. The Matter initiators Amazon, Apple and Google are not even represented at the exhibition center. According to information from Heise online, they are saving their news surcharge for a major launch event in November 2022 in Amsterdam. The mega-project of the smart home world will therefore essentially pass IFA 2022.
Burglary protection and light show for the dark season
The Berlin technology fair remains an exciting source of inspiration for seasonally important topics. In addition to Eve, Netatmo and Yale, Arlo (booth 108), Ezviz (booth 119) and the Amazon subsidiary Ring (booth 115) will be providing insights into how burglary protection can be sniffed out with smart security cameras in Hall 5.2. Enabot (booth 105) probably attracts the most attention with a mobile WLAN camera in a cute spherical shape called the Ebo SE.
Loudspeaker manufacturer Nubert (Hall 1.2, Stand 235) is literally setting a highlight for the lighting in the dark season. With the nuPro XI-2000 RC model, he presents a 3-way ceiling loudspeaker with a built-in, warm-white LED decorative light. Both can be operated on a common 230 volt ceiling connection, the speaker can be used with Bluetooth and the LEDs can be integrated into the smart home via ZigBee radio.
Manufacturer Xgimi is also showing a combination product for the smart home that is literally sensational in Hall 2.2, Stand 206. Its Magic Lamp is both a projector and a WiFi ceiling light that can be dimmed and switched from cool to warm white. Voice control and smart automatic rules are initially tailored to the Chinese market of origin, but should be supplemented by services relevant to this country if the product is launched in Europe.
All in all, Hall 5.2 is particularly worthwhile for smart home fans. The hall plan in the list of exhibitors and products at IFA 2022 provides further information on the manufacturers represented there.
