Page 14 - Lighting Magazine March 2019

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AMAZON TO JOIN ZIGBEE ALLIANCE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
The Zigbee Alliance – an organiza- tion of hundreds of companies creating, maintaining, and deliv-
ering open, global standards for the Internet of Things (IoT) – has announced that Amazon will join its Board of Directors.
As IoT growth continues to acceler- ate, prominent companies in the tech industry are collaborating within the Zigbee Alliance to shape the direction of standards, ecosystems, and devices to of- fer users easy and enjoyable experiences they’ll want to build upon within their homes and personal spaces. The decision by Amazon to join the Zigbee Alliance at the Board level is a strong message that the industry is focused on simplifying and adding convenience to the growing range of IoT devices available to customers.
“Customers tell us they want smart home experiences that are simple to set up, easy to control, and add convenience
to the tasks they do every day,” says Christian Taubman, Director/Alexa Smart Home at Amazon. “Voice control with Alexa is helping remove the complexity of smart home, and there are even more ways we can help customers by ensuring their smart devices connect and work together seamlessly. We look forward
to working with the Zigbee Alliance
and its members to contribute to open standards for device interoperability that bene t our mutual customers.”
“As an industry, we need to move quickly to help consumers add new devices e ortlessly and ensure they are ge ing a great experience in the Internet of Things,” adds Tobin Richardson, President & CEO of the Zigbee Alli- ance. “We’re proud to be a racting the best tech companies on the planet, and Amazon joins an impressive line-up of other industry leaders and innovators
on the Board who work with the Zigbee
Alliance’s open standards and community to deliver real value in the IoT.”
Finding a common vision and mature, interoperable solutions within the Zigbee Alliance family of technologies, leading service providers and device manufactur- ers — such as Amazon, Comcast, Huawei, IKEA, Legrand, Schneider Electric, Signify (formerly Philips Lighting),
Somfy, and Samsung SmartThings — have chosen to design and introduce devices based on the Zigbee Alliance’s wireless standards. In doing so, these companies o er consumers greater choice in building simpler, consistent, and reliable experiences. For instance, Amazon devices – including the Echo Plus and new Echo Show – feature a built-in
smart home hub that easily connects to Zigbee-based light bulbs, door locks, and sensors. Customers can quickly connect new Zigbee products by simply saying, “Alexa, discover my devices.”
10 enLIGHTenment Magazine | March 2019
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