Silicon Labs
|
Silicon Labs Community Silicon Labs Community
  • Products
    1. 8-bit MCU
    2. 32-bit MCU
    3. Bluetooth
    4. Proprietary
    5. Wi-Fi
    6. Zigbee & Thread
    7. Z-Wave
    8. Interface
    9. Isolation
    10. Power
    11. Sensors
    12. Timing
  • Development Tools
    1. Simplicity Studio
    2. Third Party Tools
  • Expert's Corner
    1. Announcements
    2. Blog
    3. General Interest
    4. Projects
How to Buy
English
  • English
  • 简体中文
  • 日本語
//
Community // Blog

Smart Home Holiday Shopping Tips

12/350/2019 | 07:12 PM
Jackie Padgett
Employee

Level 5


Despite the obvious convenience and efficiency benefits of smart home technologies, home automation gifting for non-savvy technology buyers has sometimes been challenging. The smart home products of yesterday were often too complicated to install for gift recipients or required professional installation. Do-It-Yourselfers (DIY) with technical backgrounds might appreciate receiving a smart home gift, but the average consumer may be overwhelmed by the prospect of installing a smart home product, not to mention figuring out how to connect it with other existing devices within the home.

Fortunately, times are changing – fast. Smart home ecosystem companies have significantly stepped up collaboration in recent years with two primary goals in mind: 1) simplify the products; and 2) make it easier for devices to all work with each other. Anyone familiar with the smart home market knows technology ecosystem players have been diligently working for years to improve product interoperability. But finally, after more than a decade of figuring out the plumbing, smart home companies are now spending more resources on improving the product user and installation experience.

Shop In-Store, Not Online

The best way to see this for yourself is to walk into a retail store such as a Best Buy, IKEA or Walmart. This year brick and mortar retailers have realized the consumer appeal of seeing the home automation products up close and in-person; therefore, in-store demos have increased dramatically. In fact, brick and mortar retailers are starting to see an uptick in smart home sales purchases in-store versus online because of the value of hands-on product displays, such as the Nest thermostat.

Another emerging shopping venue this year is smart home house parties. Similar in theme to Tupperware parties of the past, the idea behind these events is to get more people exposed to seeing how the products work inside a person’s real home. Granted, we may be running out of time to receive smart home house party invitations before the holidays, but this is a new way to buy products and something to consider for the future.

2.4 GHz vs. sub-GHz Considerations

Although it’s not visible to homeowners, many homes have a good amount of data traffic running across Bluetooth and Wi-Fi radio frequency bands, through music speakers, office computers, video games or Netflix movies. All of this data traffic uses the 2.4 GHz band, meaning traffic congestion or interference occurs regularly, sometimes resulting in sluggish performance, product or Internet latency or inoperable devices. However, vendors are working hard to ensure all of these 2.4 GHz devices, whether they use Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Zigbee or Thread, can coexist with the other. So, while there is lots going on behind the scenes with 2.4 GHz technologies, for users, it just works.

That being said, when you set out to purchase smart home products, if your household typically has a good deal of Internet traffic on a regular basis, it may be worthwhile to look for products that run on sub-GHz. Years ago, the sub-GHz frequency band was more crowded in the home, due to cordless phones and other wireless devices that used this band. However, with migration to 2.4 GHz and even higher frequencies, sub-GHz has become a quieter radio spectrum in the home and offers easier transmission and fewer retries for data and devices running across it. Fewer transmissions made over a radio frequency results in less power used, ultimately saving battery power for smart home devices. Another potential benefit of sub-GHz is it offers longer wireless range across the house. As radio waves pass through walls, fences, closets, etc., the signal weakens (as we have all experienced with Wi-Fi). Higher frequency bands weaken more quickly when transmissions run into obstacles, meaning the 2.4GHz signal, a higher frequency band than sub-GHz, loses its strength faster due to physical barriers, though it often overcomes this issue by transmitting at a higher output power.

Wizard of Oz Integration

As complicated as that all may sound, the takeaway for a smart home shopper is sub-GHz smart home products are more reliable, robust and energy efficient, if you have a good amount of traffic occurring in your household. The Ring Protect System, built on Silicon Labs’ Z-Wave technology, is a good example of a smart home product that has leveraged the performance benefits of sub-GHz. It has also become so easy to use that no technical skills are required. All you need to do is take it out of the box and plug it in.

The collaboration within the industry among smart home vendors, manufacturers, cloud companies and hardware and software companies is now starting to pay off. Some may consider the new user-friendly products magic when they experience their ease of use, but the real genius lies in the relentless and complex work of technological integration across the entire smart home ecosystem of companies.  In fact, most users don’t care whether it is sub-GHz technologies, like Z-Wave, or 2.4 GHz technologies, such as Bluetooth Low Energy or Zigbee.  What they are really looking for is that it “works with Alexa” or “works with the Google Assistant.” That phrase is one of the keys to ensuring products work with each other and are easier to use than ever before, meaning even the most technically challenged family member this year is a candidate for a smart home gift.

 

  • Blog Posts
  • Robin Greene

    Level 3


    Replied Dec 30 2019, 6:54 AM

     Wow! It was good to read about holiday shopping tips. This helped to use my holidays for shopping with better offers and discounts. 
    Also, visit the blog posted by me.

    HP Printer Error 0x61011bed
     

    0
  • Michael Stokes

    Level 3


    Replied Jan 05 2020, 3:45 PM

    As we all know that world is going smarter day by day and shopping now a days become so easy that you can get anything on your tips by just ordering and purchasing online however, online market is to much saturated and unpredictable that no one know that what you're going to get in online shopping. This blog is quite interesting and give us handsome knowledge about a relevant topic visit us any time for any query we related any topic like Dissertation editing and proofreading services etc   

    0
  • sand simm

    Level 3


    Replied Feb 07 2020, 4:48 AM
    You shared a useful post and thanks for sharing this to us. Grammarly is one of the leading grammar tools. To get grammarly 70% discount, you need to sign up for a new premium account and use the referral system.
    0
  • jhukhukar hunter

    Level 3


    Replied Feb 13 2020, 10:07 AM

    John Deere 5115RH Hi-Crop Tractor Spec: Guys let’s check out here the John Deere 5115RH Hi-Crop Tractor Specification, Attachments, Performance and more related the John Deere 5115RH Hi-Crop Tractor. So please read this post and get the details as per your requirements.

    https://tractorsinfo.net/john-deere-5115rh-hi-crop-tractor-specifications/

    0
  • tanusha11 ava

    Level 3


    Replied Feb 15 2020, 4:26 AM

    https://upleaks.cn/shawandme-login/

    This is a ShawAndMe Login- Shaw Industries Employee Login articles with good and genuine information with step by step guidance so if you are looking for ShawAndMe Login then it can be helpful for you and you can easily get login into Shaw Industries Employee Login at shawinc.com/Shaw-Me-Inactive to get benefits, job, and more.

     

    0
  • renu kumari

    Level 3


    Replied Feb 27 2020, 3:31 PM

    Hill Climb Racing is a 2020 physics-based racing video game released by the Finnish studion product. Wikipedia Hill climb racing apk

    0
  • renu kumari

    Level 3


    Replied Feb 27 2020, 3:35 PM

    Version Then You Should Flash Phone Here You Can Download Latest Flash File 7.1.1 And Update Your Phone Motorola XT2013-1 Firmware Info File Price ...    https://androidji.com/jio-f271i-flash-file/ 

     

    0
  • renu kumari

    Level 3


    Replied Feb 27 2020, 3:40 PM

    WhatsApp QR code scanner to scan QR codes outside of the ones used to log into WhatsApp on desktop. 

    waweb

    0
  • renu kumari

    Level 3


    Replied Feb 27 2020, 3:40 PM
    Version Then You Should Flash Phone Here You Can Download Latest Flash File 7.1.1 And Update Your Phone Motorola XT2013-1 Firmware Info File Price ... flash file
    0

Tags

  • Wireless
  • High Performance Jitter Attenuators
  • EFR32FG22 Series 2 SoCs
  • EFR32MG21 Series 2 SoCs
  • Security
  • Bluegiga Legacy Modules
  • Zigbee SDK
  • ZigBee and Thread
  • EFR32BG13 Series 1 Modules
  • Internet Infrastructure
  • Sensors
  • Wireless Xpress BGX13
  • Blue Gecko Bluetooth Low Energy SoCs
  • Z-Wave
  • Micrium OS
  • Blog Posts
  • Low Jitter Clock Generators
  • Bluetooth Classic
  • Makers
  • Flex SDK
  • Tips and Tricks
  • timing
  • Smart Cities
  • Smart Homes
  • IoT Heroes
  • Reviews
  • RAIL
  • Simplicity Studio
  • Tiny Gecko
  • EFR32MG22 Series 2 SoCs
  • Mighty Gecko SoCs
  • Timing
  • Temperature Sensors
  • Blue Gecko Bluetooth Low Energy Modules
  • Ultra Low Jitter Clock Generators
  • General Purpose Clock Generators
  • EFR32BG22 Series 2 SoCs
  • Industry 4.0
  • Giant Gecko
  • 32-bit MCUs
  • Bluetooth Low Energy
  • 32-bit MCU SDK
  • Gecko
  • Microcontrollers
  • Jitter Attenuators
  • EFR32BG21 Series 2 SoCs
  • News and Events
  • Wi-Fi
  • Bluetooth SDK
  • Community Spotlight
  • Clock Generators
  • Biometric Sensors
  • General Purpose Jitter Attenuators
  • Giant Gecko S1
  • WF200
  • Flex Gecko
  • Internet of Things
  • 8-bit MCUs
  • Wireless Jitter Attenuators
  • Isolation
  • Powered Devices
  • Power

Top Authors

  • Avatar image Siliconlabs
  • Avatar image Jackie Padgett
  • Avatar image Nari Shin
  • Avatar image lynchtron
  • Avatar image deirdrewalsh
  • Avatar image Lance Looper
  • Avatar image lethawicker

Archives

  • 2016 March
  • 2016 April
  • 2016 May
  • 2016 June
  • 2016 July
  • 2016 August
  • 2016 September
  • 2016 October
  • 2016 November
  • 2016 December
  • 2017 January
  • 2017 February
  • 2017 March
  • 2017 April
  • 2017 May
  • 2017 June
  • 2017 July
  • 2017 August
  • 2017 September
  • 2017 October
  • 2017 November
  • 2017 December
  • 2018 January
  • 2018 February
  • 2018 March
  • 2018 April
  • 2018 May
  • 2018 June
  • 2018 July
  • 2018 August
  • 2018 September
  • 2018 October
  • 2018 November
  • 2018 December
  • 2019 January
  • 2019 February
  • 2019 March
  • 2019 April
  • 2019 May
  • 2019 June
  • 2019 July
  • 2019 August
  • 2019 September
  • 2019 October
  • 2019 November
  • 2019 December
  • 2020 January
  • 2020 February
  • 2020 March
  • 2020 April
  • 2020 May
  • 2020 June
  • 2020 July
  • 2020 August
  • 2020 September
  • 2020 October
  • 2020 November
  • 2020 December
  • 2021 January
  • 2021 February
Silicon Labs
Stay Connected With Us
Plug into the latest on Silicon Labs products, including product releases and resources, documentation updates, PCN notifications, upcoming events, and more.
  • About Us
  • Careers
  • Community
  • Contact Us
  • Corporate Responsibility
  • Privacy and Terms
  • Press Room
  • Investor Relations
  • Site Feedback
  • Cookies
Copyright © Silicon Laboratories. All rights reserved.
粤ICP备15107361号
Also of Interest:
  • Bring Your IoT Designs to Life with Smart,...
  • A Guide to IoT Protocols at Works With...
  • IoT Hero Rainus Enhances the In-Store Shopping...