Silicon Labs' groundbreaking Works With event, held virtually September 9 -10, 2020, included more than 6,000 registrants and featured presentations, live demos, and technical tracks from leaders in the smart home industry.

In the Amazon Technical Track: Introduction and Certification session, lead engineers from Amazon's smart home team, Chris DeCenzo, Erwan Le Roy, and Ramez Abulazm, described five of the most common smart home challenges faced by consumers and developers. In creating innovative solutions to these challenges, Amazon's Works With Alexa (WWA) program discovered the following best practices for developing smart home devices.

1. Establish customer trust: Customers want their devices to work reliably and securely. To address these concerns, Amazon's Alexa program became an early adopter of the Zigbee Alliance All Hubs Initiative requirements. The All Hubs Initiative, a group within the Zigbee Alliance and comprised of leading IoT companies, sought to consolidate requirements among the different smart home system companies with the goal of reducing the number of certification programs and firmware images for device makers. The group performed a thorough survey of gaps across security, reliability, and resiliency, and came up with a set of over 150 requirements or features that are now standardized. The results of these standardizations are better security, reliability, and interoperability, providing customers with peace of mind for their most significant concerns.
2. Create "Frustration-Free Setup" experiences: Traditionally, the smart home setup has been confusing and frustrating, with multiple connection attempts and high failure rates. To alleviate these challenges, Amazon developed the "Frustration-Free Setup" (FFS) program, making setup easy and automatic. By leveraging Amazon's FFS technology, smart device manufacturers can create products that connect automatically at the first plugin, resulting in a setup process that just works.
3. Reduce development cost: Today's smart home devices contain numerous standard features such as logs, metrics, over-the-air updates, remote control from the cloud, and integration with systems like Alexa. Typically, developers have to integrate multiple Software Development Kits (SDKs) to implement these features, which involves many engineering resources and adds time to market. To simplify adding the Amazon SDK to smart home devices, Amazon has packaged the software built for Alexa products and made it available to device makers. This software, called "Amazon Common Software (ACS)", is a pre-validated, pre-certified component that makes it easier for developers to integrate SDK building blocks. ACS allows engineers to focus on innovation, rather than integration and debugging, thus reducing development costs and speeding time to market.
4. Expand interaction models: Smart home device makers today have the ability to make products that are more immersive and interactive than ever before. With Alexa Gadgets, smart home manufacturers can create new kinds of smart home devices and unique creative experiences for customers. Alexa Gadgets are interactive, Bluetooth-connected companion devices that work with Echo devices. Amazon's WWA program offers a range of tools and resources to make it easy to get started with Alexa Gadgets, including technical documentation and sample code.
5. Increase compatibility among smart home connected devices: Compatibility with existing devices and ecosystems is one of the most significant contributors to point-of-sale confusion for customers. With Amazon's Works With Alexa program, smart home device makers can use standard interfaces for everyday devices such as lightbulbs and door locks, or custom interfaces for less common devices such as coffee machines. Additionally, Amazon's certification programs, Alexa Built-in Badge, Works With Alexa Badge, and Certified for Humans designation, ensure customers that new devices will have better responsiveness, reliability, and functionality with their existing Alexa products.

To find out more about these and other Amazon solutions, watch the session's on-demand replay by registering for free here.

Silicon Labs capped summer off with our first-ever Works With event, and we’re keeping the learning opportunities coming with the launch of Clock Talk, our biweekly timing-focused webinar series. Launched last week, Clock Talk brings some of our leading voices in timing experts to present on a range of topics that address specific industry pain points and equip attendees with the knowledge and tools needed to accelerate timing-intensive system designs. It is also an opportunity to learn about our best-in-class selection of timing products, including crystal oscillators, jitter attenuators, network synchronizers, and PCI Express (PCIe) clock generators and buffers. Clock Talks occur every Tuesday at 9:00 CST/16:00 CET in AMER/EMEA and Wednesday at 10:30 HKT in APAC. Each 45-minute session will conclude with a live 15-minute Q and A session with the presenter.

In the first in our series, IEEE 1588 Timing Solutions for Non-Telecom Applications, Senior Product Manager David Spencer discussed IEEE 1588 Precision Time Protocol (PTP). He outlined why PTP is important in power distribution, broadcast, and data center applications. David’s session is now available on-demand, as all Clock Talk webinars will be after the conclusion of their live presentations.

Upcoming sessions cover a wide range of topics, from an in-depth look at the types of clock jitter that affect SerDes performance to an overview of the OpenRAN initiative to define and build general-purpose, vendor-agnostic equipment for RAN solutions.

Here is the list of upcoming Clock Talk web events:

Clock Jitter Demystified and Jitter Requirements for 56/112 SerDes	Tuesday, September. 29
Design Considerations When Selecting a XO/VCXO Clock Reference for 56G/112G SerDes	Tuesday, October. 13
Stop Guessing, Use Silicon Labs Timing Tools to Build Your Clock Tree	Tuesday, October. 27
Optimize Timing Solutions for High-Speed FPGA and Application Processor Designs	Tuesday, November 10
PCIe Gen 4/5/6 Specifications and Jitter Measurement Explained	Tuesday, November 17
Timing Solutions for 5G O-RAN Systems	Tuesday, December 1
AECQ-100 Timing Products for Automotive Applications	Tuesday, January 12
Timing Solutions for Open-Compute Systems	Tuesday, January 26

Register here for the entire Clock Talk series at once, so you’ll never miss a session or for individual sessions. You can find more information about our portfolio of timing solutions here, and if you have questions about a specific application or product, we’d love to hear from you.

Tuya Smart and Silicon Labs Advance Residential and Commercial Security Experience with New Smart Door Lock Platform

New Tuya Wi-Fi Smart Lock Platform Leverages Silicon Labs Wireless Technology

Tuya Smart, a global class-leading AI+IoT (AIoT) platform provider, and Silicon Labs (NASDAQ: SLAB), a leading provider of silicon, software, and solutions for a smarter, more connected world, are collaborating to build a low-power Wi-Fi platform solution for smart door locks that will extend to other future smart home applications.

The announcement comes several days ahead of Silicon Labs’ first-ever Works With virtual smart home developer conference, a free online event taking place September 9 and 10. Tuya is a sponsor of the event, and the company’s North American General Manager, Fritz Werder, will lead a session titled “IoT Product Development Made Easy,” which will educate smart home IoT developers on how Tuya’s IoT Developer Platform can dramatically improve smart device time-to-market, profitability, and customer satisfaction.

"Tuya and Silicon Labs are combining world-class engineering expertise and best-in-class IoT platforms to enable a new generation of always connected, highly secure, and energy efficient products for smart home consumers, major brands, OEM manufacturers, and retail chains," said Fritz Werder, North American General Manager for Tuya Smart. "Silicon Labs has demonstrated a long track record of leadership and success in wireless IoT, and we are very impressed with the features and capabilities of its Wi-Fi solutions. We look forward to this collaboration, which will make people’s lives easier and their homes and buildings more secure.”

Tuya selected the Silicon Labs’ Wi-Fi SoC for its new smart door module series coming to market later this year. The Tuya low-power module will integrate seamlessly with other applications, such as low-power sensors and one-way switches. Product features and capacities include ultra-low power consumption, high network stability, compatibility with various ecosystems, and support for TLS and HTTPS among other global security protocols; FCC, IC, and ETSI/CE certifications are in process.

Tuya modules powered by Silicon Labs’ Wi-Fi SoC

“Silicon Labs is proud that a global IoT industry leader like Tuya has chosen our low-power Wi-Fi solution as the connectivity backbone for their new Wi-Fi smart home platform,” said Matt Saunders, vice president of marketing for IoT products, Silicon Labs. “Our high performing and flexible wireless solutions are helping companies quickly bring differentiated smart home products to market, while reducing cost and design complexity. Tuya continues to chart an ambitious path of innovation and Silicon Labs is glad to be a key part of it.”

The Tuya door lock module series is expected to be available by the end of 2020, and smart locks built on the Tuya IoT Platform are anticipated to enter the North American market in early 2021 with additional implementations expected in the APAC market later in the year.

To register for the Silicon Labs Works With virtual event, visit http://workswith.silabs.com/.

About Tuya

Tuya Smart is a leading global AIoT platform provider with a unique, all-in-one offering of cloud + connectivity + app that makes it easy and affordable for brands, retailers, and OEMs to make their products smart. Tuya’s platform has smart-enabled more than 90,000 smart products in hundreds of categories worldwide, and Tuya’s global partner reach now includes more than 100,000 companies, all leaders in their respective industries and regions. Tuya is internationally operated with headquarters in the U.S., Germany, India, Japan, and China. tuya.com

Media Contact for Tuya

Ann Marie Olivo-Shaw

Marketing Director, North America

amolivo@tuya.com

About Silicon Labs

Silicon Labs (NASDAQ: SLAB) is a leading provider of silicon, software and solutions for a smarter, more connected world. Our award-winning technologies are shaping the future of the Internet of Things, Internet infrastructure, industrial automation, consumer and automotive markets. Our world-class engineering team creates products focused on performance, energy savings, connectivity and simplicity. silabs.com

Connect with Silicon Labs

Contact Silicon Labs PR team at pr@silabs.com.

Cautionary Language

This press release may contain forward-looking statements based on Silicon Labs’ current expectations. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. A number of important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. For a discussion of factors that could impact Silicon Labs’ financial results and cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements, please refer to Silicon Labs’ filings with the SEC. Silicon Labs disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Note to editors: Silicon Labs, Silicon Laboratories, the “S” symbol, the Silicon Laboratories logo and the Silicon Labs logo are trademarks of Silicon Laboratories Inc. All other product names noted herein may be trademarks of their respective holders.

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Amazon Sidewalk is an exciting long-term effort to create a neighborhood network enabling IoT devices to work together no matter where they are, independent of any particular broadband connection.

Hot on the heels of our successful Works With Virtual Smart Home Developer Conference, we’re excited to announce a collaboration with Amazon on this promising new way for customers to ensure secure connections for smart devices anywhere on their property. 

Amazon Sidewalk is a secure, shared network created by neighbors who share a small portion of their broadband connection, allowing their devices to work better at home and beyond the front door. It is a free software application layer that works on top of any wireless solution, including Sub-GHz FSK, Bluetooth LE, and Wi-Fi, enabling IoT devices to connect to each other and through the cloud network securely.

Designed to provide the best experience for people with connected homes, Amazon Sidewalk creates a broad coverage network, ideal for low-bandwidth, low-cost devices, without requiring complex setup or maintenance. One of the most exciting things about Amazon Sidewalk is the ability for the network to extend beyond individual properties to the global Sidewalk network with a range similar to cellular networks.

Jamie Siminoff, founder & chief inventor of Ring, discussed Sidewalk during his feature keynote during our Works With 2020 virtual smart home developer conference. A replay of Siminoff’s keynote is available here and can be viewed by registering for free on the Works With conference website here. Amazon employees also recently demonstrated the capability of Sidewalk by installing 700 Ring lighting products around their homes; in just a few days, the individual network points combined to support a secure low-bandwidth 900 MHz network covering a large portion of the Los Angeles Basin.

Silicon Labs’ EFR32 Wireless Gecko Series 2 family of products will work seamlessly with Amazon Sidewalk when Sidewalk SDK is launching later this year. This launch will enable developers to create IoT products that can securely communicate to the cloud, regardless of which wireless protocol is used.

We’re looking forward to all of the possibilities Amazon Sidewalk will offer and cannot wait to see what our customers develop with this exciting new technology. For more information on how to get started with Sidewalk, contact your local Silicon Labs Sales Representative.

This week at Works With, Silicon Labs Sr. Product Manager of IoT Security, Mike Dow, discussed the ever-changing landscape of security attacks, legislation and our products’ preparedness for the modern security landscape. Additionally, Brad Ree, CTO of ioXt Alliance discussed how the organization is working to unify IoT security standards and build trust around end-product safety and security.

To begin, Mike discussed the stakes –  modern ransomware attacks are costing companies millions of dollars. Historically, these ransomware attacks have been remote attacks against individuals, such as vulnerable household families on their desktop computers, for around $200-$500 each. Today, however, “big game hunting” is more common, where organizations like hospitals or companies are targeted, for ransoms upwards of $10M-$15M. The exact price paid for these ransoms is hard to know, but it is safe to say these ransomware attacks include costly prices and downtime that companies cannot afford.

Additionally, the rise of “pivot attacks” have empowered the cyber-criminals behind these attacks. “Pivot attacks” refer to the phenomenon of using an IoT device (such as a thermostat) as an entry point to a victim’s network. A network’s security, after all, is only as strong as its most vulnerable connected device. This, of course, speaks to the importance of having strong security in these network end nodes.

Mike notes that this is leading to new legislation around cyber security. While the legislation varies from country to country (and state –to state within the U.S.), it generally provides that IoT devices like lightbulbs and thermostats must be “reasonably secure” against such threats, to prevent individuals and companies from falling victim to ransomware and the downtime that comes with it. He expects that we’ll continue to see IoT security-related legislation appear and evolve over time.

He then discusses how our Secure Vault technology that launched this year contains the exact features needed to help protect companies and individuals against the aforementioned modern attacks. From cryptography features like secure key management, to hardware features like Anti-Tamper and DPA Countermeasures, we’ve protected devices from network attacks, hardware attacks, and ensured integrity, authenticity, and confidentiality for end users.

Anti-tamper is one of the Secure Vault features that safeguard from modern attacks  

These features, along with others, exemplify our commitment to protecting devices during manufacturing, deployment, and end of life.

You can learn more about the Secure Vault features Mike mentioned by visiting the following links:

• Secure Boot
• Secure Debug
• DPA Countermeasures
• Anti-Tamper
• Secure Attestation
• Secure Key Management

View a full list of features here.

Next, Brad Ree spoke about the ioXt Alliance’s efforts to improve the global standard of IoT security and build confidence in IoT products. The alliance drives adoption of their security standards by harmonizing the security requirements of channel owners and suppliers and providing authorized test labs for devices that require a third-party test lab.

Their mission begins with the ioXt Security pledge which exemplifies the scope of their mission, and the wide variety of security measures that need to be in place for secure IoT products: 

Brad shares the ioXt Security Pledge

 Brad went on to discuss how different devices have different security needs, therefore requiring different threat models. By defining all the threats that can happen throughout the lifecycle of a device, effective tests can be defined and manufacturers can be empowered to thoroughly assess device security.

To preserve the integrity of tests and their self-certification program, ioXt Alliance offers a rewards program (similar to a bug bounty) to researchers who find that test integrity was compromised. Upon completion,  ioXt Alliance provides the following certification symbol, which is the same regardless of device type or testing rigor:

By using the same symbol across devices, the alliance hopes to strengthen the recognition of the symbol, eliminate confusion for customers that might come from a tiered system and ultimately build trust that certified products are protected.

Both Mike and Brad share the common hope that IoT products will continue to receive the security-related attention that they deserve. To watch the on-demand recording of the Works With security presentation, click here and register.

To learn more about securing your products and our Secure Vault technology, visit silabs.com/security. 

Wow, what a great event our first-ever Works With smart home developer conference was!  It was simply awesome to see so many companies and industry sectors all coming together under one virtual roof to learn and discuss all things smart home and IoT.

With more than 6,000 registered attendees, seven excellent keynote speakers, and a ton of high quality developer-oriented educational sessions, there was a LOT to take in at Works With.  Fortunately, anything you may have missed is available to see replayed on-demand via the Works With site so long as your register (which is free). In every session I visited, the live Q&A on Slack was very busy - a great sign that Works With attendees were fully engaged with the content.

I was fortunate enough to be able to experience many different aspects of the Works With event, and three big themes stood out:

1. Ease of development
2. Interoperability
3. Security

Ease of Development

Being able to easily and efficiently reuse development effort on one project when starting the next project came up in many places during the conference, not least of which was in the Amazon keynote.  When companies develop scalable, versatile platforms that work on standards and incorporate common API's and/or data flows, this effectively enables developers to focus their valuable time on adding innovation in the areas that are most important to them and their products. That is how truly special products are made!

Project Connected Home over IP (CHIP) generated a lot of interest, as the Zigbee Alliance project is a big deal in making interoperability easier to achieve across smart home devices. The project now has 145 member companies and over 1,300 people around the globe participating and contributing to its mission. The project has an open approach to development - open project and open source (all on GitHub), so it's very easy to access and start to engage with. 

The first devices CHIP is focused on include smart lighting, HVAC controls, window covers/shades, gateways, and others to build momentum in both smart home and smart buildings. Sujata Neidig, who represented Project CHIP in a Works With panel discussion hosted by Stacey on IoT's Stacey Higginbotham, announced that we should expect to see the first products built on CHIP appear in the market this time next year. Be sure to check out our EFR Series 2 parts to get your CHIP development going! 

Interoperability

The standardized models in Project CHIP should make it much easier for device manufacturers to build connected products that can fit very well into a wide variety of use cases and ecosystems. This means it becomes so much easier for consumers to choose what to buy and to get their smart home devices up and running instantly. That's a big win-win for everyone! 

Another one of the sessions I joined on interoperability was on the Google technical track, called "Introduction to Google Ecosystem." It was great to see how easy it is now to create a door lock example running on our EFR32MG21 development platform using OpenWeave and seamlessly integrate that into the Google Ecosystem. It truly demonstrates how these initiatives, like Project CHIP, are revolutionary in terms of interoperability.  

We've now established that easy development and reuse of technology combined with interoperability leads to rapid growth in the IoT and to building things we can't even imagine yet. BUT - consumers must be confident IoT devices can be trusted to keep their personal information private and secure, which in turn means that the security embedded in these connected products has to be strong.

Security

Getting IoT security right is a big deal and doing so successfully is not an easy thing to achieve.  At Silicon Labs, we have been investing in IoT security for quite some years as we saw the need for this coming. In a keynote from our head of IoT, Matt Johnson, Works With attendees heard about our EFR32 Series 2 devices earning both Arm's PSA-2 and IoXt Alliance's SmartCert IoT security certifications. For PSA-2, the EFR32MG21 with Secure Vault is the first wireless SoC ever to achieve this level of certification!  We are committed to making security accessible and easy for developers to implement by embracing standards and leading the way for secure IoT connectivity. In doing so, we believe more and more IoT developers will include security by default into their products, thus making it easier for consumers to trust their data is safe in an IoT device.

Another highlight for me was the opening keynote on Works With Day 2 with Ring founder and CEO Jamie Siminoff. It was great listening to his story and the passion he has for advancing IoT and making a positive impact on the way we all live. Jamie shared the latest on Amazon's Sidewalk effort, which stands out as a great example of how IoT can improve the way we live. Jamie described Sidewalk as a 10+ year project for Amazon, which builds on the idea of neighborhood: sharing with neighbors but with an IoT tech twist: the more connected devices your neighbors have in the network, the more everyone benefits. I loved the 'Fetch' example Jamie shared, which is an Amazon ultra-low-power play to be able to track your dog throughout the neighborhood if it escapes! Nodes around the neighborhood track and help pet owners locate their lost dog. To me, this is a simple yet really tangible way of showing how IoT tech, such as 'roaming' within Sidewalk, helps to make the IoT super-valuable to us all.

These past two days have been jam-packed with a ton of great content, and I want to thank all the people and teams involved in preparing and presenting the material. From our internal marketing and apps teams, our design partners, and our customers - all have played a huge role in making this event such a great success! But I'd also be remiss if I didn't give a massive shout out to the Silicon Labs production team who worked tirelessly behind the scenes to evolve what was originally planned as a big 'in-person' event into a huge virtual one! We ended up connecting a much bigger audience than initially planned by going virtual. We did so in a very slick, easy to consume way - bringing together all parts of the IoT industry and fostering great collaboration and innovation in a space that's more relevant now than ever before.

What we are doing at Silicon Labs is striving to make everything work with everything and do so in a way that has a positive impact on everyone's quality of life. We are THE place to go if you want to enable IoT connectivity, and we'd love to talk with you about how we can help bring your next IoT products come to life. If you'd like to start that conversation, we are waiting to hear from you. Simply send us a note here, and we'll be in touch!

The second and final day of Works With wrapped up this afternoon with an agenda packed with how-to developer sessions and expert takes on the future of the smart home. Let’s take a look at some of the highlights. 

Opening Keynote with Ring Inventor Jamie Siminoff 

Matt Johnson, Silicon Labs Senior Vice President and General Manager of IoT, kicked off the day with a keynote featuring Jamie Siminoff, Founder and Chief Inventor of Ring. Jamie talked about inventing what has become one of the most popular Wi-Fi-enabled video doorbells and went over some of the challenges facing developers as the industry scales to billions of connected devices. He shared how to use data in a way that helps us build things with trust and security in mind and discussed how the decreasing cost of IoT components is allowing developers to think bigger.  

Matt asked Jamie about Amazon Sidewalk and why developers should care about it. Jamie emphasized the long-term vision of Sidewalk, which he described as the neighborhood version of network sharing, and how it will unlock even more opportunities for smart home developers by providing cellular-like connectivity to devices. He went on to say it is not just another protocol – it's connectivity, and it’s about just connecting your device to the internet and then controlling it from there. He envisions connectivity being similar to electricity – we don’t talk about how to get electricity to the house anymore – it's a utility that everyone should have, and imagine what humanity can achieve if we give the world unlimited connectivity! 

The keynote was full of insights  from Jamie’s experience starting Ring, which included his share of challenges. He even said that people used to tell him that the doorbell was an ugly product! He told the audience that their passions will drive their inventions. “Linear inputs will achieve linear outputs...” he said, “We survey our products into mediocrity. If you want to do something great, you typically get friction early on.” But he encouraged listeners to keep on going and pushing the envelope. He said he’s excited to see what ideas come out of Works With. (We are, too!) 

Announcements and Developer Tools 

After his discussion with Jamie, Matt shared some of the recent announcements from Silicon Labs that are moving the IoT industry forward, including the recent announcement about our expanded portfolio of industry-leading RF performance Bluetooth® Low Energy solutions for IoT developers with best-in-class power, size and security solutions for Bluetooth Low Energy:  

• BGM220S – At just 6x6 mm, BGM220S is one of the world's smallest Bluetooth SiPs  an ultra-compact, low-cost, long battery life SiP module that adds turnkey Bluetooth connectivity to extremely small products.  

• BGM220P – a slightly larger PCB variant optimized for wireless performance along with a better link budget for greater range and among the first Bluetooth modules to support Bluetooth Direction Finding, all while delivering up to ten-year battery life from a single coin cell.   

• Bluetooth Xpress BGX220 – pre-certified PCB and SiP modules. Launching by the end of September, BGX220 UART to Bluetooth Low Energy bridge modules are expected to offer the fastest path to deliver secure, Bluetooth Low Energy connected products to market. 

• Secure Vault – The line of Bluetooth Low Energy products is infused with our new suite of state-of-the-art security features, Secure Vault. As the most advanced suite of hardware and software security protections available today for IoT devices, Secure Vault makes it easier for device manufacturers to protect their brand, product designs and consumer data. 

We also recently announced the latest version of our Integrated Developer Environment (IDE), Simplicity Studio 5. Engineered to simplify the development of wireless System-on-Chips (SoCs) and modules, microcontrollers, and other embedded products for IoT devices,  Simplicity Studio 5 provides developers with the same access, security configuration, and code portability across IoT SoCs and modules, significantly reducing device development time. 

Developer Sessions 

Matt’s presentation was followed by 14 different sessions, including practical, real-world discussions and demos.  

• The “From Chip to Cloud: Building the Whole Product” session featured a discussion with David Ewing and Donnie Pitts from Firia, Inc. about some of the questions developers need to answer when planning an IoT device.  

• Fritz Werder, Tuya’s North American GM, hosted the “IoT Product Development Made Easy” session in which he outlined how his company’s IoT developer platform can improve time-to-market, profitability and customer experience.  

• Mike Dow, our Sr. Product Manager of IoT Security, and Brad Ree, CTO of IoT Solutions at ioXt Alliance led a session on the importance of IoT security, covering everything from modern ransomware and unifying security standards to cyber security legislation and “pivot attacks.”  

• There were also sessions on home automation and environmental sensing and hands-on  tutorials on building an LED bulbs, touchless temperature monitors, door locks, sensors and more.  

If you were unable to attend any of the sessions, you can watch the on-demand recordings by registering here and selecting the appropriate session on the agenda.  

What’s Next?  

Works WIth 2020 may have ended, but we know the conversations and creative ideas are just beginning. We look forward to continuing to work with you to make IoT solutions that will build a smarter, more connected world. And we can’t wait to see you again at Works With 2021!  

Today, Silicon Labs kicked off its first-ever smart home developer event, Works With 2020, featuring industry experts and leading engineers sharing the latest in smart home technology development. Works With is the first of its kind to host developers and ecosystem partners, delivering 40 engineering-led session and 15 workshops to aid developers with designing, prototyping, and getting their products to market. When Silicon Labs imagined Works With, it wasn’t envisioned as a livestreamed event, but shifting to virtual allowed more than 5,000 developers from all over the world to participate.

Day 1 Recap - It’s All About Connections

Opening Keynote

Silicon Labs CEO, Tyson Tuttle, kicked off the event by diving into Silicon Labs’ vision to build a smarter, more connected world. With the current global pandemic, now more than ever, people are depending on IoT technology to stay connected – to work, to fun, and to each other. The creative ideas of developers are key to the success of the smart home industry.

Tyson went on to speak about Works With being the “Smart Home Hub” – a place where major platform players, protocol experts, and alliance partners unite to help developers navigate smart home technology. The event is designed to bring together all developers, no matter their level of expertise, and provide the know-how and best practices to get certified smart home products to market quicker. Tyson welcomed Silicon Labs IoT SVP and GM Matt Johnson to the keynote stage where he spoke to Grant Erickson, Jim Kitchen, and Joshua Danovitz, who are leading efforts at their respective companies, Google, Comcast, and Amazon, to pioneer a smoother development journey and break through the standards fragmentation in order to bring new and differentiated features to consumers.

Technical Sessions

After the keynote, attendees broke out into a variety of technical sessions, including workshops on designing products that work with Amazon, Google, HomeKit, and Samsung SmartThings ecosystems. During the sessions, developers had the opportunity to hear directly from engineering experts about the latest and greatest in smart home development. The sessions also gave developers the opportunity to learn how to acquire industry-recognized certifications for their products.

Panel – Building an Ecosystem IoT Developers Will Love

During lunch, technology journalist and IoT thought-leader Stacey Higginbotham (of Stacey on IoT) hosted a panel with leaders from NXP, ADT, Philips Hue, Ikea and Assa Abloy where they discussed how the smart home industry is coming together and how it will continue to evolve.

The panel discussed at length the emphasis on matters related to security and user experience, and one of the main points was the focus on leveraging the IP investment companies have already made. Being able to use existing IP bearing networks and shifting development resources to focus on actually innovating on new features that add value and simplify adoption for consumers.

Panelists also touched on some of the biggest obstacles developers face in bringing their products to market, including the effort required to support so many different protocols and delivering consistent user experiences across brands. Answering these challenges will provide developers with the confidence to build new, more sophisticated feature sets that create better experiences and simplify adoption.

Works With 2020 Announcements

In the midst of all of the Works With buzz and excitement, we made two major announcements – the launch of a new Simplicity Studio and BGM220.

Simplicity Studio 5 is a major upgrade to our Integrated Developer Environment (IDE), leveraging our industry leading IoT wireless expertise. Simplicity Studio 5 offers the same access and developer experience across a wide range of wireless protocols, all within a central web-style user interface. The software platform is scalable to multiple protocols including OpenThread, making it simpler to develop IPv6 based mesh applications and paving the way for future development of Project Connected Home over IP-based devices running on our EFR32 Wireless Gecko. Learn more about Simplicity Studio 5.

BGM220, combines our award-winning BG22 Bluetooth system-on-chip (SoC) devices, a pre-certified module and production-ready firmware with an on-board Bluetooth stack, application layer, and secure boot-loading functionality. Bluetooth Xpress BGX220P/S provides complete IoT solutions with framework libraries, making it easier and faster for developers to create new apps, with no Bluetooth expertise necessary. Click here for more information about BGM220.

What’s On Deck for Day 2

After a full day of learning and great conversations, we’re excited to give you a sneak peak of what to expect tomorrow. Join Silicon Labs Senior Vice President and General Manager for IoT, Matt Johnson, as he sits down with Jamie Siminoff, Founder and Chief Inventor of Ring. Jamie will share his story of creating what is now a dominant name in Wi-Fi-enabled video doorbells. His story is one of tenacity and patience, and his vision for Ring’s future after being acquired by Amazon is as ambitious as it is promising. You can catch the Day 2 Keynote on Thursday, September 10, at 9:00 a.m. CDT. Click here to register.

After the keynote, we have a cornucopia of how-to sessions including workshops on LED-bulb , door lock and sensor product development, energy harvesting, home automation, environmental sensing and more. Our From Chip to Cloud: Building the Whole Product session will answer questions about commissioning, security and authentication to front-end and back-end application interfaces. You can also join our sessions on IoT security, covering the need for the development of security requirements tailored to each vertical device type. Build out your Day 2 agenda here. We look forward to seeing you there! If you can’t make the live stream you can watch replays here.

Day 1 of Works With got off to a fast start today with the launch of Z-Wave Long Range (LR), which extends wireless range by 4 times, and brings the Z-Wave technology beyond the home. The new specification not only improves wireless range for products such as door locks, garage door sensors, gate access solutions, security sensors and other applications, but also increases scalability to more than 2,000 nodes on a single wireless network.

Coverage, Scalability, and Battery Life

The Z-Wave Long Range specification is just the first development planned within the new Z-Wave Alliance Standards Development Organization and it brings big improvements to the features IoT developers care about most – more coverage, extended scaleability, and longer battery life. One of the big advantages of subGHz today is that it is already longer range than 2.4GHz due to better peneration; now Z-Wave Long Range further extends this benefit by increasing the range with 4X (using the Silicon Labs Z-Wave 700 platform), removing the need for mesh/repeaters, thus saving on the system cost. Z-Wave Long Range also increases scalability on a single smart home network to over 2000 nodes – a 10x increase – and a big step in supporting the massive growth in adoption. Finally, dynamic power control optimizes operation of devices so Z-Wave Long Range enables sensor lifetimes up to ten years on a coin cell battery.

Security and Compatibility

The Z-Wave Long Range specification will be managed and certified under the Z-Wave Plus V2 certification program, which currently mandates the inclusion of the enhanced S2 security framework as well as SmartStart, a setup feature that enables true plug and play for the consumer smart home. As with all certified Z-Wave devices, Z-Wave Long Range devices can be installed within any Z-Wave network and features interoperability and backwards compatibility with any previously installed Z-Wave device. 

What’s Next for Z-Wave Long Range?

There are currently three alpha customers testing the standard, and we’re looking forward to pushing this specification as far as possible. Want to learn more? Register for Works With to get access to the recording from the Z-Wave Technical Track, including an introduction to the specification and a step-by-step guide to building a Z-Wave product.