News and Reviews....

ZIGBEE .... The New Home Control ? .......    March 2005

Robert Lieto

    Very shortly you will be hearing and seeing products in the marketplace displaying the ZigBee name. The ZigBee Alliance ratified the first ZigBee specification in December of 2004, paving the way for a slew of ZigBee-ready devices.

ZigBee takes its place with the likes of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth but isn't designed to transmit a large amount of data, or over long distances as a Wi-Fi or Bluetooth product. It is intended for use with home automation and monitoring, where it provides a wireless alternative. Areas of use are lighting, security, audio, video and the like, all installed without adding hardwire.

The technology allows you to monitor data as well, so that it can be used to track water or gas use. Its low power requirements let it operate wireless devices for several months to several years on a set of batteries.

Airbee Wireless (www.airbeewireless.com) already has demonstrated a thermostat using the technology and many more ZigBee-ready products should roll out this year.

UPDATE: April 14, 2005

ZIGBEE seems to have a compeditor called Zensys AS. Its system called Z-Wave controlled by a Z-Wave Alliance is centered around a 900 MHz wireless technology while ZigBee operates in sub-1 Ghz and 2.45-GHz bands. Z-Wave claims to have already cornered the lighting and home automation markets because of its lower cost, lower complexity and better range than ZigBee. This is debateable because the early market for home automation is a cottage industry. No one company has pulled all the pieces together, including Zensys. This should prove to be a very interesting race between the two formats. They are very competitive in price with only a few dollars seperating their module costs. More to come I'm sure.