Do you dream of a smart home, which saves energy by saving you unnecessary effort? Home automation finally has its universal standard. It’s called “matter” and it was launched globally on Thursday in Amsterdam, a month after the publication of its first specifications.
“matter“, with a lowercase “m“ would have deserved its spelling to start with a capital letter, because it is the standard that the whole industry and consumers have been dreaming of for 20 years, with a single watchword: l interoperability. “matter“ is the new unique language, understood by all brands and soon all connected devices.
Until now, home automation was a jungle, a headache not to say a nightmare. Each manufacturer had developed its own ecosystem, incompatible with that of competitors. And the arrival of Google, Amazon and Apple did not help, on the contrary since Google Home, Alexa (Amazon) and HomeKit (Apple) added a layer of complexity by not understanding each other.
Choosing one of these eco-systems required discarding products and devices compatible only with the others. And for the manufacturers, this meant multiplying the developments specific to each one, hence higher costs and longer lead times, not to mention the accumulation of logos on product boxes.
“matter is an unprecedented event for the connected home.”
Bruno Vulcano, President of the CSA Allianceat france info
At the start – 20 years ago – there was the Zigbee Alliance, named after this home automation protocol, the first specifications of which were ratified in 2004. Zigbee served as the basis for the development of matter. And then, comes December 18, 2019. A week before Christmas, Apple and Google announce that they will in turn join – just like Amazon – the working group on the definition of this standard, which was first called CHIP (Connected Home over IP) before becoming “matter“. On May 11, 2021, the CSA alliance succeeds the Zigbee Alliance.
Imagine the feat of bringing together these three giants, and several hundred companies with radically opposed cultures: from GAFA (without Facebook) to electricians (Legrand, Schneider Electric and even EDF), from construction installers to component manufacturers (STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments, Silicon Labs, Nordic Semiconductor, etc.), from telecom operators (including Orange) to… IKEA .
This common standard, the president of the CSA alliance (Connectivity Standards Alliance), Bruno Vulcano, dreamed of it. And he recognizes that it was time: “Honestly, for the general public, it was not easy. We got together around a table, put in engineers, for 3 years, to work, write the specs, and make this a reality. And that’s unprecedented in the industry, in fact. This is the first time that we have succeeded in bringing together the GAFAs – already the GAFAs among themselves – and object manufacturers like us (Editor’s note: Bruno Vulcano is, moreover, head of Research & Development at Legrand on the infrastructure digital building). And so, it’s unprecedented and it’s for the benefit of the community.“
Bruno Vulcano insisted that this global launch of “matter” take place in Europe, and in Amsterdam in particular: “It was important to say that this is not American technology, even though the alliance is under American law. Our members are evenly split between Europe, the United States and Asia-Pacific. And then, ZigBee was also created in Europe, and more particularly in the Netherlands. And so, symbolically, it was important to be here, in Amsterdam“. However, the issue being global, a regional launch was to take place the next day in China.
“matter” meets two objectives: On the industrial side, the goal is to make the cake bigger. For them all to agree to share, that was the condition. For the consumer, the advantage is that he will finally be able to invent his connected home without asking himself 50 questions in terms of compatibility, and without tearing his hair out, a bit like when buying headphones or headphones. wireless.
This is the analogy used by Florian Deleuil, marketing director of the connected home at Legrand-Netatmo: “When he wants to buy headphones, the general public, the consumer will look for the Bluetooth symbol. Tomorrow, for its connected home, matter, it will be the same. If you are looking for an object for your home, you will want the matter logo.”
Once the purchase has been made, Bruno Vulcano, the president of the CSA alliance, insists on the simplicity of installation and start-up: “In our jargon, we often use this expression taken from English: ‘my mom can do it’, in other words ‘even my mother can do it!’ He promises that “matter” will bring the connected home within the reach of the very general public.
“matter will change everything. Home automation will finally become a mass industry.”
Jerome Gackel, CEO of Eve Systemsat france info
The very first products stamped “matter“ are announced for Christmas: connected light bulbs, smart sockets before electric blinds, for example. In Europe, more than one in three households already plan to equip themselves within the year and this is only the beginning: “matter” is an evolving standard which will add new product categories every six months.
Next on the list: robot vacuums and personal CCTV cameras. According to the CSA alliance, the transition to all of the product categories we know today, down to medical devices, should take five to six years, knowing that new categories will appear by then, d ‘where this need for regular updates, with versions 2, 3, 4, 5, etc… of “matter“.
As for connected objects and existing installations: don’t worry. Software updates will allow them, in the coming months, to become compatible with “matter”, which will in turn make them compatible with all existing ecosystems.
Thus, Eve Systems, the German brand of connected objects which had relied solely on Apple HomeKit by choice, for security reasons, announces the availability of its “matter” updates for December 12. They will concern three first Eve products: its connected plug, its door opening detector and its motion detector. A very good deal for the company since, limited to a single ecosystem, the brand will now also work with all of Apple’s competitors, including Amazon and Google.
Jérôme Gackel, the boss of Eve Systems, has eyes that shine when he talks about it: “matter will change everything. Home automation will finally become a mass industry. Everyone is going to want it for their house. We expect very strong growth from 2023.”
Finally, it should be noted that “matter” can be based on three types of network: the wired Ethernet network, the WiFi network that we all know but which is not ideal for communication between connected objects, and a new type of network called ” Thread”, designed ad hoc, and which the Box operators could soon integrate.
“Thread” is also incubated by the CSA alliance insofar as it represents the best future of “matter”. Some devices already make it possible to deploy a “Thread” network at home, in addition to their primary use: two Google Nest devices , several Eve products but also Apple’s Homepod mini speaker and some recent models of Apple TV, the Apple brand’s multimedia box.