Connectivity Q&A: Examining the Massive Growth in Home Automation

Explosive growth is expected in the home automation market as more individuals adopt smart home technology. Statista is predicting the market to be worth upward of$53.5 billion by 2022. This is an astronomical number for a largely consumer-driven market. These numbers are mostly influenced by video entertainment, followed by home security and monitoring services. Tony Testa, our wireless connectivity expert, provides some insight into this high-growth market, giving some details about what Qorvo is seeing in home automation.

Tony, what is home automation?

家庭自动化,有时被称为一个“聪明home,” is the use of technology to automate your home. This technology allows you to control many electronic devices inside the home that are tied to the network or Internet of Things (IoT). The IoT network is a compilation of physical objects that can gather and share electronic information. This home automation/IoT network provides users the ability to control functions such as security, thermostats, lighting and appliances, including physical and non-physical (i.e., voice) engagement.

What is attributing to the rapid growth of the smart home automation market?

Smart home automation market growth can be accredited to consumers’ desire and need for convenience, connectivity, security and safety. The rapid growth of the IoT and machine-to-machine (M2M) communications has also accelerated smart home automation adoption.

The home IoT system connects products, services and end users to enable a smooth flow of data and the ability to make real-time decisions. Over the past several years, the IoT has proved its efficiency and ability to enhance automation systems' quality and consistency. Many consumers adapt their focus toward the convenience of remotely controlling their home lighting, HVAC, security, healthcare and entertainment. These use cases, combined with the ever-increasing number of internet users worldwide, are expected to further boost the growth of the overall IoT smart home automation market.

We often hear of the home automation market as being fragmented, can you explain?

There are challenges with interoperability due to market fragmentation, as many of these IoT home automation devices communicate using different standards and apps.

The smart home automation ecosystem includes hardware, software and service segments. To ensure efficient and reliable functioning of all home automation products, the smooth and collective operation of all three segments is essential. Smart home automation manufacturers work diligently to eliminate the risk of malfunction by increasing interoperability. They do so by collaborating and partnering on agreements with software and connectivity to help overcome this challenge.

A headache each manufacturer is trying to eliminate is the fear consumers have of being tied into one product brand or network provider as this limits overall consumer ease of use and flexibility. During network device purchases, we all fear the new product will require yet another different app download or hardware device to set up and control – adding potentially more complexity to our existing network automation control. This reliance on many differing solutions can also cause security issues.

Manufacturers and standards bodies realize this challenge and are working to address the issue to make our lives easier and simpler.

Apple, Google and Amazon see this as a critical hurdle as well. To increase ease and adoption rate, they are teaming up to create a standard calledCHIP. CHIP stands for Connected Home over IP. The goal of CHIP is to create a radio-neutral protocol that will include a set of pre-defined schemes for connected devices. This will allow devices to understand what types of objects they are communicating with and what those objects can do. CHIP is early in its maturity, but there is a need for standardization in the IoT and smart home automation industries. These organizations are making a real effort to make things easier for consumer adoption and use.

What are some recent technological advancements in home automation?

In the past few years, advancements in technologies and software have improved connectivity solutions and the adoption of home automation controls. With the advent of Wi-Fi 6/6E, Zigbee, Thread, and Bluetooth^®Low Energy (BLE), the installation of automated control systems has become easier. With smaller and more efficient integrated circuitry, device manufacturers can create sleeker smart home automation products that include several protocols inside. For example, an Amazon Echo can include Wi-Fi, Zigbee, Thread and Bluetooth, providing the ability to communicate with each protocol-enabled device throughout the home ecosystem. This is done using elements that are more pleasing to the eye and blend into our home environment. No longer are network devices being created with large protruding antennas, but instead, these antennas have integrated into smaller units, some with sizes only slightly larger than our smartphones.

How do you see healthcare in the smart home automation ecosystem?

The healthcare IoT market has grown exponentially over the last few years. Driven mostly by the smart watch or other consumer health wearables.Apple even has the electrocardiogram (ECG) in its watchto monitor heart patterns for any irregularities. This type of technology will become increasingly common over the coming years and will slowly migrate into smart home devices. It will also increasingly be used by healthcare providers, as the data from these devices becomes more prevalent and more accurate.

家庭医疗提供了增加这些可穿戴设备数据的潜力，同时减少了医生和医院等传统医疗渠道的压力。最终，这将有助于我们不断增长的老年人口的预期寿命。智能家庭设备收集的数据将越来越多地被医生使用，这主要是因为它能够在患者的环境中24小时收集数据。最近爆发的COVID-19大流行也促成了这种需要，因为个人被限制在家里，有时去看医生很困难。视频会议和数据监控将继续增加对健康和医疗的需求，因为它更加方便，能够实时满足许多医疗需求。

You mentioned COVID-19, what if any effect has COVID-19 played in the home automation market?

全球各国政府因COVID-19流感大流行而发布的“居家指南”刺激了以家庭为中心的支出的增加，从装修和维修到数字自动化。显而易见的是，视频、游戏和移动应用都有所增加，因为消费者被迫将其行为从离线活动转向在线活动。现在，大多数员工都从工作办公室搬到了家庭办公室，学生也搬到了远程教育，对家庭安全、便利、健康服务、家庭服务和娱乐的需求都提高了。分析师们也有证据表明，消费者收入逐年上升，转向数字服务支出。

While research data will ultimately validate an uptick in the home automation market, it appears that COVID-19 has had an increased effect. In parallel, the advancements in Wi-Fi 6/6E deployments and 5G have helped the market flourish. The demand for greater bandwidth and capacity within homes, coupled with the broad need for the world’s population to have access and connectivity during this pandemic, have catapulted the use of the internet and connected services.

With smart home automation taking off, how will network devices change to meet the capacity need?

A faster home network means a smarter home. All this automation requires a robust network to ensure connectivity and reliability. With deployment of advanced Wi-Fi 6/6E systems and 5G, smart home devices will be connected faster and stream more data effectively. This will make the home network more powerful and provide better access to data and the cloud.

Tony’s Final Thoughts

Home automation is taking off as consumers are looking for ways to add convenience and security in their everyday life. The need for broader access and connected devices was compounded with the current COVID-19 pandemic. With more focus on the home and the connectivity of more devices, along with trying to make our stay-at-home lives easier, we are all focusing on smart devices to help. Convenience, safety, health and connectivity are key drivers of smart home automation. Qorvo is working diligently to support the growing smart home automation market demand to ensure these needs are met.

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