Smart Home (connected home, home networking) News

KONKA enters North American smart home market
Dec 21, 2020 – KONKA has announced that it will enter the smart home market with the debut of its KONKASmart line-up at Digital CES. The KONKASmart product lineup will be available in North America beginning in Spring 2021.
News categories: KONKA, CES2021, North America, Smart Home

Movistar+ presents app platform for making purchases via the TV
Dec 18, 2020 – Movistar+ has launched a TV-commerce application platform to enable its users to make purchases via their TVs in the comfort of their homes. 'Living Apps' enable purchases to be made using the remote control or by voice.
News categories: Movistar, Óscar Solá, Apps, Digital TV, IPTV, Satellite, Set Top Box, Smart Home, Spain

Growing demand for smart displays driving smart speaker sales
Nov 24, 2020 – Smart speaker users are switching increasingly to display-based devices, or Smart Displays, according to Strategy Analytics. The share of all smart speaker sales incorporating a display was 26% in Q3 2020, compared to 22% a year earlier.
News categories: Strategy Analytics, David Watkins, Market Research, Smart Home, Worldwide

Over 13 billion Smart Home devices in use by 2025
Nov 24, 2020 – Juniper Research expects there to be almost 13.5 billion smart home devices in use by 2025, compared to 7.4 billion this year. Smart entertainment devices will take the bulk of device revenue, at over $230 billion in 2025.
News categories: Juniper Research, James Moar, Market Research, Smart Home, Worldwide

CommScope contributes to USP Agent for RDK
Nov 17, 2020 – CommScope has collaborated with RDK Management on the User Services Platform (USP) Agent implementation for RDK. USP is the latest Broadband Forum remote management and control protocol for the connected home.
News categories: CommScope, RDK Management, John Blackford, Steve Heeb, CPE, RDK, Smart Home, Worldwide

Roku OS 9.4 brings support for Apple AirPlay 2 and HomeKit
Nov 11, 2020 – Roku (NASDAQ: ROKU) has announced that, with the release of Roku OS 9.4, Apple AirPlay 2 and HomeKit support is now available on select 4K Roku devices, including the Roku Ultra, Roku Streambar, Roku Smart Soundbar, Roku Streaming Stick+, and Roku Premiere.
News categories: Roku, Ilya Asnis, Canada, Digital TV, Mexico, Middleware, OTT, Set Top Box, Smart Home, UK, USA

Foxtel selects TiVo to power voice search
Oct 22, 2020 – TiVo (Nasdaq: XPER) has announced that Foxtel has chosen TiVo to provide natural language, voice-based search for its subscribers in Australia. The solution usess machine-learning to refine the experience.
News categories: TiVo, Foxtel, Michael Hawkey, Nick Dandy, Australia, Cable TV, Digital TV, Satellite, Set Top Box, Smart Home, UX

EMEA Smart Home market expected to rebound in 2H 2020
Oct 12, 2020 – The smart home market in EMEA declined 7.2% in the second quarter of 2020, compared to the same period of the previous year, according to IDC. The market accounted for 20.287 million units between April and June.
News categories: IDC, Antonio Arantes, Jan Prenosil, Digital TV, Europe, Market Research, Smart Home

Universal Electronics voice-enabled remotes for Liberty Global
Oct 7, 2020 – Universal Electronics (UEI) is to provide voice-enabled remote controls to Liberty Global for its RDK-based Horizon 4 set-top boxes. Voice recognition technology is used to search for content on the platform.
News categories: Universal Electronics, Liberty Global, Menno Koopmans, Pieter Vervoort, Cable TV, Digital TV, Europe, Set Top Box, Smart Home