Smart Home (connected home, home networking) News

Dominant share for MediaTek in smart speaker market
May 4, 2021 – Apps processors from MediaTek were used in nearly 50% of the 151 million smart speakers and smart displays sold in 2020 according to Strategy Analytics. MediaTek increased its share by six percentage points in 2020.
News categories: Strategy Analytics, Chirag Upadhyay, David Watkins, Market Research, Semiconductor, Smart Home, Worldwide

UEI and Instreamatic collaborate on voice-interactive TV advertising
Mar 25, 2021 – Universal Electronics Inc. (UEI) (NASDAQ: UEIC) is working with Instreamatic to bring Instreamatic’s interactive voice-enabled advertising to home entertainment devices such as STBs and smart TVs.
News categories: UEI, Instreamatic, Arsham Hatambeiki, Stas Tushinskiy, Digital TV, Set Top Box, Smart Home, Smart TV, UX, Worldwide

More than 150 million smart speakers sold in 2020
Mar 3, 2021 – Global smart speaker sales reached a record level in 2020, according to Strategy Analytics. New model introductions that hit the market in time for the holiday shopping season, contributed to a positive end to a difficult year.
News categories: Strategy Analytics, David Watkins, Market Research, Smart Home, Worldwide

LG webOS TV platform includes QuickSet from UEI
Mar 1, 2021 – QuickSet, a technology offered by Universal Electronics Inc. (UEI) (NASDAQ: UEIC) will be available for TV brands adopting LG's webOS TV platform. LG is including UEI’s QuickSet as the standard for device discovery and control.
News categories: Universal Electronics, LG Electronics, Paul Arling, Lee Sang-woo, Digital TV, Smart Home, Smart TV, UX, Worldwide

DVB approves DVB-TA watermarking and DVB Home Broadcast specs
Feb 19, 2021 – The DVB Steering Board has updated its DVB Targeted Advertising specification and published a new DVB Home Broadcast specification for in-home redistribution of broadcast TV services to IP devices.
News categories: DVB Project, Advertising, Digital TV, Europe, Smart Home, Worldwide

Online video integration interests 60% of U.S. pay TV subscribers
Feb 3, 2021 – Research from Parks Associates shows that 60% of U.S. pay-TV subscribers are interested in streaming movies and TV shows from an online video service as part of their pay-TV subscription.
News categories: Parks Associates, Kristen Hanich, Digital TV, Gaming, Market Research, OTT, Set Top Box, Smart Home, USA, UX

Connected device installed base to grow another 70% by 2025
Feb 1, 2021 – Increasing demands for faster, more efficient and more reliable ways to manage connected devices will make 2021 the year of service and device lifecycle management, according to the Broadband Forum.
News categories: Broadband Forum, John Blackford, Jason Walls, Kurt Peterhans, Market Research, Smart Home, Worldwide

Wiztivi makes voice control accessible for operators
Jan 28, 2021 – Wiztivi has announced a solution allowing operators, media and OTT players to integrate voice control into their UI. With Sagemcom, Wiztivi has enabled Vodafone and SFR to create a TV experience using smart speakers.
News categories: Wiztivi, Digital TV, Europe, France, IPTV, Set Top Box, Smart Home, UX

TiVo selects Pindrop voice authentication
Jan 26, 2021 – TiVo and Pindrop have partnered to enable content discovery for consumers, unlocked through voice AI. The companies will collaborate to bring voice authentication to TiVo's Conversation Services product.
News categories: Pindrop, TiVo, Vijay Balasubramaniyan, Jon Heim, Digital TV, Set Top Box, Smart Home, USA, UX, Worldwide