New smart home features for drivers and hobby gardeners. Telekom app provides new ways to keep an eye on the home. Energy suppliers in Germany and abroad are building on QIVICON.
The possibilities for networking smart homes are expanding continually. When this year’s IFA consumer electronics show opens its doors in Berlin, partners of the QIVICON smart home platform will present new and enhanced products and services.
Deutsche Telekom is presenting an enhanced version of its SMART HOME app. With the new version, users can now directly integrate Lightify lighting systems from Osram and all Miele@home-enabled appliances from Miele. Finally, users can get a remote answer to the question “Did I leave the stove on?”.
The Deutsche Telekom SMART HOME app also supports smartwatches from Apple and Samsung. The watches notify their wearers if smoke or water discharges are detected. They also forward all alerts from the alarm system, such as in the event of unauthorized opening of windows and doors. Users can activate and deactivate predefined situations directly on the smartwatch.
In addition, the SMART HOME app can now also be used together with BMW ConnectedDrive, enabling the use of selected app functions directly in the car. With these enhancements, users can keep an eye on their homes on their way back from vacation, and can preheat their house or apartment, for example.
Smart home in the garden
Kärcher will show how connected devices can be used in the garden in the future. The new SensoTimer ST 6 Smart Home automatic watering system lets users water their gardens intelligently. Sensors measure the moisture level of the soil and transmit the values to the SensoTimer wirelessly. If moisture falls below a defined level, watering starts automatically at the next configured time. As a result, the garden is only watered when necessary.
ENTEGA Smart Home
Kärcher is not the only company joining the smart home platform: ENTEGA, one of the leading green electricity suppliers in Germany, also has a new smart home offering for its customers. Starting this fall, the company will offer the QIVICON Home Base, including a monthly usage license for the ENTEGA Smart Home app. Customers can also expand their smart homes incrementally with QIVICON-compatible components to meet their individual needs.
Smart security system
The Swedish company ASSA ABLOY is a new QIVICON partner. It plans to launch a QIVICON-compatible security solution in 2016. The solution will let users lock and unlock their front doors directly with their smartphones, keeping them in control of who can enter their homes completely keylessly. Users can also link door opening and closing with specific events. When they come home, for example, their favorite music can be played, and the alarm system can be activated automatically when they leave. “We are convinced that QIVICON is an optimal cooperation partner in the smart home area,” says Andreas Wagener, Managing Director for Sales and Marketing, Germany at ASSA ABLOY Sicherheitstechnik GmbH.
The perfect home environment
Logitech teams up with QIVICON. The manufacturer of Harmony remotes aims to bring the company’s expertise and leadership in entertainment control to the smart home. Using a hub-based Harmony remote or the Harmony mobile app, users will not only be able to control their TV, but also control QIVICON compatible devices: with just one click they can for example tune the light and adjust the temperature.
First international offering
The QIVICON smart home platform has found its first international partner in the Austrian eww Group, a provider of innovative energy and technology services, which has launched an international QIVICON-based offering. In addition to its own app, the company began offering its customers individually extensible starter packs for security and energy in June. “We are happy to be able to offer our customers the best smart home solution available on the market, based on the QIVICON platform,” says Florian Niedersüß, CEO of the eww Group.
