Leading companies in the Zigbee Member Group China have been making waves in interoperability and education this summer. Member firms have been working at a break-neck speed, leading several developer forums, industry tradeshows and a national undergraduate IoT design contest, capped by the grand opening of a new Zigbee Alliance interoperability demonstration center in Shanghai.
The ZMGC continues to set the standard in IoT in China, lighting the path forward for use cases, education and market adoption.
Interoperability Showroom Opens
The ZMGC held a grand opening for the Alliance’s Interoperability Showroom and headquarters on September 5 in Shanghai, China. This interactive space showcases interoperability amongst Zigbee Certified Products from multiple manufacturers. The space is furnished with many members’ products that use Zigbee and features a new Interoperability Demo Wall. Many Zigbee Alliance members contributed to the space and the interoperability wall including LEEDARSON, Honyar, Feibit, Heiman, Signify, Sunricher, Somfy, Tuya, Lumi, iHorn, Ledvance, Vensi, Yunding, and Shuncom. Shuncom also assisted in the setup of the demo wall and the scenes in the main showroom. The ZMGC held its quarterly meeting for the first time in the space following the grand opening. The office is open to visitors during standard working hours upon reservation; please contact Laura Shang for a visit.
Address: 692 Hua Xu Gong Lu, Qingpu District, Shanghai, China
Back row from left to right: Yong Diao of Texas Instruments, Jianjiang Chen of Shuncom, Sharee Golly of Zigbee Alliance, Sky Liu of Silicon Labs, Laura Shang of Zigbee Alliance, Frank Zhang of Signify, David Han of NXP, Jiawei Zhao of ZTE, Hao Tang of Yunding
Developer Forum: Building Zigbee Devices
The ZMGC hosted a developer forum at the Shanghai Intelligent Building Technology Fair on September 3, featuring guest speakers covering a variety of current topics within Zigbee ecosystems, such as device security (smart lock security), platform (access to AIoT clouds), and new applications (smart classroom solution), as well as hot topics like Zigbee/Wi-Fi coexistence. Developers learned important lessons on what to consider in building simple products, to aligning to cloud platforms to the latest product manufacturers and their go-to-market lessons. Looking for the next developer forum near you? Contact Laura Shang in Asia, Chris LaPré in the US, and Jon Harros in Europe.
GEBT 2019
In June, the ZMGC hosted a booth at the Guangzhou Electrical Building Technology (GEBT) Show. This was the fourth time the ZMGC attended the exhibition with eight participating member pods showcasing innovative Zigbee technology in an important show with more than 165,000+ attendees (including attendees at the concurrent event: Guangzhou International Lighting Exhibition). Members demonstrated several Zigbee 3.0 products in their pods and the on the Interoperability Wall, with contributions from LEEDARSON, Philips Hue, IKEA, Shuncom, Feibit, Heiman, Sunricher, Hongyan, Midea, Jiuzhou Greeble, and newly added products including Somfy, Aqara (by Lumi) and Tuya. The product categories featured on the wall were also further expanded to introduce growing categories of products including on/off lights, dimmable lights, color temperature lights, color lights, contact sensors, smoke/gas/water detectors, motion sensors, switches, scene panels, remote controls, and sockets, all of which showcase scenarios for smart home and buildings.
On the second day of the tradeshow, the ZMGC also hosted a forum guiding developers, titled “Zigbee—A Mature and Advanced Standard Connecting Today with the Future.” During the forum, Wilma Su, Chairman of ZMGC, introduced the latest developments of Zigbee Alliance and the standards, including the uptake of Zigbee 3.0 products, expanded products and ecosystems and new members. Su’s remarks highlighted the Alliance’s industry-leading All Hubs Initiative which aims to make smart home and IoT products easier to develop, deploy, and sell across ecosystems. Su’s focus on new product development was bolstered by member company representatives’ their newest products and latest Zigbee implementations.
ZMGC debut at ISHE 2019
Following a successful show at the Guangzhou Building Electrical Technology, the Zigbee Alliance hosted a booth at the 6th Shenzhen International Smart Home Expo (2019 ISHE) from July 30 to August 1. The booth showcased many members including Shuncom, Feibit, Qorvo, Wulian, Telink, Heiman, Legrand, Yunding and NXP.
The Interoperability Wall was a major draw for visitors as it highlights 15 brand manufacturers and includes more than 10 types of equipment and products, demonstrating the power of proven interoperability built on hundreds of millions of deployed devices in the IoT. The ZMGC hosted a dedicated Alliance forum which focused on Zigbee technology and product development, expanding the reach in to the expansive building market segment.
Zigbee Alliance Innovation Award given at 2019 National Undergraduate IoT Design Contest
This year also marks the fifth year that the ZMGC has sponsored the National Undergraduate IoT Design Contest. This contest drew a record high of 2,000 participating teams from 560 colleges bringing innovative and impactful projects, laying the groundwork for a bright IoT development future. David Han from board member company NXP represented the ZMGC, serving as a panel judge to evaluate the exciting lineup of projects.
The final round was held in Chengdu on August 21-23 with 120 teams. Each team presented their project to the judge’s panel, answered questions from the judges about the makeup and usefulness of their projects. After careful review, the Zigbee Innovation Award was given to the Sea Traveler Team from Shanghai Maritime University for their Unmanned Hazardous Chemical Warehouse project. The project features a new use case and takes advantage of the low power, robust network features of Zigbee to establish a sensor/alarm/control system for hazardous warehouses. This project was among the top 12 projects presented to the whole audience to compete for the grand prize.
To learn more about how your company can get involved with the active Zigbee Alliance community in China, please contact Laura Shang.