On September 4th ABB Smart Buildings business line hosted 100 journalists from 20 countries at the ABB Smarter Home media event, just a few days before the official start of the IFA fair.
With a virtual walk through to show how a smart home might look in 2024, Oliver Iltisberger, Managing Director Smart Buildings business line, introduced the audience to the future of comfort, safety, security and sustainability in the home. With the help of Abby, the intelligent smart home assistant, Oliver showed how smart technology will enhance people’s quality of life.
In the future, voice control will enable settings to be changed by users directly, instead of installers. Meanwhile, sensors installed in the ceiling, the walls and in the floor will register when someone falls, helping them to automatically receive the help they need. Energy management solutions will optimize the use of energy, for example harnessing energy from solar installations and consuming it efficiently around the home, perhaps to charge an electric vehicle.
Paving the way to this future, ABB presented the next level of smart home solutions. Global Head of Sales and Marketing, Adalbert Neumann and Global Head of Marketing Communications and Design, Alexander Grams, showcased the latest product developments, which were officially presented to the public at the IFA fair in Berlin, Germany. Among the highlights was the new Alarm-Stick, which enables integration of smoke and carbon monoxide detectors into ABB-free@home®. In a market first, ABB also announced the introduction of its open API platform, opening up its home and building automation systems to customization with third party applications. Based on the positive experience with the Smarter Home Developer Program, ABB has responded to the needs of the market by extending the home automation system with additional applications. Having already integrated into the APIs of Amazon Alexa, Philips Hue and Sonos, ABB-free@home® is now ready to be customized with innovative and unique solutions for added customer value. Furthermore, ABB’s Busch-ControlTouch® has now been certified by Sonos for KNX integration – considering the comprehensive range of functionalities, incl. text to speech and voice over function, this is a world first.
In addition to novelties from ABB, Signify’s Global Head of Sales, Gerwin van der Horst presented on stage the Philips Hue lights to be shown to the public at the IFA fair. Furthermore, the event included examples from real-life applications. Presenting the smart home solution for the elderly Ivo Bracher, CEO of Bonainvest, let the audience in on the smart living spaces already available today, and what he expects as the next step in ambient assisted living. Afterwards, Edith Birrer from the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts explained how the integration of a virtual assistant into the ABB-free@home® system improved the adoption of smart technology among elderly people. After the pilot, two third of participants wanted to keep the virtual assistant to improve their quality of life.
ABB also welcomed to the stage Susanne Bathon, Assistant Global Head of Product Management at Betterspace. She presented the customized solutions that enable hotels to improve their efficiency, safety and comfort. At the Boutique Hotel K7 in Bad Nauheim, Germany, the API of the ABB-free@home® system enables a comprehensive solution for guests to not only control lights and blinds, but also use the room service and further services using a tablet.
The event concluded with a round table discussion involving spokespeople from ABB, Sonos, Signify, Betterspace and Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts. The discussion focused on how the solutions presented will shape the future of smart homes, and what can be expected next in this rapidly evolving and exciting market.
