Verizon is moving forward with their connected home initiatives, which we first discussed in September 2010. They plan to showcase their ‘Connected Home’ concept at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show, taking place in Las Vegas this week.
The new service provides a variety of connected home services including remote home monitoring and remote control of lighting, HVAC, and video/entertainment, and home security systems. Verizon will launch a pilot program of these services to select homes in New Jersey. Customers will be able to remotely access these services from any broadband enabled device, mobile or fixed.
“The homes selected for the program will be outfitted with an energy reader, smart appliance switches and thermostats, a smart power strip, a smart door and window locks, motion sensors, an advanced pan-and-tilt camera, and a fixed indoor and outdoor camera,” says Verizon in a press release.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UbTbJdXNDA[/youtube]
Verizon is using technology developed by 4Home, a company which was recently acquired by Motorola. 4Home’s technology is based on Z-Wave and other protocols, which allow the remote monitoring and control of devices throughout the home.
Verizon’s Connected Home concept was introduced at our Digital Home Summit last year in September 2010. Verizon initially plans to offer these services to their own broadband customers, but eventually may offer it to any broadband enabled home, in a bring-your-own-broadband type of service.
