The Thread Group has certified an IoT hub for smart commercial buildings along with more components. It has also added partnerships, resources and board appointments.
 
Formed in 2013, the non-profit Thread Group is focused on making Thread the foundation for the IoT in homes and commercial buildings. Built on open standards, Thread is a low power wireless networking protocol that enables direct, end-to-end, secure and scalable connectivity between IoT devices, mobile devices and the internet.
 
The alliance addresses IoT convergence, security, power and architecture at the network layer. Components from Silicon Labs, NXP Semiconductors and Nordic Semiconductor, along with a product from Australian company WideSky, have passed its specification compliance and interoperability testing.
 
The WideSky hub is the first certified and widely available Built on Thread product for commercial buildings, energy and industry applications. WideSky’s wireless hub uses Thread to access data across subsystems, devices and sensors without cables. Thread also ensures scalability and compatibility for data infrastructure monitoring and controlling.
 
“Thread’s self-healing mesh network gives the WideSky hub the ability to enable both device-to-device and device-to-cloud communication securely,” said John Meehan, CEO of WideSky. “Leveraging an IP-based wireless standard was necessary because our commercial applications demand reliable, secure and cost-effective connectivity.”
 
To ensure that technology from different manufacturers can ultimately communicate, reliably and securely, the WideSky hub passed Thread’s tests against multiple vendor configurations, and joins a growing list of 33 other Thread-certified products.
 
In addition to these certifications, the Thread Group confirmed a majority of its board members for their next term. Relatively new to the ranks are Stuart Cheshire, engineer from Apple, and Brent Protzman, director of standards and building science at Lutron. They have joined Thread Group’s executive board, which includes executives from Apple, Arm, Google, Lutron, Nordic Semiconductors, NXP Semiconductors, Osram, Qualcomm, Siemens, Silicon Labs, Somfy and Yale Security.
 
In April, Thread selected Envio Systems as the latest winner of its innovation enabler programme. The board granted the award to support the promise and potential impact of Envio’s smart building automation. The programme helps smaller companies launch Thread-enabled products.
 
In addition, the group announced a liaison agreement with DiiA, the global Dali alliance of companies from the lighting and building automation industry, hoping to deepen the integration of IoT lighting for the commercial industry.
 
Because Thread is IP-based, it seamlessly integrates with many environments, apps, devices and clouds. The Thread Group provides a certification programme to ensure device interoperability and a positive user experience.