Telink collaboration. How big?

I think our piggybacking on to the Telink/GE collaboration could be huge – could be a dominant play in the Smart Home space. My reasoning below:

On March 30 2016, Telink Semiconductor announced that its Bluetooth mesh technology was being used in connected LED light bulbs from GE Lighting, in its C by GE product family. The announcement stated:

“For many, lighting is the gateway to a smart home that connects other devices including smart thermostats, security cameras and smoke alarms. While interoperability is key, in a crowded market with no clear platform winner, we wanted to give consumers the option for a standalone smart lighting solution.” says Tom Stimac, GE Lighting’s chief innovation manager. “That’s why we focus on creating products that solve problems — not tech for the sake of tech — and ensure those products have the best user experience.”

This smart connected lighting product is enabled by Telink’s proprietary BLE mesh technology, which can uniquely update in real-time and reflect multiple nodes’ status automatically using Telink’s patented network traffic control technology. In addition, Telink mesh supports a synchronized control mechanism, which can guarantee a large number of lights to be on/off or controlled at exactly same time. The same hardware can also be used for Apple HomeKit support.

This mesh capability is important as Bluetooth low energy (or smart) sensors proliferate in the home and connected appliances become the norm. Mesh networking will then become an integral component in ensuring consumers’ Bluetooth enabled smart locks, lights, HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) systems, and appliances work together to deliver a seamless smart home experience. Telink’s BLE mesh technology provides the optimum product user experience because of the unique features it is able to support”

Move forward 6 weeks to the National Hardware Show in Las Vegas – and Bluetooth’s Steve Hegenderfer ‘s report on his panel discussion of GE’s smart LED lighting product (yes- the one enabled by Telink’s chip!). It will become apparent why I highlighted certain passages in the above Telink announcement.

National Hardware Show is a New Home for Bluetooth

http://blog.bluetooth.com/bluetooth-home-things-build-home/

I just got back from the National Hardware Show in Las Vegas. It was big…I mean REALLY big. Think of it as the CES of hardware—and when I say hardware, I mean things you use to actually build structures or hammer in a nail. Think of it as the place where Lowes, ACE, Home Depot, and every other do-it-yourself store sends buyers, as well as larger contracting companies who need to procure equipment for their jobs. Everything was at this show, including new buying opportunities, merchandising ideas and solutions, money-saving deals and face-to-face networking opportunities. Like I said, the CES of actual, honest-to goodness hardware.

It was an eye-opening experience to see so many things (outside of my technology space) with built-in Bluetooth technology. Measuring tapes? Check. Drills? Check. Angle finders? Check. Plus, you had all of the things you would normally expect in a smart home (lighting, heating systems, locks, windows sensors, etc.).

I was invited to the show by GE (thank you GE, I had a blast) to talk about the smart home, technologies in the smart home, and how Bluetooth could be used to get your products ready for the growing smart home world. It was a great panel with myself, Tom Stimac (Chief Innovation Manager for GE Lighting), and Jeff Patton (Connected Home & Innovation Product Management Lead for GE Lighting).

The panel discussion centered on technology and how it can be an enabler for manufacturers. Specifically, how GE is using Bluetooth and lighting as the gateway into smart homes. According to Tom, the average home has 42 lights in it…42! If those lights had some intelligence, and could talk to each other, you could create a whole-home network…and that it exactly what they are using Bluetooth for. Add mesh to the mix, and now you have the backbones for a truly smart home that doesn’t need an expensive gateway or any other equipment to get up and running.

It’s Bluetooth, so you can control the entire array via your phone or tablet, and then add pieces to it as you want (no need to buy an entire system or pay monthly fees to have someone ‘maintain’ it). This is what consumers want—no one wants to buy a bunch of stuff they may not use, and no one wants to be locked into one vendor’s system. With Bluetooth (and soon mesh) you have choices, and all the devices will work with each other seamlessly.

These are the reasons GE is betting on Bluetooth for their smart home solutions [i.e. Bluetooth Low Energy as provided via the Telink chip – my addition], and the reason why the smart home industry is so excited about Bluetooth.

Audience questions were fun as well. Here is a quick recap:

What technologies is Bluetooth bringing to the market we should be aware of?

When you look at Bluetooth, there are four technologies that will reach the market very soon that will help the IoT and device ‘connectedness’ in general.

The first was just released, the Transport Discovery Service. As a technology, Bluetooth does an excellent job at device discovery. These mechanisms are being made available to other protocol to help them discover each other and connect.

Next, we have two additions to the core technology specification:

• Longer range—the range of Bluetooth with low energy features is set to increase up to 4x, will transform smart home and infrastructure applications, and will deliver an extended, more powerful connection for full-home or outdoor use cases
• Higher speed—a 100% increase in speed, without increasing energy consumption, will enable faster data transfers in critical applications, such as medical devices, increasing responsiveness and lowering latency

And the final big technology is the addition of mesh networking. Mesh networking will enable Bluetooth devices to connect together in networks that can cover an entire building or home, opening up home and industrial automation applications.

[I believe this ‘mesh networking’ will entail Telink’s proprietary BLE mesh technology – for which it holds patents – as shown below]

Beyond these, there are other technologies, like Bluetooth headless gateways and the ability to add this type of technologies directly to routers, which are opening up the IoT for developers and Bluetooth.

What really makes a smart home smart?

Context and orchestration, let me explain. Most people equate the smart home to being able to just intelligently turn something on or off, but it’s much more than that.

• Context – the smart home knows who I am and where I am
• Orchestration – the smart home allows for several different devices to act together to perform some task or a set of tasks

For example, coming home after work, you unlock your door using your phone. The door then sends a message to the smart home that you are home, and your entry way and hall lights come on. The radio comes on to a station which you listen to in the evening, and the coffee maker starts brewing your favorite cup. Your HVAC system then adjusts the temperature to 70 degrees because it knows you and knows what you like.

The great thing about all of this is that you don’t need to create the entire system. Bluetooth enables you to focus on your core competencies without building the whole thing; you can create your hardware, integrate Bluetooth to add some of this functionality that might pertain to your product, and focus on your piece of the smart home. You don’t need to boil the ocean or be a networking guru to get these things to work. You do what you do well, and add Bluetooth to allow you to take advance of the smart home.

Okay, so what if I don’t want the home to know where I am all the time…that’s freaky…

Yup, it can be freaky. And you can always turn this stuff off. But this is one of those generational things that gets a bit muddled as we talk about smart home users in the future (i.e., they don’t have the same privacy concerns that I might have).

I always enjoy this type of question, because it brings out the futurist in us all.

All in all, I had a blast, and you could see that Bluetooth was starting to integrate itself into this world. When mesh becomes complete, I expect this space to explode. I can’t wait until next year to see all of the new innovation that Bluetooth brings…and I can’t wait to start outfitting my home with these Bluetooth devices to make it truly smart"

THEN – move forward 4 more weeks and we have the Telink/Xped agreement to integrate ADRC into Telink’s chips.

As stated in the announcement, “Telink has the vision to become the world's leading IOT connectivity chip supplier and has been recognised as having the world's first all in one IoT Chip in 2015. Telink founded in 2010, now has over 10 chips in mass production, with offices in USA, Taiwan and China.

“Telink are one of the lowest cost producers of IoT chips in the world, which makes it more affordable for companies to adopt this technology and has the capability to scale its mass chip production from the ongoing demand as more IOT devices come to market”

Telink is one of the only companies with true mature Bluetooth Low Energy ("BLE") mesh technology and has a number of key patents that cover the BLE field. Telink currently supplies its chips to leading customers, including GE, who have adopted Telink's BLE mesh and produces in excess of 5m chips a month”.

Dr Sheng stated that "The opportunity at hand is significant; IoT is the future and the joint collaboration and porting of Xped's software onto our Telink Chips will add significant value. The combination of both Telink and Xped's technology will provide access to new channels and revenue opportunities for both companies, as well as giving prospective and existing customers of both Telink and Xped fresh and innovative optionality that until now has never been available."

The takeaway message fom this post is that GE and Bluetooth are just as excited about the prospects for Telink (and soon to be ADRC) enabled LED lighting as the driving element of the Smart Home. That’s if the National Hardware Show discussion is any indication.

I believe we are on a company maker with Telink and Telink/GE and perhaps now Telink/IXYS – irrespective of what happens with Intel, JCT and all the other business prospects!

But the Intel collaboration will be potentially huge as well.

And then there is the Nasdaq-listed chippie…..