ABB Takes Smart Home Experience to New Heights with Amazon and Sonos Solutions

ABB, the leader in the German home automation market, has today announced collaborations with Amazon and Sonos, at Europe's leading consumer electronics show, IFA, in Berlin. Consumers can simply control up to 65 functions including lighting, blinds, security and heating with the ABB-free@home on a control panel, via tablet or smart phone, even remotely, and now Amazon Alexa and Sonos solutions are integrated within the same open home automation platform.

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ABB is at the forefront of driving the market with its ABB Ability™ portfolio of connected and software-enabled solutions developed for home and building automation in a wide range of applications.  Now, ABB is partnering with other market leaders to deliver an integrated experience for consumers to be able to control all the latest technology for convenience - voice command via Alexa to switch on the lights; atmosphere - controlling the sound system in multiple rooms; and energy efficiency with lighting, heating, blind control settings.  

The integration with Alexa from Amazon enables voice control of up to 65 functions within ABB-free@home, as well as through myABB Living Space online platform or app. ABB offers its own voice activation feature for consumers who do not choose to invest in Alexa.

Sonos speakers can be controlled from the ABB-free@home app, ABB-free@home sensors and ABB-free@home Touch Panels. Users will be able to see and create speaker groups, start, stop, mute and skip songs and adjust the volume, enabling them to integrate their favorite music into pre-selected scenes.

Tarak Mehta, ABB's Electrification Products division president said: "With ABB-free@home we are true pioneers in the smart home space, where ABB Ability can bring the benefits of digitalization to consumers everywhere.  We have opened up the opportunity for more affordable and easier home automation solutions.  We will continue to collaborate with other leaders to build on our customers' experience on a single platform. Over one million units of ABB-free@home have been sold since 2014. Innovation and integration are key success factors to ensure a smooth user interface with evolving functionality developed by multiple brands."

The home automation market is expected to grow to more than $100 billion by 2022 according to industry analysts. ABB's smarter home and building solutions are in a range of applications including single homes, apartment blocks, hotels, commercial buildings and entertainment venues. In Germany, the Netherland and Austria, these offerings are available under the Busch-Jaeger brand.

Mehta concludes: "Consumers want smart home functions that make their lives more comfortable and help them contribute to a greener planet.  We continue to push the boundaries and artificial Intelligence in this space will help us make a quantum leap forward, with solutions that anticipate the running of the house - switching things off when sensors detect the building is empty; automatically putting the heating on when the GPS detects you are 15 minutes from home; and learning your preferences for lighting and sound control."    

ABB (ABBN: SIX Swiss Ex) is a pioneering technology leader in electrification products, robotics and motion, industrial automation and power grids, serving customers in utilities, industry and transport & infrastructure globally. Continuing more than a 125-year history of innovation, ABB today is writing the future of industrial digitalization and driving the Energy and Fourth Industrial Revolutions. ABB operates in more than 100 countries with about 132,000 employees. http://www.abb.com

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