The Zigbee Alliance has created a team within the Project Connected Home over IP initiative which is dedicated to the development and promotion of the standard for commercial markets.

The move aligns with the Alliance’s overall vision to develop and promote the adoption of a new, royalty-free connectivity standard, simplifying development for manufacturers and increasing compatibility for customers and consumers.

Zigbee’s offering gives users and integrator value across the IoT landscape with the standard targeting devices across lighting and electrical, HVAC controls, access control, safety/security, window coverings/shades, TVs, access points, bridges and more.

From multi-tenant residential buildings, offices and hotels, to supermarkets, warehouses and retail malls, many smart home use cases that the Project will address at launch also have wide applicability across the commercial landscape. The standard is well-suited to commercial applications as it is being built on market-proven solutions and best practices from major technologies to ensure secure, scalable architectures

“In today’s changing world, an IP infrastructure is the necessary backbone for any network to enable companies to leverage a digital architecture and connect their IoT-enabled devices,” Schneider Electric senior vice president of digital buildings business Manish Kumar says.

“Companies will be able to easily build and add Project-based devices to their existing networks in a way that is IT-compliant with the current architecture and management infrastructure.”

To ensure commercial implementers can make the best use of the initiative, to date more than 50 industry leaders around the world with commercial-focused solutions – including Allegion, DSP Group, DSR Corporation, Latch, Legrand, MMB Networks, Nordic Semiconductor, NXP Semiconductors, OSRAM, Qorvo, Schneider Electric, Signify, Silicon Labs, Somfy and ubisys – have aligned to form the Project’s Commercial Strategy Group.

With a charter to support development and promote the use of the standard within the commercial industry, this team will clarify the commercial use cases, define the new features required for additional commercial use cases, facilitate conversation and collaboration among members and advocate and encourage others to join and contribute.

“The industry is constantly investing in new technologies to achieve interoperability and offer an augmented use case experience to customers and tenants within commercial buildings,” Legrand vice president strategy and future technologies Murat Eti says.

“The Project will help drive the development and growth of a large, multi-vendor device catalogue that commercial solutions providers can tap into to drive value and efficiencies across both residential and commercial environments.”