Z-Wave Alliance Formalizes Standards Organization and Names Founders

The Z-Wave Alliance, a membership organization dedicated to advancing Z-Wave, recently announced that it has completed incorporation as an independent non-profit organization and named seven founding members under its new standards development organization (SDO) structure: Alarm.com, Assa Abloy, Leedarson, Ring, Silicon Labs, StratIS, and Qolsys.

Under the SDO, Z-Wave Alliance members reportedly will be given new opportunities to participate in the organization, with new membership levels and structure, in addition to workgroups and committees. These include technical working groups specific to features such as the physical layer working group (mac/PHY), networking layer working group to support the new Z-Wave Specification, application layer working group (command class specification), as well as working groups for certification, security, and marketing. Committees will be established to manage operational, as well as technical and marketing needs, according to the release.

“For over 15 years, the Z-Wave Alliance has stood as a leader in the smart home and IoT industry, with diverse membership comprised of manufacturers, integrators, and others all supporting Z-Wave’s growth in the market,” said Mitchell Klein, executive director, Z-Wave Alliance. “Establishing our founding members, several of which have been with us as board members for many years, is a critical step forward in setting a new course for the Alliance to follow in 2020 and beyond. By making these changes to the Z-Wave Alliance’s role and to the Z-Wave Specification, our goal is to facilitate open IoT deployment and engage new kinds of companies into Z-Wave development to bolster the ecosystem, including silicon vendors and software developers, to bring Z-Wave to more devices and more industries.”

“Alarm.com has used Z-Wave for more than a decade to help expand our platform so that millions of people can control and manage an ever-growing range of devices that work together to protect and automate their home or business,” said Dan Kerzner, Chief Product Officer, Alarm.com. “Along with the other founding members, we remain committed to shaping this evolving and impactful technology.”

The Z-Wave Alliance is currently in the process of transferring memberships and establishing workgroups. Visit https://z-wavealliance.org/sdo/ for additional information on new membership levels, FAQs about the SDO, and more.