Lutron's new light-dimming remote supports ZigBee

Smart lighting company Lutron is releasing a remote control for "connected" lightbulbs that uses ZigBee technology. This is a departure for the company, but it’s good for consumers and manufacturers relying on open standards.

Lutron is known for its proprietary Clear Connect smart home standard. The remote gives Lutron access to consumers using some of the many ZigBee-connected lights in the world. The device gives users the ability to quickly dim lights around the home without needing to go through a smartphone app or a specific smart home hub. A remote can also be connected to several lights at once via NFC, and up to 10 remotes can be used together to create different lighting scenes, although that appears like an extreme case.

It seems increased competition in the smart home space might be pushing manufacturers to support open standards. Philips also launched a dimming switch recently that supports the ZigBee standard. It also has the same form factor, with four buttons to turn lights on and off or to increase and decrease brightness. Philips briefly stopped supporting third-party bulbs because of interoperability issues, but then reversed the decision after it received complaints.

The ZigBee standard is very popular with China manufacturers of smart home products. It has the advantage of being an open standard, so the only barrier to entry in the market is technical know-how. Another popular standard is Z-Wave. The push to support standards that are already widely used is good for China manufacturers, those sourcing from them and consumers buying such products. Even limited support for such third-party products is better than none at all, and it means users can buy bulbs from China and a remote from Lutron or Philips. Of course, ZigBee remotes are also offered by China manufacturers in different form factors, as well. Even in the more traditional knob variety.