Philips Hue will enter the smart home camera market later this year, Signify CEO Eric Rondolat confirmed in a conference call with investors regarding earnings late last month.
According to Rondolat, CEO of Signify, the parent company to Philips Hue, the company will expand “home monitoring into Philips Hue” this year, with announcements to come after the summer.
The comments come in context of discussions of new home monitoring technology launched by the WiZ brand, including a new WiZ indoor camera that integrates security and lighting. According to the company, the indoor camera and home monitoring solution will work in tandem to flash the lights if any motion is detected inside when the home is supposed to be empty. This will also trigger a notification to the WiZ smartphone app.
Rondolat says similar integrations between security and lighting will also be brought to Hue. In addition, Hue cameras will be end-to-end encrypted, which Rondolat calls a first.
“And here the idea is also to be able to use security for lighting and lighting for security,” Rondolat said, per a transcript of the earnings call on Seeking Alpa, with Rondolat describing two separate scenarios for each which mimic some of the functionalities already found in Hue.
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He also explained that the security itself would also be able to double as a sensor, allowing it to play into multiple different types of lighting automations.
The CEO offered few other details, but it sounds like the offering will be similar to the WiZ ecosystem and home monitoring starter kit, which includes the indoor camera and lights. The offering also includes an optional subscription services for additional features, such as storing media from the camera in the cloud, and more.
Rondelat also mentioned that this capability will likely be announced for the Hue ecosystem either after or at the end of this summer.
The comments, made during a second-quarter earnings call with investors on July 28, also comes shortly after the company recently released several new Hue products, including the Philips Hue E14 luster bulb, new color and shape options for the company’s Hue Aurelle and Hue Surimu panels, and new features for the app and sensors for enhanced control.
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