Home Audio System + Smart Home Hub? Meet the Latest Z-Wave Labs Start Up Contest Winner

FREMONT, CA--(Marketwired - May 05, 2016) - The Z-Wave Alliance, an open consortium of leading global companies deploying Z-Wave, today announces the spring winner of its global IoT developer competition. Hive Connected, creator of The Huny Beacon intelligent speaker system, is the most recent winner of the Z-Wave contest and will receive Z-Wave Alliance membership and access to the new Z-Wave IoT ready 500 series development kits.

The Huny Beacon or "HunyB" is an intelligent speaker system that gives your home its own voice and ears. Plugging into any standard outlet, the HunyB system provides both entertainment and security by recognizing voice commands and sounds. On command, the speakers can play the user's favorite music while embedded microphones also listen and react to sounds such as smoke alarms and glass breaking. The HunyB's LED light ring also provides lighting in the case of a power outage.

"Adding additional features to home security devices makes them even more attractive to consumer," said Mitchell Klein, Executive Director of the Z-Wave Alliance. "The Huny Beacon combines incredibly useful smart home functions with audio entertainment; it will be a powerful addition to the ever-growing Z-Wave ecosystem."

In addition to the sound and listening functions, the HunyB system includes environmental sensors that track temperature, humidity, lighting, and air quality in the home. With the addition of Z-Wave, data from these sensors can trigger responses from other Z-Wave smart home devices like thermostats in the home.

"We knew from the minute we started designing the Huny Beacon that we had to include Z-Wave," said Chad Rasmussen, Founder and CEO of Hive Connected. "We want our solution to be as compatible with as many systems as possible, and give consumers a unique solution that plays nice with a broad ecosystem -- for that, Z-Wave is the obvious choice."

Started in May 2015, Z-Wave Labs is a global competition designed to encourage IoT innovation on the Z-Wave platform. New winners in an IoT related industry are selected each month by the Z-Wave Labs program, including but not limited to: residential, commercial, automotive, healthcare, energy, security and aging-in-place. Winners are able to access the Z-Wave IoT ready 500 series development kits, including the Keil PK51 Professional Developer's Kit for the 8051 microcontroller family. They are also featured on the Z-Wave Labs website and on social media. Keil supports the Z-Wave Labs competition by sponsoring a one-year PK51 Professional Developer's Kit license for every winning company.