Will HomeKit be "Hub-less"

[aznativecat]

Hello all,

I'm looking forward to making my home "a little smarter" thanks to Apple HomeKit. I've bought my first HomeKit device, which is iHome's SmartPlug and am anxiously waiting for it to be delivered.

I was hoping you all could help me better understand the HomeKit environment. My original understanding was that it would be essentially a hub-less environment, with the Apple TV acting as the hub. Now, my understanding is that it will be truly hubbies, with commands being pushed out from the cloud.

When I look at devices, such as light switches and dimmers, however, they all seem to require a proprietary hub.

Is this because they have legacy hardware that requires the hub to translate commands? Do we expect truly hub-less environments in the near future?

No one vendor seems to offer everything I want. I don't want to have to pay the expense or manage the clutter of multiple hubs and I do expect interoperability between HomeKit devices.

Am I missing something? Am I asking too much?

Thanks,

John

 

[ohio.emt]

It will only be Hubless if you use wifi only devices since they would connect to your router which you could consider a hub. In order to use Z-wave and Zigbee you will need a third-party hub, or wait for apple to release something. A lot of Z-wave and Zigbee devices work with multiple hubs. Only exception is if they use a propitiatory Zigbee protocol like the Hue lights.

 

[aznativecat]

It will only be Hubless if you use wifi only devices since they would connect to your router which you could consider a hub. In order to use Z-wave and Zigbee you will need a third-party hub, or wait for apple to release something. A lot of Z-wave and Zigbee devices work with multiple hubs. Only exception is if they use a propitiatory Zigbee protocol like the Hue lights.

Thanks. Sounds like I should continue to wait, though the wait is killing me!

 

[Mr. Buzzcut]

I'm with you. I really hesitate to buy much automation stuff because of too many different protocols and differing capabilities between each system. I'm really hoping this ends up being an API to bring a common control mechanism to any manufacturer that is HomeKit compliant. I don't see much value in Apple making their own hub although it probably would not cost too much to integrate, e.g., a z-wave radio in the Airport. The ATV doesn't make much sense to me unless it morphs into a different product that also does streaming.

 

[lagwagon]

I'm with you. I really hesitate to buy much automation stuff because of too many different protocols and differing capabilities between each system. I'm really hoping this ends up being an API to bring a common control mechanism to any manufacturer that is HomeKit compliant. I don't see much value in Apple making their own hub although it probably would not cost too much to integrate, e.g., a z-wave radio in the Airport. The ATV doesn't make much sense to me unless it morphs into a different product that also does streaming.

The new AppleTV could very well "morph" into a different product. The new one (that should be announced this fall) is suppose to have HomeKit to control everything plus it's own App Store allowing 3rd party apps. It's also said it will have a tv streaming service. I could see them adding a movies (to compete with Netflix) at a later time. Plus adding Apple Music to ATV.