Daintree Networks Fosters Interoperability by Expanding Partner Program, Releasing Open Source Firmware

In a groundbreaking offering, Daintree and partners bridge the gap to open standards wireless lighting control for LED driver and ballast manufacturers

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Daintree Networks, Inc., the leading provider of wireless control solutions for smart buildings, today announced two initiatives intended to aid lighting device manufacturers in adding open standard wireless control capabilities to their product lines. First is the expansion of the ControlScope Connected Community to include component manufacturers. Second is the release of ZigBee®-based open source firmware for LED driver and ballast controls. Both initiatives support Daintree’s ongoing commitment to using and promoting open standards in building controls.

“Open standards drive down costs and development time for vendors as well as improve product selection and reliability at lower prices for end users. Everyone wins, and we’ve made it our mission to get everyone there faster”

Says Jason Choong, Daintree’s Chief Solution Architect and Vice President of Product Management, “Although many lighting device manufacturers see the value in wireless controls compatibility, they often encounter two obstacles in incorporating the capabilities into their own devices: RF design and developing firmware to enable standards-based wireless lighting control. With this announcement, we remove those two obstacles.”

The ControlScope Connected program, launched in January of 2011 and currently twenty members strong, is an alliance of manufacturers of lighting and other commercial building control devices that can be part of a wireless controls network using ZigBee, an open standard communication protocol. Today, those members are joined by wireless semiconductor companies California Eastern Labs (CEL) and Silicon Labs, as the group’s inaugural ControlScope Connected Enabler members. The “Enabler” designation is reserved for component manufacturers whose products enable smart building devices to work with wireless controls via ZigBee.

“As an industry leading proponent of open standards and interoperability, CEL is pleased to work with Daintree to help promote—and deliver—open standards in the device and controls arena,” says Tom Benson, VP of Embedded Systems at CEL.

Greg Fyke, Director of Marketing for Wireless Embedded Systems at Silicon Labs, agrees that device manufacturers will benefit from such open standards. “By integrating ZigBee radios into drivers, ballasts, and other products, control systems with fully integrated digital controls can be brought together more cost-effectively and substantially reduce installation and commissioning time.”

Daintree’s firmware, available at http://www.daintree.net/open-source-firmware-for-wireless-lighting, is being released as open source under a modified MIT license. Although provided by Daintree, the over-the-air messaging uses standards-based ZigBee messages, ensuring that devices can comply with open standard ZigBee specifications.

These activities are part of Daintree’s ongoing efforts to accelerate what they believe is inevitable and beneficial to all involved: a community of interoperable smart building controls and devices on a common, completely open wireless platform. “Open standards drive down costs and development time for vendors as well as improve product selection and reliability at lower prices for end users. Everyone wins, and we’ve made it our mission to get everyone there faster,” says Daintree’s CEO, Danny Yu. “Our actions today will help members of the driver and ballast community to speed product development, ensure interoperability, benefit from best practices we’ve learned over our nine-year history, and leverage relationships with industry leaders.”

About Daintree Networks, Inc.

Daintree Networks is a market-leading innovator in next-generation commercial and industrial building automation. Daintree provides the industry’s leading wireless controls solution for smart buildings, delivering dramatic energy and operational efficiency improvements as well as occupant-friendly work environments, all in a simpler, more cost-effective way than ever before.

Since its founding in 2003, Daintree Networks has been a pioneer in wireless mesh networking and control. The company has brought this extensive experience to bear in developing the market’s first truly open, easy-to-install, easy-to-use solution for wireless building control. For more information, visit www.daintree.net.

About CEL

California Eastern Laboratories (CEL) designs and manufactures the MeshConnectTM line of IEEE 802.15.4/ZigBee professional grade wireless solutions and is a member of the ZigBee Alliance. With over 50 years experience, CEL is ideally positioned to provide its customers with hardware and software products tailored to meet their specific needs that greatly simplify design and reduce time to market. CEL provides engineering and applications assistance at its technical centers in Santa Clara, CA. and Wauconda, IL. CEL is also the exclusive sales and marketing partner in North and South America for products from the Compound Semiconductor Devices Business Division (CSDBD) of Renesas Electronics Corporation. The company supports customers through sales offices, sales representatives and distributors worldwide. Visit us at: www.cel.com.

About Silicon Labs

Silicon Laboratories is an industry leader in the innovation of high-performance, analog-intensive, mixed-signal ICs. Developed by a world-class engineering team with unsurpassed expertise in mixed-signal design, Silicon Labs’ diverse portfolio of patented semiconductor solutions offers customers significant advantages in performance, size and power consumption. For more information about Silicon Labs, please visit www.silabs.com.