Comcast Pads Lighting Offerings in Xfinity Home Portfolio, Broadens Voice Control

With lighting devices added to the mix of Xfinity Home products, customers can create automated commands that trigger related events among connected devices. They can, for example, create a rule that would turn a light on every day at sunset or every time the front door opens, and they can set a lighting schedule to make the home look occupied or to save energy, said the company.

In addition to being able to connect with home automation systems, Sengled’s Element Touch LED bulb has app control, scheduling capability, color temperature tuning and power consumption tracking. Jasco sells smart bulbs under the GE brand.

Customers can manage Xfinity Home functions with a mobile app, the online portal, a touch-screen controller and an X1 voice remote. Voice commands bring up camera feeds on TV, arm and disarm the security system and turn on lights. Comcast puts in 800,000 voice remotes a month with its cable service, spanning half the country, said Herscovici. “We’re bringing voice capability to people who might not think about buying voice control devices.” The provider partners with Nuance to enhance the voice offering and is looking to integrate with Amazon’s Echo and Google Home devices next year. To Herscovici, it’s about offering customers “the integration they prefer.”

Comcast plans to offer two or three products per home automation category, said Herscovici. By “handpicking” partner products and the “experiences we want to unlock,” Comcast can test products to ensure they function well and can easily be supported by customer service, he said. Some categories may have more product choices depending on whether a device “offers something that others don’t,” he said. The company will continually review products and monitor new ones and will remove products and add others to the mix as the market dictates, but it will always support the installed base, Herscovici said. “I don’t think we need to be in a position where we support hundreds and hundreds of products,” he said, referring instead to a “core set” of offerings.

To qualify as an Xfinity Home candidate, Herscovici said products have to be a “great device in its designated function.” The provider looks at reliability, how a product behaves in noisy environments, and its onboarding process, he said. The Chamberlain garage door opener in the portfolio was opened “a thousand times” in testing and put up against competitors, he said. Comcast wants to bring home automation to the mass market, which means products have to be ones the provider can “recommend and support,” he said.

Comcast had an early focus on security as a path to home automation. In April, it launched a new a video recording add-on that was available only to customers who ordered a home security package. Herscovici told a Parks Associates conference last summer (see 1605240058) the provider wants to use the home gateway it already supplies to broadband customers as the entry point for the connected home to remove the “friction” of consumers having to shop for another device and install it themselves. He cited a platform that’s an “end-to-end solution” including curated devices, certified services, professional installation with “one throat to choke, one phone number to call for help.”

Although most industry data pegs monitored home security penetration in the U.S. at 20-22 percent of households (see report in the Dec. 9 issue of this publication), Comcast’s estimates are higher, at 30 percent, said Herscovici. That needle hasn’t moved much, but Herscovici said it doesn’t have to for Comcast to grow revenue due to upgrade opportunities. Most residential monitored security systems are based on phone lines; a step-up to an IP-based security system opens the door to home automation add-ons involving “peace of mind” technology, including smart door locks and lighting, he said.