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SURE Universal to Showcase Interoperability for the Connected Home

Tel Aviv-based SURE Universal, creators of next-generation software solutions for smart homes and IoT, will lead a series of product demonstrations at the 2018 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January that it says will represent “a milestone in IoT“ market development.

Tel Aviv-based SURE Universal, creators of next-generation software solutions for smart homes and IoT, will lead a series of product demonstrations at the 2018 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January that it says will represent “a milestone in IoT“ market development.

The company has been selected by the Open Connectivity Foundation (OCF) to showcase the interoperability between home electronics that are now possible through the emergence of the OCF standard.

The OCF standard is now supported by more than 300 global technology leaders, including Samsung, LG, Intel, Microsoft, Qualcomm, Cisco, and Electrolux.

SURE Universal will conduct demonstrations that will operate multiple smart home and IoT devices of different types and brands, such as set-top boxes, gateways, smart TVs, and appliances, using its OCF-compliant software.

“It will be an honor to be at the center of this historic demonstration,” said Viktor Ariel, founder and CEO of SURE Universal. “The Open Connectivity Foundation has delivered a true interoperable standard that is reliable and secure, and covers all the key components that make up the IoT for the smart home — the mobile device, the gateway, and the cloud. At CES 2018, SURE Universal will show that remote operation of any of these devices is now easy for manufacturers and consumers, which will greatly speed the adoption and value of IoT products and services.”

As the first client software certified by OCF, SURE Universal will participate in the OCF Pavilion at CES, demonstrating products from multiple OCF member companies working “seamlessly” together through SURE Universal Remote. In addition, SURE Universal will be showing both Linux and Android gateways and set-top boxes featuring its smart home solutions. The company will also announce certification of its iOS mobile client, which will join the company’s top-rated and massively popular Android SURE Universal client (30 million downloads) as the universal remote control solution. 

Until now, one of the greatest obstacles to IoT and smart home adoption has been the lack of a universal IoT standard for manufacturers to use when designing smart home products, and one that consumers can trust to work as expected inside their homes. By contrast, the OCF standard provides a universal language for device interoperability. The OCF technology incorporates and builds on the technologies of both the Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) and Universal Plug-and-Play (UPnP) standards, which have been deployed in billions of electronics products worldwide. OCF takes these core technologies deeper into the smart home environment, particularly through the inclusion of a security architecture.

Security against hacking and other intrusions is a primary concern for consumers as they fill their homes with smart, connected IoT products. However, many simple smart devices, such as light switches and outlets, cannot provide genuine security because of the lack of built-in computing power in such cost-driven products. As a result, many manufacturers don’t enter the market, because no one manufacturer or business can take responsibility for attack vulnerabilities that might hit millions of smart home networks. By adding its own layer of security, particularly through the cloud and the gateway — the prime entry points for unwanted intrusion — OCF is able to assume responsibility for network security. This brings tremendous value to the IoT market, especially for manufacturers.

“There is no other logical option for IoT device interoperability than OCF,” Ariel said, “and it already has the critical mass of many of the top manufacturers and IoT vendors in the world. We recently spoke to several set-top box makers in China, where there are close to ten different IoT standards available. They don’t know what to implement, so OCF is an advancement they’ve been waiting for. Consumers expect this too. They don’t want to buy products that don’t work together, and find that their new purchases make their old purchases obsolete. OCF finally brings stability to the IoT, so that the IoT ecosystem is no longer segregated.”

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