I don’t even know how to ask this question accurately, but here goes: My daughter is thinking of installing a new heating system as the current one we have has proven problematic. One of the features this new system will feature is home automation to include things like remote access to control thermostats etc.
You can guess what i want to ask – this home automation will make use of Zigbee – what i want to know is whether this may have any impact or cause interference with my streaming network and degrade performance - God forbid!!!
Almost certainly not, Zigbee uses many frequency channels to avoid interference, and is designed to work in a crowded space. Upto 16 Zigbee networks can be used in the same area.
Devices that use the latest Zigbee standard frequency hop as well. Zigbee uses a tiny spectrum bandwidth as well, and its channels don’t overlap with each other.
Zigbee is a modern PAN wireless ultra low power network standard, and is ideal for situations where many networks are sharing the same space.
I have several devices Zigbee network devices, including Philips Hue plus the Naim Zigbee and they all coexist with no human intervention required at all. Far more effective than wifi standards for low data rate transfer. Think of Zigbee like Bluetooth but with a greater range upto 10 metres. (Albeit the two standards use different modulation a frequency management techniques)
If interference is going to affect Zigbee, it will be from poorly designed 2.4GHz wifi radio units. This is the same as for Bluetooth as well, albeit Bluetooth is more prone to wifi interference than Zigbee.
Question is crystal clear, as is my Naim audio reproduction despite Zigbee coming from the smart meter
The question was raised a few times on the forum, notwithstanding the fact that Naim use Zigbee in the new streamers remote control
I have Philips Hue lights which uses Zigbee, all over the house. One lamp is right next to my Cds2 and another quite close to it. Also another lamp above my Nova in another room. In use, they make not one jot of difference that I can detect to any of my hifi.
It will not create any interference in your Hi-Fi … Zigbee is ultra low power, it’s going to be significantly less than a GSM phone call or base station sync, or data transfer made from the room where your Hi-Fi is, and a lot less than wifi signals in your house.
On a separate note, as I was looking into home automation myself. I was suprised at how few Zigbee modules are available as opposed to for example Z-Wave. Almost every device supporting it seems to be proprietary, with proprietary extensions.
While something like Z-Wave, which has tons of devices available was closed source until last year.
I’d be interested to know to what extent Naim customised Zigbee. i.e. to which extent could the remote be replaced/supplemented.
I doubt it’s customised, as it would then not be Zigbee, it will use mass market Zigbee (IEEE 802.15.4) chipsets. Zigbee is kind of like Bluetooth but is designed to support Mesh and is used all over the place.
You might see the term ‘Z-Link’ which is Zigbee. Zigbee is an IoT technology. Back in 2018, 4.5 Billion Zigbee chipsets had been sold.
I don’t know, but I suspect Naim use TI’s SimpleLink which uses Zigbee using something like the CC2520 or CC2530 chipsets.
some of them educational too!