The HCA is an organisation founded by manufacturers of HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning)  systems, home appliances and TVs. The HCA was created with the goal to develop safe, interoperable standards for connected home ecosystems.

As a founding member of the Alliance, Samsung Electronics continues to pursue innovation, including the SmartThings platform, to aid the HCA’s mission to develop standards that promote interconnectivity.

“Through combined industry efforts in HCA, we are working to make the smart home more accessible to consumers via the devices they use every day in the home,” said Chanwoo Park, Executive Vice President and Head of Service Biz Group of the Digital Appliances Business at Samsung Electronics. “We are taking a fresh look at how devices can enhance consumers’ lives and how the appliance industry can work together to create a safer connected home that our customers can trust. Through energy savings and support for legacy household products, we believe that we can contribute to a world where sustainability starts at home.”

Interoperability to Promote Compatibility

The HCA Specification 1.0 expands on existing industry standards to clearly define interoperability standards that ensure long-lasting devices like appliances, HVAC systems and TVs operate seamlessly across brands, including legacy appliances already operating in consumers’ homes.

As a pioneer in the smart home industry, the SmartThings platform has paved the way for interoperability within the connected home. SmartThings supports Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled devices from a range of manufacturers, as well as first-party smart home appliances, providing consumers with more convenience and options within their connected home.

With the introduction of the HCA Specification 1.0, this enhanced interoperable experience will soon make the connected home attainable by more consumers than ever.

Bringing Sustainability Into the Heart of the Connected Home

The release of the HCA Specification 1.0 paves the way for energy efficiency throughout a consumer’s entire connected home through holistic data insights. Customers can raise their Energy IQ by identifying the appliances and devices in their homes that consume the most energy and adjusting usage accordingly.

Furthermore, innovations like SmartThings AI Energy Mode helps consumers to automatically manage their energy usage and costs using intelligent, real-time insights via a single app on their phone.[1] The HCA Specification 1.0 enables member brands to provide consumers with sustainability-focused, actionable insights for better energy efficiency and real-world savings.

Competitors Working Together for Our Consumers’ Connected Future

The introduction of the HCA Specification 1.0 for interoperability is just the first step in the HCA’s standards journey. The HCA is already working in parallel with energy industry leaders to provide even more energy-efficient solutions across the household.

HCA currently includes 15 global brands, including Samsung, AEG, American Standards, Arcelik, Electrolux, GE Appliances, Haier, LG, Resideo, Trane, Vestel and others. Membership provides the opportunity to collaboratively innovate and share expertise with peers to further develop the connected home ecosystem and bring more convenience and options to consumers.

With almost 250 million registered users across over 108 million connected devices worldwide, Samsung is leveraging its leadership within the smart home industry and working hand in hand with fellow HCA members to develop and launch new solutions within the connected home landscape.

The HCA C2C interoperability demonstration is open to the public at CES 2023 as part of the Smart Home exhibition – Venetian Expo Center Booth #52739 – taking place from January 5 to 8 in Las Vegas. This technical demonstration features HCA member company solutions that leverage C2C connectivity to enable multiple apps to control multiple brands of appliances, HVAC systems and TVs for optimised interoperability.

[1] Available on specific models from May 2023 through a Wi-Fi update. Available on Android and iOS devices. A Wi-Fi connection and a Samsung account are required. Results may vary depending on the usage conditions and patterns.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. today shared its vision for a calmer connected world through cutting-edge technologies that enhance the lives of users by providing smarter and more intuitive experiences. Speaking at a press conference at CES® 2023, Samsung and its key partners came together to outline details about how they plan to build a better-connected world while contributing to a more sustainable future.

Jong-Hee (JH) Han, Vice Chairman, CEO and Head of the DX (Device eXperience) Division at Samsung Electronics opened the company’s presence at CES by highlighting Samsung’s strategy to deliver on the promise of the connected experience across the key touchpoints in our lives – in our homes, cars, and at work – while also working to build a more sustainable future. The strategy outlined during the press conference focuses on the company’s aim of bringing calm to our connected world so that devices and innovation can genuinely enable better, more personal, and more intuitive experiences. To do this, Samsung is focusing on seamlessly connecting devices and designing products to make the everyday use of technology more sustainable.

“We recognise our vision is a big one,” said CEO JH Han. “It’s about solving real challenges today and understanding consumers’ future needs and aspirations. It will take time, innovation, and cooperation with partners worldwide. But we are committed to achieving it, and have already started.”

Samsung Incorporates Sustainability at Every Level

To address our planet’s ongoing challenges, Samsung highlighted how it continues to prioritise the environment through a combination of sustainability targets, innovative product design, and strategic partnerships. As a result, by 2050, all of Samsung’s businesses will match their electricity needs with renewable energy and reach net zero carbon emissions.  In the nearer term, the DX Division will aim to transition to 100 percent renewable energy by 2027 and achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2030.

To further the company’s sustainability goals, Samsung outlined how Everyday Sustainability—building sustainability features into the company’s most popular products and services—will contribute to a healthier environment. This includes creating more sustainable products through innovative design in materials and energy efficiency.

“By building sustainability into the product experience, we, and the many people around the world who use our products, can contribute to a healthier planet,” said Inhee Chung, Vice President of Corporate Sustainability Center at Samsung. “As a result, some of our most popular products are now some of our most sustainable.”

Samsung announced that many of its TVs and smartphones utilise components manufactured from recycled materials and post-consumer materials, including recycled plastic from discarded finishing nets, while the company’s home appliances, memory and 5G radio network chipsets are contributing to energy savings for customers[1]. In addition, Samsung’s connected services, such as SmartThings Energy and AI Energy Mode, are also helping consumers save energy and cut costs while lowering their overall climate impact.

Samsung also shared the stage with Patagonia, a global leader in outdoor clothing, to discuss a partnership to combat the issue of microplastics – the tiny particles often found in clothes and released into oceans, lakes, and rivers through the laundry. Vincent Stanley, Director of Philosophy at Patagonia, spoke at the Samsung press conference about how the two companies have developed a new wash technology called the Less Microfiber Cycle[2], currently being incorporated into Samsung washing machines, which can reduce microplastic release by 54%[3] during a laundry cycle. Like the Less Microfiber Cycle, Samsung and Patagonia recently developed the new[4], which reduces microplastic discharge by helping to prevent them from escaping into the ocean at the end of a wash cycle.

Meanwhile, James Kwon, Product Manager, ENERGY STAR for Consumer Electronics at the U.S.  Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that Samsung’s connected home experience with SmartThings is the first mass-market Smart Home Energy Management System to earn the prestigious ENERGY STAR SHEMS Certification. Samsung also continues to collaborate with diverse stakeholders in its sustainability efforts. For example, Samsung joined with the Carbon Trust and other technology leaders to develop the industry’s first specification for measuring, accounting for, and decarbonising the emissions associated with connected devices while being used by customers.

A Connected Home and Connected Life Built on Convenience

Samsung detailed plans to fulfill the connected experience today and in the future. During the company’s press conference, Jaeyeon Jung, Executive Vice President and Head of SmartThings, highlighted how features like SmartThings Home Monitor and SmartThings Pet Care bring convenience to the connected experience by monitoring and sharing alerts for anything out of the ordinary – for people and pets. Prompted by Samsung Smart TV, these services are some of the many ways Samsung and the connected platform SmartThings are creating an even smarter home.

A key part of this vision is increased interoperability, enabling consumers to connect more of their devices, whether they are Samsung’s or from a partner brand. As the industry looks to bring about a new level of compatibility through the Matter smart home standard, Samsung stated its commitment to this partnership philosophy. SmartThings was one of the first brands to adopt Matter, and Samsung is a founding member of the Home Connectivity Alliance (HCA).

Also, at the CES press conference, Samsung announced the latest smart home innovation, with the SmartThings Station[5] – its first product to have Matter support built-in right from the beginning. It is a convenient, new way to kick-start SmartThings experiences at home and make it easier to interact with connected devices. SmartThings Station turns Samsung’s wireless charger into a smart home hub that can seamlessly transform the state of your home at the touch of a button[6].

The focus on connected experiences also extended to unveiling new partnerships, including announcing an expanded collaboration with Philips Hue. Jasper Vervoort, Senior Vice President and General Manager at Philips Hue discussed a new way to sync the content from Samsung TVs with Philips Hue lighting through the [7], which can be downloaded from the app store on Samsung TVs. This is the first solution to sync lighting and content from Samsung TVs without additional hardware.

With more devices connected than ever, Samsung also detailed how security and privacy innovations will be keys to building connected device ecosystems. The company is taking its device security experiences to the next level with its upcoming solution, Samsung Knox Matrix, which will conveniently and safely sync credentials across devices, while helping to protect sensitive information via multi-layered mutual monitoring enabled by private blockchain technology.

A Vision for the Future

 The company also showcased next-generation innovations and technologies using the latest artificial intelligence (AI). Experiences enabled by Spatial AI – like in the BESPOKE Jet Bot AI+ – are laying the groundwork for better in-home experiences specific to the dimensions and environment of your space.

Samsung also gave a preview of to make content viewing possible for people with vision impairment. Relumino Mode highlights outlines and improves contrast and colour so that content is clear and easier to enjoy[9]. In addition, Samsung also displayed a new pair of Relumino glasses, which first debuted at CES 2018 as part of its startup acceleration program C-Lab project, as well as its mobile app to make the visual experience more enjoyable and personalised on every screen.

For more information, please visit Samsung.com/au

[1] Samsung’s latest home appliances, memory and 5G radio network chipsets are built to be energy efficient and help consumers save energy.

[2] Already available for Samsung washers in Europe and will expand availability to Korea in February and to the U.S. soon. Australia has not announced availability for this product.

[3] Tested with 2kg load of 100% polyester hoodies, comparing Synthetics cycle on Samsung Conventional model of European washer WW4000T and the Less Microfiber cycle on WW7000B. The results may be different depending on the clothes and environment. Tested by the Ocean Wise Plastics Lab.

[4] Will be available in the first half of this year in Australia and Europe.

[5] Availability is yet to be announced in Australia.

[6] Available with SmartThings App on Android or iOS devices. A Wi-Fi connection is required.

[7] Samsung Australia is yet to announce the availability of the Philips Hue Sync TV app locally.

[8] Samsung Australia is yet to announce the availability of this service locally.

[9] Relumino Mode targets those who suffer from severe visual acuity loss (Source: WHO, World report on vision, 2019) and symptoms of blurry vision. Some features may be supported at a different time, and service availability may not be available at the time of purchase of this product. Relumino Mode is applied for TV models QN80C, QN90C, QN800C, QN900C and works on sources provided through DTV and HDMI only. The Mode does not work on other sources, OTTs, etc.