Australia Gets HomeKit Love With New Switches and Sockets

HPM, a well-known and established company (since 1930) based in Australia, has revealed a new lineup of smart wall switches and sockets that HomeKit, as well as Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa and IFTTT. This would seem in part due to the company being part of the Legrand Group, who also count Netatmo as one of their other HomeKit friendly brands.

This extensive new line of products, called ‘Arteor with Netatmo’ and all with the Legrand branding, includes single, 2-gang and 3-gang wall switches, with options for horizontal and vertical versions for faceplate of the single gang switch, along with the aforementioned wall socket, two versions of a dimmer switch (horizontal or vertical faceplates), and a smart shutter and blind switch. Added to this are a few options for wireless switches, including a wireless shutter and blind switch, a ‘day and night’ switch, ‘Master’ switch, and a simple ‘wireless switch’, which we assume is the wireless option for a single gang switch.

The wireless switches come in standard white, like the wired versions, but are also available in ‘Champagne’ and ‘Magnesium’ finishes (day and night, master and wireless switches only). What’s notable about the wireless switches is that they use Zigbee for communication, with the brochure stating;

Arteor with Netatmo is a radio-based solution for the connected home. The intelligent products communicate with each other via radio ZigBee (2.4 GHz waveband).

It would seem that with the starter kits that the company supply, there’s an included gateway, which is presumably the ZigBee hub that connects the switches to each other and to your wifi network, and from there to HomeKit. There are three kits available; ‘Basic’, ‘Starter’ and ‘Extension’, all of which include the gateway.

This is a great new lineup for HomeKit and general smart home enthusiasts, as Australia and New Zealand haven’t had a lot of choice until recently when it comes to smart devices.

For more info, visit hpm.com.au