A trio of IoT veterans have joined together to form a new Z-Wave hardware supply firm based out of Carlsbad, near San Diego in California. The group, trading under the name Trident IoT, has convened to supply Z-Wave based IoT chips and modules, alongside product design, development consulting, and device certification, with a view to smooth “supply chain chokepoints” in the Z-Wave end of the IoT ecosystem, it said.
The company’s founders are Mariusz Malkowski, Michael Lamb, and Bill Scheffler, assuming roles as chief tech officer, president, and vice president of sales, respectively. They claim to have assembled “some of the brightest Z-Wave engineers in the world”. The company has signed on as a member of the Z-Wave Alliance, the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA), the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), and the LoRa Alliance.
Malkowski claims a reputation as a “builder, leader, strategist, and implementer”; he has worked previously at Sigma Designs, eZLE Smart Home, and Building 36 Technologies. Lamb founded Street Smart Security, responsible for a bunch of security and air-conditioning products for Honeywell, as well as Secure Wireless, Advanced Bridging Technologies, and Ecolink, which have supplied the likes of Comcast, RING, United Technologies, DSC, and Nortek.
Scheffler was formerly in charge of sales at original Z-Wave protocol author-company Zensys, acquired by Sigma Designs, Malkowski’s old employer, in 2008. Zensys was influential in Z-Wave takeup by the likes of ADT, Black & Decker, Eaton/Cooper, Honeywell, RING, Samsung, Schlage, and others. A statement said their company will “give product manufacturers a personalized alternative to mass-scale silicon production and opaque global supply chains”.
The firm will be a direct provider of Z-Wave Plus, Z-Wave Plus v.2, and Z-Wave Long Range chips, geared towards the applications in smart homes, hospitality venues, and multi-dwelling units. Malkowski said: “Trident IoT can streamline every step of the development process for Z-Wave devices equipped with next-gen advancements to the technology. We are the supplier source, the development and engineering partner, and a Z-Wave certification lab.”
The company will also supply proprietary silicon and modules, and offer product design and development “for any” IoT radio technology, UL (Underwriters Laboratories) standards and ETL (Electrical Testing Laboratories) security lab preparation. Device certification will be available for US-based Z-Wave devices only. It said it is looking to partner with device makers to “develop a new generation of secure, reliable, interoperable, and innovative IoT products”.
Colin Cureton, senior director of IoT marketing at Silicon Labs, said: “Silicon Labs welcomes Trident IoT to the market as a provider of Z-Wave chips and modules. Diversity in the marketplace will lead to growth and innovation for the entire Z-Wave ecosystem, and the personalized attention and engineering expertise that Trident IoT’s founders bring to the connected device development process is precisely what the industry needs to accelerate.”
Chris LaPre, head of technology at CSA, said: “Having brought thousands of IoT products to market, using every communication protocol including Z-Wave, Zigbee, Thread, Matter, and others, [the team at Trident IoT] understands these technologies and the role they play in the marketplace. We look forward to their efforts at the Alliance on Matter and Zigbee success and propelling the industry forward.”
Mitch Klein, executive director at the Z-Wave Alliance, said: “Trident IoT [offers]… a new direct source for Z-Wave chips and modules, along with personalized support through their engineering support system and certification process… This industry is going to benefit tremendously from having an RF-specialized semiconductor partner.”
