1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,720 So that smartphone in your pocket, or the smartphone you're using to watch this video 2 00:00:03,720 --> 00:00:10,000 right now, almost certainly supports Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and some kind of cellular connection. 3 00:00:10,000 --> 00:00:14,640 And seeing as how modern phones are designed to be do-it-all devices, you might think that 4 00:00:14,640 --> 00:00:18,180 it has every important wireless protocol covered. 5 00:00:18,180 --> 00:00:23,120 But wait, there are a couple others with similar names that are actually quite widespread 6 00:00:23,120 --> 00:00:26,640 in the consumer space, Zigbee and Z-Wave. 7 00:00:26,640 --> 00:00:33,640 But what exactly are they and why do they exist? Is the tech industry just trying to fleece us because they think consumers perceive anything 8 00:00:33,640 --> 00:00:36,840 with the letter Z in it to be edgy and cool? 9 00:00:36,840 --> 00:00:43,240 Not quite. It's like this. Zigbee and Z-Wave are primarily focused on smart home applications rather than other 10 00:00:43,240 --> 00:00:49,600 kinds of data transmission. But hold on a sec James, I have smart Wi-Fi controlled lights and Bluetooth speakers that 11 00:00:49,600 --> 00:00:55,400 work just fine. Why do we need totally different protocols just so I can unlock my front door from my 12 00:00:55,400 --> 00:01:01,080 phone? It turns out that Zigbee and Z-Wave have real technical advantages that make them better 13 00:01:01,080 --> 00:01:04,400 performing and more reliable for home automation. 14 00:01:04,400 --> 00:01:12,640 A big one is power consumption. You see, although Wi-Fi is incredibly versatile, it hogs a lot of power, which makes sense 15 00:01:12,640 --> 00:01:17,880 considering Wi-Fi is used for bandwidth heavy applications like streaming video and gaming. 16 00:01:17,880 --> 00:01:22,360 But you simply don't need a whole lot of bandwidth to tell your front door to lock, 17 00:01:22,360 --> 00:01:26,560 your garage to shut, or your smart light bulb to turn pink. 18 00:01:26,560 --> 00:01:31,560 And even something like a smart home security sensor can trigger an alarm simply by telling 19 00:01:31,560 --> 00:01:40,340 the base station, hey, this door is open. This means that you don't need very much speed, which results in huge power savings. 20 00:01:40,340 --> 00:01:44,720 Very important for smart home devices which are often small and designed to be placed 21 00:01:44,720 --> 00:01:53,400 anywhere without the need to be plugged in. Both Zigbee and Z-Wave operate at speeds well below 300 kilobytes per second, meaning 22 00:01:53,400 --> 00:01:56,980 that they aren't much faster than an old dial-up modem. 23 00:01:56,980 --> 00:02:01,000 But the result in power savings mean that many smart home devices can last for over 24 00:02:01,000 --> 00:02:08,880 two years without needing a battery swap. But hold on again, James, you might be saying, Bluetooth is also quite low power. 25 00:02:08,880 --> 00:02:15,600 So why don't we just use that? Well, as anyone who's ever gotten too far from the Bluetooth speaker knows, most Bluetooth 26 00:02:15,600 --> 00:02:19,680 revisions are quite range limited, which can be a huge problem if you're trying to deploy 27 00:02:19,680 --> 00:02:23,520 smart home tech in something other than a small apartment. 28 00:02:23,520 --> 00:02:28,640 Zigbee and Z-Wave, however, work as mesh networks where each device acts as a node to send the 29 00:02:28,640 --> 00:02:35,480 signal on to the target device. So even if your smart home hub is downstairs and the thermostat you're trying to control 30 00:02:35,480 --> 00:02:39,800 is on the third floor, your signal can be routed through your smart light fixture and 31 00:02:39,800 --> 00:02:47,100 your smoke detector to get there. And if we're talking about Z-Wave specifically, it operates on a lower frequency than Wi-Fi, 32 00:02:47,100 --> 00:02:55,380 meaning longer ranges between nodes. Zigbee operates on the more congested 2.4 GHz bandwidth, which is often used by Wi-Fi, 33 00:02:55,380 --> 00:02:59,620 though it makes up for this limitation somewhat by being able to hop through as many devices 34 00:02:59,620 --> 00:03:03,420 as it needs, whereas Z-Wave is limited to just four hops. 35 00:03:03,420 --> 00:03:09,340 And remember that whichever protocol you use, many battery-only smart home devices aren't 36 00:03:09,340 --> 00:03:14,300 designed to be used as hops since this would drain the battery faster. 37 00:03:14,300 --> 00:03:18,700 On the subject of limitations, the biggest drawback for most people with either Zigbee 38 00:03:18,700 --> 00:03:23,540 or Z-Wave is the need for a central hub to control your gadgets. 39 00:03:23,540 --> 00:03:28,580 Since neither typical routers nor smartphones or tablets come with Zigbee or Z-Wave support 40 00:03:28,580 --> 00:03:33,700 built in, you'll need a hub of some sort which connects to your router so your phone, 41 00:03:33,700 --> 00:03:40,800 tablet, or computer can talk to it via Wi-Fi. It'll then send a Zigbee or Z-Wave signal to the devices you're trying to control. 42 00:03:40,800 --> 00:03:45,700 So in this way, they're not as straightforward as Wi-Fi, but seeing as so many IoT devices 43 00:03:45,700 --> 00:03:50,700 have adopted Zigbee and Z-Wave, it appears that the market has decided the benefits outweigh 44 00:03:50,700 --> 00:03:56,660 the costs. And although there are competing standards out there like Insteon and Bluetooth Mesh, 45 00:03:56,660 --> 00:04:02,020 Zigbee and Z-Wave remain the most common. So is one protocol better than the other? 46 00:04:02,020 --> 00:04:07,220 Well, Z-Wave's longer range and better interoperability as a proprietary standard with more rigorous 47 00:04:07,220 --> 00:04:13,100 testing requirements have led many smart home enthusiasts to deem it the superior choice. 48 00:04:13,100 --> 00:04:20,380 But that doesn't mean Zigbee is bad. Just do your research for the specific product ecosystem you're buying into and make sure 49 00:04:20,380 --> 00:04:25,740 any gadget that you're thinking about getting doesn't have a ton of reports of buggy software. 50 00:04:25,740 --> 00:04:31,100 You don't want your smart salad shooter to start acting up at three in the morning. 51 00:04:31,100 --> 00:04:40,380 I've been there.