WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.720 So that smartphone in your pocket, or the smartphone you're using to watch this video 00:00:03.720 --> 00:00:10.000 right now, almost certainly supports Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and some kind of cellular connection. 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 00:00:14.640 --> 00:00:18.180 it has every important wireless protocol covered. 00:00:18.180 --> 00:00:23.120 But wait, there are a couple others with similar names that are actually quite widespread 00:00:23.120 --> 00:00:26.640 in the consumer space, Zigbee and Z-Wave. 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 00:00:33.640 --> 00:00:36.840 with the letter Z in it to be edgy and cool? 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 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 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 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 00:01:01.080 --> 00:01:04.400 performing and more reliable for home automation. 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 00:01:12.640 --> 00:01:17.880 considering Wi-Fi is used for bandwidth heavy applications like streaming video and gaming. 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, 00:01:22.360 --> 00:01:26.560 your garage to shut, or your smart light bulb to turn pink. 00:01:26.560 --> 00:01:31.560 And even something like a smart home security sensor can trigger an alarm simply by telling 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. 00:01:40.340 --> 00:01:44.720 Very important for smart home devices which are often small and designed to be placed 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 00:01:53.400 --> 00:01:56.980 that they aren't much faster than an old dial-up modem. 00:01:56.980 --> 00:02:01.000 But the result in power savings mean that many smart home devices can last for over 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. 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 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 00:02:19.680 --> 00:02:23.520 smart home tech in something other than a small apartment. 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 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 00:02:35.480 --> 00:02:39.800 is on the third floor, your signal can be routed through your smart light fixture and 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, 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, 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 00:02:59.620 --> 00:03:03.420 as it needs, whereas Z-Wave is limited to just four hops. 00:03:03.420 --> 00:03:09.340 And remember that whichever protocol you use, many battery-only smart home devices aren't 00:03:09.340 --> 00:03:14.300 designed to be used as hops since this would drain the battery faster. 00:03:14.300 --> 00:03:18.700 On the subject of limitations, the biggest drawback for most people with either Zigbee 00:03:18.700 --> 00:03:23.540 or Z-Wave is the need for a central hub to control your gadgets. 00:03:23.540 --> 00:03:28.580 Since neither typical routers nor smartphones or tablets come with Zigbee or Z-Wave support 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, 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. 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 00:03:45.700 --> 00:03:50.700 have adopted Zigbee and Z-Wave, it appears that the market has decided the benefits outweigh 00:03:50.700 --> 00:03:56.660 the costs. And although there are competing standards out there like Insteon and Bluetooth Mesh, 00:03:56.660 --> 00:04:02.020 Zigbee and Z-Wave remain the most common. So is one protocol better than the other? 00:04:02.020 --> 00:04:07.220 Well, Z-Wave's longer range and better interoperability as a proprietary standard with more rigorous 00:04:07.220 --> 00:04:13.100 testing requirements have led many smart home enthusiasts to deem it the superior choice. 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 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. 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. 00:04:31.100 --> 00:04:40.380 I've been there.