Energetic Lighting developed a Matter-compatible smart bulb in four months with the Alexa Connect Kit (ACK)

For the last five decades, Energetic Lighting has designed, manufactured, and distributed innovative lighting products for the commercial, industrial, and residential sectors. Being part of the larger Yankon Group, its 49-year experience in cutting-edge lighting technology helps it bring innovative products to market while keeping pace with consumers’ changing tastes. The result is a brand that offers lighting products that are great value for consumers. Energetic Lighting was among the first in the industry to develop smart home products with the Zigbee, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi protocols. 

Recently, the company worked with the Amazon Alexa team to build a Matter-compatible smart bulb using ACK. Device makers connecting products to Alexa or any Matter-compatible smart assistant using ACK can deliver the increased interoperability of Matter for their customers, and receive the added benefits of cloud connectivity features to build differentiated products, without managing cloud services or even creating a skill. 

“Consumers don’t want to be tied to a certain protocol or software,” says  Samuel Wang, General Manager - Americas, Energetic Lighting. 

Faster development cycle with ACK

Building smart home products can be daunting: Wang recalls a time in 2005 when it took eighteen months to move from concept to design validation for a relay lighting switch box with Zigbee due to the time spent on programming and testing. As recently as 2019, development teams at Energetic Lighting took a little over a year to develop a Bluetooth compatible smart bulb because they built the firmware and managed the cloud. Fast forward to the end of 2023, they used ACK to build a Matter-compatible smart bulb in as little as four months and started selling on Amazon in April 2024. 

Cost effectiveness

With the “plug and play” capabilities of ACK, Energetic Lighting was able to focus on enhancing the features of the smart bulb while not worrying about firmware development, security, and cloud management. This allowed the firm to maximize cost efficiencies – Wang estimates that with ACK, Energetic Lighting saved 40% of its engineering resources needed to build its smart bulb. In addition, he believes that his company reduces the chances of product failure because it has been built optimally using ACK.

“With ACK, we can just focus on our product,” says Wang. “From a manufacturer’s perspective, we think constantly about maximizing engineering and design resources, and ACK enables us to hit our targeted cost position.” 

Simple device setup experience

ACK also allows device makers to offer a simple device setup experience to their end-customers. Device makers using ACK can leverage Frustration-Free Setup (FFS) - an Amazon program that helps incorporate technology to make device setup as easy as opening a box and powering on a device. FFS will allow customers to benefit from reduced setup frustration and add Matter-compatible smart devices to Alexa with a zero-touch experience, where devices are automatically connected to the network, and setup can begin as soon as the device is powered on. With about 30% of inbound customer inquiries related to product setup, Wang believes building products using ACK will reduce that number substantially.

“I know that a challenging setup experience is among the top reasons customers give up on adopting smart home devices,” says Wang. “A complicated setup experience can negatively impact consumer perception about our products, and also the entire smart home category. ACK allows our customers to setup and configure products easily, which is a huge plus.”

Expanding the portfolio of ACK built smart products

Going forward, Energetic Lighting plans to develop more products with ACK. These include night lights, ceiling lights, and smart plugs. The firm plans to continue deepening the collaboration with technical teams within Amazon as they build new products. Wang is also excited about the marketing support the firm has received from Amazon. Teams within Amazon have offered insightful merchandising tips to Energetic Lighting to maximize sales on Amazon’s retail storefront. 

“I believe Matter is going to be the future-proof protocol for smart home,” says Wang. “ACK for Matter enables us to accelerate the development of smart products, and their adoption by our end-customers.”

Learn more about Energetic Lighting and ACK.