Universal Electronics Announces Four New Matter-Enhanced Solutions at CES 2023

Matter Certified Products Offer a Truly Connected Home With Enhanced Interoperability for Entertainment, HVAC, and Smart Home Devices

Universal Electronics (UEI) (NASDAQ: UEIC), the global leader in universal control of entertainment and smart home devices, announced its new and powerful Matter capable products and services at the Consumer Electronics Show 2023.

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Universal Electronics, (UEI) (NASDAQ: UEIC), the global leader in universal control of entertainment and smart home devices, announced its new and powerful Matter-capable products and services at the Consumer Electronics Show 2023 in Las Vegas. (Photo: Business Wire)

For years, smart homes have been challenged by the lack of compatibility with, and interoperability between, different wireless electronic devices and digital assistants in the home. As a result, consumer adoption of smart home systems has been slow to evolve. More recently, major brands and technology providers from the industry have come together to address the lack of interoperability with the goal of formulating the new wireless communications standard, Matter. By the end of 2022, the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) has launched the Matter 1.0 specifications with over 200 companies announcing Matter-compatible products to launch.

As a contributor to the Matter specification, Universal Electronics has been an active participant in several working groups and Plugfest events to help bring the full interoperability potential of the Matter standard to the market. UEI’s deep knowledge of what Matter can (and cannot) deliver has culminated in the company’s introduction of four new Matter-capable solutions that will be showcased in Las Vegas at CES 2023.

1. Matter-Certified QuickSet®
   
   
   
   For over a decade, QuickSet® Cloud has been the leading solution for entertainment and smart home brands to bridge the compatibility gap and provide interoperability between device types that use different communication protocols. QuickSet® supports interoperability across IP, Zigbee 3.0, Bluetooth Low Energy, Zigbee rf4ce, Infrared and CEC protocols, and brings interoperability with all the major digital assistants in the market including Alexa, Google, and SmartThings. Most importantly, QuickSet® allows legacy (i.e., non-connected) devices, which still dominate in consumer homes around the world, to communicate and co-exist with their connected (smart) counterparts allowing consumers to bring new smart devices into their homes and ensure compatibility with the existing installed base of devices.
   
   
   
   For example, major TV brands such as Samsung and LG integrated QuickSet® inside their TV platforms to interact with and control infrared-enabled HVAC systems; rf4ce-connected Set-top boxes; CEC-enabled soundbars and Zigbee devices and sensors around the home. Today, QuickSet powers over 600 million devices in consumer homes with a run rate of over 288 billion transactions yearly and has enabled consumers to discover over 1.6 billion devices in 2022 alone!
   
   
   
   At CES 2023, the company announces Matter-Certified QuickSet® which delivers the following benefits:
   
   
   
   • With the support of a multi-admin feature, QuickSet® allows users to control their Matter devices from multiple platforms and apps.
   
   • QuickSet Cloud® 6.0 will bridge non-Matter devices into the Matter ecosystem and enable automation across the whole home, covering existing and new devices.
   
   • Leveraging UEI's Virtual Agent, QuickSet® further reduces the friction and simplifies the user experience by handholding users when onboarding their favorite Matter devices and enabling multi-admin scenarios.
   
   
   
   
2. Nevo® Butler, Matter-Certified Gateway
   
   
   
   Powered by QuickSet® Cloud, Nevo® Butler is a voice-enabled, smart home gateway that perfectly blends entertainment and smart home control experiences. With the integration of Matter-Certified QuickSet®, the gateway can bridge non-Matter devices, with the Matter-ready devices of tomorrow. For example, this allows the Nevo® Butler to communicate from Matter-Certified thermostats - via Nevo® Butler - to infrared-controlled aircons straight out of the gate.
   
   
   
   
3. UEI TIDE Dial, UEI’s Matter-ready Smart Thermostat
   
   
   
   UEI TIDE Dial is UEI’s first smart thermostat that takes full advantage of the Matter standard. Besides being an advanced, cloud-native, smart thermostat supporting Wi-Fi, Bluetooth LE and Zigbee wireless connectivity and built-in sensing capabilities, it now includes the added benefit of being a Matter bridge.
   
   
   
   This capability allows HVAC or Home Automation brands that launch UEI’s TIDE Dial thermostat to expose non-Matter devices, such as existing Zigbee motion and contact sensors, to the Matter fabric, enhancing their functionality by allowing them to be discoverable by other Matter-enabled devices. For example, those same Zigbee sensors, through the Matter-enablement in UEI TIDE Dial, can now provide the capability to Matter-enabled smart door locks to interact with non-Matter devices. They will act as an external sensor input to the door lock in addition to their original application of switching on your aircon when detecting motion in the home.
   
   
   
   
4. QuickSet Widget, UEI’s Matter-ready Connectivity SoCs and Modules
   
   
   
   Many electronic brands want to leverage the Matter ecosystem, but don’t have the expertise to integrate complex wireless connectivity, cloud and Matter into the device type. They typically are specialists in their own applications and device types and lack the know-how and resources to build and maintain their own interoperability infrastructure.
   
   
   
   UEI QuickSet® Widget offers a turnkey solution that integrates all the features and functionality of QuickSet® Cloud with the new features available in Matter, supported by APIs and white-label apps, to accelerate time to market for a variety of home applications. QuickSet® Widget has already been adopted in the HVAC domain to help air conditioning OEMs bring interoperability to their devices with existing ecosystems. In addition to its UE61 module, UEI will introduce an extension of its line-up, with UE51, a bare metal Wi-Fi and Bluetooth LE connectivity module. With secure and scalable QuickSet® Cloud support, they can be easily integrated into standard home appliances to make them smart-enabled, connected devices.

“At this year’s CES, we demonstrate our commitment to our customers to be at the forefront of defining a best-in-class control experience for a variety of consumer applications,” says Menno Koopmans, SVP of Sales and Marketing at UEI. “We continue to deliver products that align with our vision of a truly connected home and are proud to see that our customers continue to adopt more and more of our control platform features.”

To schedule a press tour or demo please visit here, or come by our booth #52014 at the Venetian Expo at CES taking place in Las Vegas on January 5-8.

About Universal Electronics Inc.

Universal Electronics Inc. (NASDAQ: UEIC) is the global leader in wireless universal control solutions for home entertainment and smart home devices and designs, develops, manufactures, ships and supports hardware and software control and sensor technology solutions. UEI partners with many Fortune 500 customers, including Comcast, Vivint Smart Home, Samsung, LG, Sony and Daikin to serve video, telecommunications, security service providers, television, smart home and HVAC system manufacturers. For over 35 years, UEI has been pioneering breakthrough innovations such as voice control and QuickSet cloud, the world's leading platform for automated set-up and control of devices in the home. For more information, visit www.uei.com.

*QuickSet® is a registered trademark of Universal Electronics Inc.

All trademarks appearing herein are the property of their respective owners.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements that are made pursuant to the Safe-Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words and expressions reflecting something other than historical fact are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties, including the timely development, delivery, technical performance, and market acceptance of products and technologies identified in this release; the purchasing by UEI customers of the UEI Quickset, Nevo, and UEI Tide family of products identified in this release in the quantities anticipated by management; the adoption of the Matter interoperability technologies identified in this release by UEI customers, the continued penetration and growth of UEI's software and SOC based solutions and other products and consumer technologies identified in this release; and other factors described in UEI’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The actual results that UEI achieves may differ materially from any forward-looking statement due to such risks and uncertainties. UEI undertakes no obligations to revise or update any forward-looking statements in order to reflect events or circumstances that may arise after the date of this release.

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