Athom’s next-gen Homey Pro connects to the global market

University of Twente spinoff Athom has announced the release of its next-generation home automation platform Homey Pro. The updated device combines local data processing with a slew of modern connectivity options, including antennas for both 2.4 and 5 GHz Wi-Fi, Bluetooth LE 5.0, Z-Wave Plus, Zigbee, Thread, 433 MHz and infrared – which can increase the system’s wireless range capabilities by up to 4x the previous model. Additionally, the Homey Pro can now use location settings to automatically switch to one of its three region-specific Z-wave antennas, opening the door for the Enschede-based company to bring its smart home platform to the global marketplace in places like the US, Canada and Australia for the first time.

In addition to the antenna and connection upgrades, Athom has also upgraded Homey’s onboard processing power compared to the last generation. The Homey Pro now includes an Arm v8 processor, 2 GB DDR4 RAM and 8 GB of storage. This helps the platform realize up to 3.5x the previous processing power.

Athom was founded in 2014 by two UT students, Emile Nijssen and Stefan Witkamp, currently the company’s creative director and commercial director, respectively. They set up a Kickstarter project, which fetched 200,000 euros within two days. Additional investments allowed the company to scale up, start production of the original Homey in 2015 and bring it to Dutch stores (link in Dutch) at the end of 2016.