 The battle to create the connected home has been going on for years, but it seems like nobody's really cracked the code that will get consumers excited. Over the last couple of months, a new dark horse competitor has emerged as sort of a front runner. Wink is a company that's spun out of a partnership between Quirky and GE, and they've created a whole range of products and a central hub that allows you to create one integrated intelligent apartment. So this is a Wink loft. We're in Soho, New York. We really tried to construct this place to have a kind of very look and feel that everyone could kind of feel comfortable in. So we built a garage door, we built a whole new entryway. It's really kind of exemplifying and bringing to life all the different products on the Wink platform. Okay, so right now the whole home is kind of asleep. We're about to go in. You unlock the door and what happens? So I'm going to unlock the door. That lamp is going to turn on. The radio will turn on. The shade will go up and then the big shades behind me will all go up as well just from the swipe of this one button. So unlocking my Schlage lock. One of the things I think is really interesting about the smart home is that people have been trying to solve this puzzle for a long time and nobody seems to have gotten a lot of traction to the point where it feels like it's easy to integrate all the different smart devices in your home. Obviously the idea of the smart home has been around for quite some time. There's been a number of different radio frequencies that have been out there or a number of different people that have tried. And I think one of the things that was missing was that many of the brands that people know and rely on and already have in the house hadn't been connected yet. We're seeing them kind of all come online. In fact in Home Depot they have over 600 different connected products that are sold either in store and online today. This radio isn't a smart radio. It's just plugged into a smart switch. This light isn't a smart light. It's just plugged into a smart dimmer. And again, these are from Levittown and Lutron, two brands who have historically competed with each other but all came together under kind of the Wink platform. So this is like the mothership here. This is the hub, right? What is the purpose of this and how does it control everything in the house? Sure. So the Wink hub has got six different radios in it. It works with all these different radio frequencies that don't have kind of internet access. So for some reasons you can't have a Wi-Fi chip in different products because of the power or the cost of it. And so it allows it to kind of interpret those different radio frequencies and let you control it all from your phone. Is there an idea that these devices will sort of come to learn your schedule or be personalized to you, that they'll work together in some way? We have smart schedules, so kind of knowing when certain actions should happen based on time-based triggers. We also have geolocation, so if you're coming home to turn on your AC before you actually arrive, when you're in a certain distance. We have robots, which we kind of think of as if-then triggers. They can kind of do things for you. So open your door, turn on your lights, turn on your radio. What's the approach to privacy or security when it comes to having all of these smart devices living in your home, on your Wi-Fi network, and connected to your phone? We take security of the utmost importance, whether that be from two-factor authentication to bank-level encryptions. So we're never going to share your data or shell your data. You don't have to share your geolocation or things of that nature. So it's all kind of opt-in. And of course we'll never share that with anyone else. So I think the toughest part might be in making sure that you're always making the product simple and easy to use. There's lots of different things you can do with the smart home or with each product, and making sure that you're offering the consumer the simplest and easiest experience to make sure that they're getting the most out of the interactions and know out of the gates how to use these products and find that value right away.
 The battle to create the connected home has been going on for years, but it seems like
 nobody's really cracked the code that will get consumers excited.
 Over the last couple of months, a new dark horse competitor has emerged as sort of a
 front runner.
 Wink is a company that's spun out of a partnership between Quirky and GE, and they've created
 a whole range of products and a central hub that allows you to create one integrated intelligent
 apartment.
 So this is a Wink loft.
 We're in Soho, New York.
 We really tried to construct this place to have a kind of very look and feel that everyone
 could kind of feel comfortable in.
 So we built a garage door, we built a whole new entryway.
 It's really kind of exemplifying and bringing to life all the different products on the
 Wink platform.
 Okay, so right now the whole home is kind of asleep.
 We're about to go in.
 You unlock the door and what happens?
 So I'm going to unlock the door.
 That lamp is going to turn on.
 The radio will turn on.
 The shade will go up and then the big shades behind me will all go up as well just from
 the swipe of this one button.
 So unlocking my Schlage lock.
 One of the things I think is really interesting about the smart home is that people have been
 trying to solve this puzzle for a long time and nobody seems to have gotten a lot of traction
 to the point where it feels like it's easy to integrate all the different smart devices
 in your home.
 Obviously the idea of the smart home has been around for quite some time.
 There's been a number of different radio frequencies that have been out there or a number of different
 people that have tried.
 And I think one of the things that was missing was that many of the brands that people know
 and rely on and already have in the house hadn't been connected yet.
 We're seeing them kind of all come online.
 In fact in Home Depot they have over 600 different connected products that are sold either in
 store and online today.
 This radio isn't a smart radio.
 It's just plugged into a smart switch.
 This light isn't a smart light.
 It's just plugged into a smart dimmer.
 And again, these are from Levittown and Lutron, two brands who have historically competed
 with each other but all came together under kind of the Wink platform.
 So this is like the mothership here.
 This is the hub, right?
 What is the purpose of this and how does it control everything in the house?
 Sure.
 So the Wink hub has got six different radios in it.
 It works with all these different radio frequencies that don't have kind of internet access.
 So for some reasons you can't have a Wi-Fi chip in different products because of the
 power or the cost of it.
 And so it allows it to kind of interpret those different radio frequencies and let you control
 it all from your phone.
 Is there an idea that these devices will sort of come to learn your schedule or be personalized
 to you, that they'll work together in some way?
 We have smart schedules, so kind of knowing when certain actions should happen based on
 time-based triggers.
 We also have geolocation, so if you're coming home to turn on your AC before you actually
 arrive, when you're in a certain distance.
 We have robots, which we kind of think of as if-then triggers.
 They can kind of do things for you.
 So open your door, turn on your lights, turn on your radio.
 What's the approach to privacy or security when it comes to having all of these smart
 devices living in your home, on your Wi-Fi network, and connected to your phone?
 We take security of the utmost importance, whether that be from two-factor authentication
 to bank-level encryptions.
 So we're never going to share your data or shell your data.
 You don't have to share your geolocation or things of that nature.
 So it's all kind of opt-in.
 And of course we'll never share that with anyone else.
 So I think the toughest part might be in making sure that you're always making the product
 simple and easy to use.
 There's lots of different things you can do with the smart home or with each product,
 and making sure that you're offering the consumer the simplest and easiest experience to make
 sure that they're getting the most out of the interactions and know out of the gates
 how to use these products and find that value right away.