Shelly Group has announced an expansion of the Shelly Wave lineup for the U.S. market, taking the brand’s portfolio to new frontiers, quite literally, with a longer range of operation thanks to Z-Wave Long Range (Z-Wave LR) technology.
“As a standards development organization, we rely on future-focused manufacturers, such as Shelly, to drive the adoption of Z-Wave advancements and are thrilled to see a comprehensive product line that delivers all of the benefits of Z-Wave LR (sic) to customers worldwide, redefining what is possible in smart home and IoT connectivity,” said Avi Rosenthal, Chairman of the Board for the Z-Wave Alliance.
Originally developed in 2020, Z-Wave LR tech has seen minimal representation the market, with Shelly’s new Wave products being part of a more recent rise in use of the technology across manufacturers. In addition to offering a longer line of sight range of transmission, devices running Z-Wave LR are also able to communicate over a star network connecting to a hub vs. the current mesh network.
The new Shelly Z-Wave LR devices will be available in the U.S. in the first half of 2025. The announcement comes following news from earlier this month that Shelly will also be adding more Wave integrations to the Samsung SmartThings ecosystem.
Built on the Z-Wave 800 Series of chips, the new updates to the Shelly Wave product portfolio include both new devices purpose-built for Z-Wave LR functionality, as well as existing devices upgraded to now take advantage of Z-Wave LR functionality. In total, Shelly will add 11 devices with Z-Wave LR capabilities to the Wave portfolio, with three battery-powered options included in the mix.
Lightapalooza took place in late February, and the growth of the event has mirrored the rapid ascension lighting fixtures and controls.
These Shelly Wave products with upgraded Z-Wave LR capabilities include:
With the upgrades to Z-Wave LR, these devices can communicate over distances exceeding one mile, provided there is nothing obstructing line of sight and they are operating at full power—similar to Amazon’s Sidewalk IoT network, though vastly more accessible for most users.
It is worth noting, however, that, to fully benefit from the Z-Wave LR range upgrades, these devices require a Z-Wave LR compatible hub.
ZWLR also supports up to 4,000 devices on a single network, which represents a 20x increase in Z-Wave node support compared to Z-Wave mesh.
The added benefit here, however, is that Z-Wave LR devices are still capable of existing on the same network as Z-Wave mesh.
Additionally, Z-Wave LR adds advanced encryption to its devices while also being backwards compatible with existing Z-Wave devices and networks.
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