Matter 1.5 Brings Camera Support, a New "Closures" Category, and More

The Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA), fresh from the launch of Zigbee 4.0 and its new Suzi sub-gigahertz sub-brand, has announced the new Matter 1.5 smart home specification — introducing new and improved support for devices including soil sensors, closures, and cameras.

"Matter 1.5 introduces one of the most anticipated additions to the specification: cameras," the Alliance explains of its latest revision to the cross-vendor communication standard. "Developers can now build and certify cameras that interoperate directly with Matter-enabled ecosystems, without the need for custom APIs or integrations. Matter 1.5 enables device makers to build cameras that offer Matter-based interoperability — without limiting their ability to innovate through their own apps and services — while giving consumers greater flexibility to combine a diversity of camera types and price points into a coordinated home experience."

The support for video and audio streaming from compatible cameras builds atop the established WebRTC standard, providing two-way communication and remote access through the STUN and TURN protocols. There's provision for multi-stream configurations, pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) controls, customizable detection and privacy zones, and storage options including continuous or event-based recording to local or cloud storage — everything, in short, you'd expect from a smart camera platform, minus the vendor tie-in.

Matter-certified cameras will support live video and audio streaming using established WebRTC technology, permitting two-way talk and both local and remote access through standard STUN and TURN protocols. The specification also defines support for multi-stream configurations, pan-tilt-zoom controls, detection and privacy zones, and can link in to vendor-provided storage options, including continuous or event-based recording to local or cloud destinations.

The specification includes support for a broad range of camera types, including doorbell cameras and baby monitors, with Wi-Fi, Ethernet, and Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) support — and, the Alliance says, supports backwards-compatibility for "most modern cameras," providing they have the necessary processing power, memory, and connectivity. It will be up to vendors themselves, however, to choose which — if any — of their existing devices to upgrade and pass through the certification process.

As well as the new camera functionality, Matter 1.5 brings improvements to its support for the newly-defined device category of "closures" — a class that includes window shades, drapes, awnings, gates, and garage doors. This, the Alliance says, offers a simplified "modular cluster" design approach customized using "a small set of building blocks," which it hopes will reduce development complexity while improving position and status reporting.

The new specification also includes support for soil sensors, for measurement of moisture levels and, optionally, temperature — something the Alliance points out can be integrated with Matter's existing support for irrigation valves and other watering automation approaches. There's also improved support for energy management, allowing devices to exchange information about energy pricing, tariffs, and grid carbon intensity for automated demand management and better handling of solar and other micro-generation inputs. This also extends to electric vehicles, with support for state-of-charge reporting and bi-directional charging.

More information is available on the Connectivity Standards Alliance website; "device makers and platform developers are encouraged to explore the new capabilities, begin certification planning, and work with their partners to deliver the next generation of interoperable smart home experiences," the Alliance has told its members.