GE Lighting, a Savant company, today expands its smart home lineup with a smart thermostat, temperature sensor, a range of security cameras and a box of new lighting products. The company also adds that it has a lot of home intelligence tools under construction, all tied to the Cync app.
After a moment when the company successfully sold its GE Lighting division to Savant again in 2020, the increasingly bewilderingly named GE Lighting (Savant Company) continues its innovation spree at CES in Las Vegas, with a slew of new product announcements in smart. The home space, under its Cync brand, was called C by GE. The label alone makes me wonder how many names the product/company needs, and whether the “keep it simple” note got lost somewhere in the steam pipes below the corporate headquarters. Fortunately, the range of products is less confusing than their labels, and the new batch of products reinforces GE Lighting’s determination to stand up to the world’s Philips Hue and Nest environmental regulations.
“A ‘smarter’ smart home consists of a network of trusted products that work together seamlessly and are easy to install and use, to provide the utmost in comfort and security,” said Paul Williams, vice president of experiences at GE Lighting. “Our new products give consumers the ability to enhance their Cync smart home with new whole-home capabilities that don’t have a hub and can all be controlled with a single app or voice.”
Cync Smart Thermostat is installed in the lobby. Image credits: GE . lighting
The new Cync smart thermostat comes with all the features you’d expect from a smart thermostat, but it adds some nice touches as well. Unlike some other leading thermostats (I’m looking at you, Nest), it can be installed without a common cord, which means it can easily be used to create older apartments with almost any type of thermostat that takes advantage of the power of smart home technology. The thermostat product will start shipping now, and it will cost $120 or so.
The thermostat can be paired with a $30 room temperature sensor to monitor individual rooms as well. For people with central air, this may be an opportunity to finally get the ventilation holes of the right amount; For example, if your bedroom has always been 4 degrees warmer than any other room in the house, adjusting the vents accordingly may help solve this problem. Whether you need a smart temperature sensor to actually find out is a question for another day, but at least you have the choice now.
Sync smart home camera (wired version). Battery-powered versions and an optional additional solar panel are also available. Image credits: GE . lighting
Cync launched an outdoor camera for a while, and today it’s announcing some additions to that lineup as well, with a wired or battery/solar-powered option for the Cync Outdoor Smart Camera. Packing high definition 2K/1280P video feeds, night vision, and a “digital rotating head” (i.e. the option to change your video cropping), at least on paper, the cameras seem like a pretty solid choice. The cameras also have options for increased privacy and security, with cloud storage and local SD card options available. The wired version costs $100, the battery-powered version is $120, and for an extra $45, you can add a solar panel to keep those eyes looking great.
GE Lighting’s decorative white exterior lights show that smart bulbs don’t have to look boring. Image credits: GE . lighting
Bright sparks at GE Lighting Laboratories have been preoccupied with baby bees, with a series of new products to beautify your pillow’s lighting design choices. At CES, the company is adding 11 new products, including smart decorative bulbs in different shapes and sizes, such as sconces and globes, and an additional assortment of “generic bulbs” that look like light bulbs. The new collection of bright ideas is presented in both white and full color options. The lights come equipped with Wi-Fi that — of course, wouldn’t be too smart otherwise — unlocks a host of features, including voice control, scheduling, scenes, and more — all controlled from the Cync app.
The Cync app, of course, can be controlled by Amazon’s Alexa, Google Home, and Apple’s Home Kit.
