NEWBURY, UK -- Vodafone is expanding its V by Vodafone range with two new wearables and a smart home hub. All three products have been designed to make smart living a reality for the average family – with ease of use and value for money being top priorities.

Businesses will benefit too, with two ‘digital building’ solutions. Both utilise Vodafone’s expertise in connectivity and technology to help businesses ensure space, resources and costs are optimised.

Nick Jeffery, Vodafone UK Chief Executive, said: “Our aim is to help families create a smart home simply and without too much expense. Many families would like a smart home, but worry that it would be too complicated or expensive. It doesn’t have to be that way. Our V by Vodafone products are designed to plug in simply and work via one easy to use app. Together with our new wearables, they will help busy families stay connected and give them peace of mind that their loved ones and home are safe.”

Around 14% of consumers in the UK own wearables, such as smart watches, to track their health and fitness. By 2024, wearables are predicted to be the most widely used IoT application in the UK, with approximately 28 million connections.

At the same time, demand for connected home technologies is growing. Currently about a third of UK homes contain three or more connected devices, and that number is projected to reach an average of 8.7 connected devices by 2021. More and more families are turning to smart home systems, including motion sensors and security cameras, to protect their homes – ownership of such devices has doubled to 8% since 2016.

V-Kids Watch is a smart watch designed for younger children. It has several safety features, including a built-in SOS button to call for help if required. Parents can exchange voice recordings with their children and use geographic coordinates to set ‘Safe Zones’, places where their children will typically be spending their time, such as their home and school. Parents can also check on their children’s whereabouts with GPS tracking and receive updates if required. Built-in child friendly games help to keep wearers entertained.

V-SOS Band is an easy to use smart bracelet designed for vulnerable family members or those who live alone or have mobility issues. The band’s safety features include an SOS button that when pressed sends a notification to family members, along with a timestamp and geographic coordinates. A notification alert is also triggered if the wearer falls down, or if the remaining battery power falls below 15%.

V-SOS Band is an easy to use smart bracelet designed for vulnerable family members or those who live alone or have mobility issues. The band’s safety features include an SOS button that when pressed sends a notification to family members, along with a timestamp and geographic coordinates. A notification alert is also triggered if the wearer falls down, or if the remaining battery power falls below 15%. The band is waterproof and features a long life rechargeable battery.

V-Home hosts a range of smart home devices and services designed to help you keep your home safe and secure, even when you’re not there. V-Home includes a security camera, a multi-sensor, an indoor siren and the V-Home Hub, which connects all the devices through one easy to use app. Customers can also add devices such as water leak sensors and/or smoke sensors. As part of our V-Home service, customer care agents will contact you to ensure that you are aware of any missed alerts – all for much less per month than traditional monitoring services.

Safer, greener buildings

IoT systems can transform buildings such as airports, offices and shopping centres into safer, greener spaces. The number of IoT connections in buildings is forecast to increase from 0.1 million in 2016 to 2.1 million in 2024. To meet this growing demand, we are offering two packages:

Vodafone Building Surveillance enables businesses to monitor multiple sites remotely with a platform that connects to the Cloud. Vodafone Building Surveillance is easy to install and works with the customer’s existing CCTV equipment, making it cost effective to introduce digital technology across an entire estate. Customers can use the smart analytics dashboard to send alerts when certain incidents occur, such as if motion is detected in a specified area. All footage is watermarked and stored securely in the Cloud.

Vodafone Building Energy Management integrates critical energy and environmental systems – such as lighting, air conditioning, refrigeration and heating – into a single Cloud platform that can be managed from anywhere, and on multiple devices. An easy to use dashboard compares business KPIs and real-time performance, so that customers can optimise how systems are used to save energy, reduce costs and improve operational efficiency.

Vodafone UK