It is well established that when David Bowie sang "twenty thousand people" in his love letter to Berlin, Where are we now? he described the crowd of technology lovers at the Messegelände, hurrying each other to admire the latest and greatest gadgets. The IFA show has long been a hotbed for new technologies and in 2019 he is back for another tour.
The technology fair will be held from September 6 to 11 and the smart home will certainly be in the spotlight this year. In fact, this could be the biggest year to date, so we're already starting the engines with a preview of what's going to happen.
Read it: Smart home startups to watch this year
From Sonos to Philips Hue, from smart locks to smart light bulbs, we already know many who will be in the German capital this year. We will update this page until the end of the show. Bookmark this page and return regularly for the last time. For now, here is what we know.
His bone
Get ready: Sonos has made it known that he was going to make a splash at IFA this year. The company will hold media events in New York on August 26-27, which we will be attending, but will also be traveling to Berlin to present its latest products. What will they be? The first Sonos Bluetooth speaker sounds like a sure thing, with a new software feature called Auto Trueplay, which uses built-in microphones to adjust the audio output to match the room.
Philips Hue
Although there have been no recent rumors, we know that Philips Hue will be at IFA. We also heard rumors earlier this year about possible new additions to the Hue family arriving around September - making IFA the perfect place to drop them. According to rumors, the company will launch its first Edison style bulbs.
Cool. But iCulture also claims that we will have our first Hue smart connector, which will be one of the few to support Alexa, Google Assistant and HomeKit. On top of that, a new Philips Hue Go, new bathroom fixtures, as well as new GU10 bulbs and candelabras are also on the menu. Shortly before everything is revealed.
Braun and a lot of smart speakers
IFA is generally ideal for some design. This year, Braun will debut with its 1959 LE reworked speakers. Yes, Braun's back, baby, after a hiatus of 28 years in the Hi-Fi space. But Braun will not be the only one to make interesting speakers in Berlin - we expect that many smart speakers will be part of the group.
Harmon Kardon has confirmed that this will be in Berlin this year and will bring heat to the extent that the smart home is concerned. Last year, we witnessed the release of its colossal range of Citation speakers, and we hope an equally strong surge in 2019.
Smart TVs galore
The IFA is where you will spot the new generation of smart TVs. So expect many sets in 2019. Last year, 8K was a major theme. Samsung and LG were leading the charge with a resolution 16 times higher than that of a standard HDTV..
Essential reading: The best smart TVs to buy today
Sharp, Sony, Panasonic and many others are expected to present smart and brilliant devices this year. We could even get others that support AirPlay 2 and HomeKit. Which brings us to ...
More from HomeKit! More from HomeKit!
If you have paid attention, you will no doubt have noticed that the Apple HomeKit had more love in 2019. It's partly because Apple has changed the rules there a few years so that manufacturers can adapt their devices to HomeKit by modifying their software. , rather than sticking in a physical chip. But Apple also encourages the platform, which appears even in smart TVs.
The IFA will also be close to the Apple event in September, where iOS 13 will be deployed, bringing new features of HomeKit such as support for other types of devices, including smart cameras and routers. This means that we expect more smart home devices to arrive with the HomeKit badge. iOS 13 also introduces the HomeKit Secure Video API, which will allow users to store encrypted video footage on Apple's iCloud servers.
