The Z-Wave Alliance announced that the Ecolink 700 Series Garage Door Controller is the first to complete the Z-Wave Long Range (Z-Wave LR) certification. Z-Wave LR establishes a new era of Z-Wave connectivity and brings expanded options for the smart home, multi-dwelling units and hospitality use cases.

Z-Wave LR extends Z-Wave connectivity beyond the interior boundaries of the home to improve the wireless transmission range of peripheral Z-Wave devices such as door locks, garage door sensors, gate access solutions and more while increasing scalability to over 4,000 nodes on a single smart home network. Benefits of Z-Wave LR include increased coverage, increased scalability, optimized battery life, interoperability and backward compatibility.

“When it comes to innovation, we are at the forefront of engineering our products to work harder and smarter,” said Mike Bailey, VP product development and operations for Ecolink. “Any range increases we can introduce into our products, and thus to our customers, only works to enhance their overall experience with smart home and security solutions. It’s a win/win. Moving forward, our plan is for all Z-Wave sensors and devices we work to introduce and certify with the Z-Wave Alliance to include Z-Wave Long Range out of the box.”

While the Ecolink 700 Series Garage Door Controller is the very first to achieve Z-Wave Long Range Certification, additional devices from across the vast Z-Wave Alliance membership are submitted and certified regularly.

“We would like to congratulate Ecolink for being the first to complete certification. The 700 Series Garage Door Controller is an ideal example of the type of device Z-Wave Long Range was designed to enhance,” said Mitchell Klein, executive director, Z-Wave Alliance. “The certification of the first Z-Wave LR device is a milestone for the Alliance as a standards development organization. Developing this specification and making it available to members like Ecolink falls perfectly in line with our mission to advance the Z-Wave standard. Members who actively seek to build their products featuring this specification will undoubtedly have a competitive edge, and we are eager to see more Z-Wave LR enter the market in the coming months.”