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The Vergecast

How to save a smart home company

The Vergecast

Vox Media Podcast Network

News, Tech News, Technology

4.3 • 4.3K Ratings

🗓️ 12 August 2025

⏱️ 109 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week on The Vergecast, we enter the Jen-era of Hot Girl Vergecast Summer, with a deep dive into the business of the smart home. The Verge’s smart home reviewer, Jennifer Pattison Tuohy (aka Jen), chats with Ken Fairbanks, a longtime customer of Insteon who ended up buying the smart lighting company when it went into bankruptcy. Ken shares the story of how one of the original smart lighting protocols, founded in the post-X10 era when home automation moved from wired to wireless, floundered, and how he and a band of users brought it back from the dead. He dishes what he’s learned about how to keep the lights on — from customer loyalty and the value of subscriptions, to what tariffs are doing to the industry and how some hardware companies are just pyramid schemes. Then, in a special supersized (and we mean SUPER) Vergecast Hotline (call 866-VERGE11 or email vergecast@theverge.com), Jen is joined by smart home expert Richard Gunther, co-host of The Smart Home Show, to tackle a bunch of your burning smart lighting questions. They answer everything from how to move your smart home to which Thread border router you should buy for your Matter setup. Plus, they run down their own smart lighting set-ups. Further reading: Insteon’s troubles are a smart home tale as old as time Insteon Raises the Curtain for the Next Act Someone turned Insteon’s lights back on Insteon customers turned Insteon’s lights back on Thread count: Ikea is stitching together a smarter home Smart switches or smart bulbs? How to choose the right smart lighting for your home Controller for HomeKit Philips Hue Play sync box and gradient lightstrip review: wholly unnecessary, totally delightful Taming Wi-Fi in the Smart Home: Leviton’s new smart light switches don’t require a neutral wire Every smart home device that works with Matter Aqara’s new seven-inch home control tablet can replace a light switch These smart lights could solve the kitchen cabinet problem Hue launches a pricey new sunrise lamp Smart string light showdown: Nanoleaf versus Lifx The best floodlight camera to buy right now How to move a smart home Moving a smart home - The Smart Home Show Living with the ghost of a smart home’s past Smart ceiling light showdown: Aqara T1M versus Nanoleaf Skylight Binding should be the next big thing for smart home devices Aqara adds support for 50 new Matter device types Flic is ready to control all your Matter devices Thread is Matter’s secret sauce for a better smart home Google Nest Thread border routers Google TV Streamer review: smarter than your average set-top box Google Nest Hub (2nd-gen) review: sleep on it Why Thread is Matter’s biggest problem right now The four changes in Thread 1.4 that could fix the protocol Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Welcome to the Vergecast, the flagship podcast of finally figuring out how to get all of my

0:09.0

smartlights working in one single app. I'm your friend Jen Toey and welcome to the Gen era of the

0:16.3

Vergecast. I will be here for the next two weeks while David gets to play with his gorgeous baby.

0:21.8

Today on the show, we are going to find out how you go about saving a smart home company.

0:27.7

I'm chatting with Ken Fairbanks, CEO of Instion Technologies, about the unlikely comeback of one of the original smart lighting companies.

0:36.9

Then, the guy I go to when I have

0:39.5

questions about smart lighting, Richard Gunther, is going to join me for a super-sized

0:44.8

Vergecast hotline all about smart lighting where we tackle your burning and frankly super

0:50.6

complicated questions about how to make smart lighting work for you.

0:54.9

And all that is coming up right after the break. This is the Virdcast. We'll be right back.

1:02.0

Introducing the new Dell AI PC powered by the Intel Corps Ultra processor. It helps do your

1:07.8

busy work for you so you can fast forward through enhancing security,

1:12.5

simplifying IT management, automating workflows, synthesising data, improving user experience

1:17.6

or responding to James's long emails.

1:21.4

Ooh.

1:23.3

Leaving all the time in the world for the things you actually want to do.

1:26.6

No offence, James.

1:27.8

Get a new Dell AIPC at Dell.co.uk slash AI-PC.

1:33.3

Dell. How those ahead, stay ahead.

1:40.3

Introducing the new Dell AIPC, powered by the Intel Core Ultra processor.

1:45.4

It helps do your busy work for you, so you can fast forward through designing presentations,

1:50.7

summarizing meeting notes, finding files, synthesizing data, organizing decks,

...

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