Smart home hardware that speaks every protocol.
A hub that promises to control "any smart home device" has to actually speak several incompatible radio protocols at once, on shared hardware, and reconcile them behind one coherent app experience. Rivix builds that stack end to end — hardware, firmware, cloud and the mobile app that ties it together.
One team across the stack for multi-protocol home hardware.
Hardware, firmware, cloud and the mobile app that ties it together get built end to end, reconciling several incompatible radio protocols behind one coherent experience.
- Embedded Hardware
- Firmware
- Cloud & Device Platforms
- Mobile & Web Apps
- AI & Intelligence
Where AI accelerates
- Driver scaffolding
- Protocol stack boilerplate
- UI scaffolding
- Component library setup
Where it stays human
- Device-pairing edge cases
- Interrupt priority design
- UX decisions
- Accessibility judgment calls
The full stack, scoped for a multi-protocol home device.
Embedded Hardware
Multi-radio hardware design for hubs and sensors that need to coexist on shared silicon.
Explore hardware →Firmware
Local-first processing and protocol coexistence — FreeRTOS, Zephyr and bare-metal; BLE, Wi-Fi, LoRa, Zigbee and cellular.
Explore firmware →Cloud & Device Platforms
Reserved for account sync, remote access and functionality that genuinely needs it — not the default execution path.
Explore cloud →Mobile & Web Apps
Device-pairing UX and the failure-mode handling that breaks demos if left to AI scaffolding alone.
Explore mobile & web →AI & Intelligence
On-device event classification for alerting use cases, so raw sensor data doesn't have to leave the home to be useful.
Explore AI & Intelligence →What actually shapes a multi-protocol home device architecture.
Matter and Thread solve different layers
They're not interchangeable, and the hardware impact differs.
- Thread — a low-power, IPv6-based mesh networking protocol
- Matter — an application-layer standard for device capability models, running over Thread, Wi-Fi and other transports
- Thread needs an 802.15.4-capable radio (dedicated or multiprotocol SoC); Matter needs formal certification
Radio coexistence on shared hardware
Interference is a real design constraint, not an edge case.
- Zigbee, Thread, BLE and often Wi-Fi all share the 2.4GHz band
- Z-Wave sits in a separate sub-GHz band, largely avoiding that
- A hub normalizes all radios into one internal device-capabilities representation, updating each coprocessor's firmware independently, in sequence, with rollback safety
Commercial BAS is a different discipline
BACnet and Modbus have been the standard for HVAC, lighting and building-controls integration for a long time. Because these systems run safety-relevant building functions, the design pattern shifts to watchdog supervision, fail-safe defaults on comms loss, and firmware update processes built for zero downtime.
Pairing is a joint firmware-and-app problem
Getting pairing right takes more than a UI screen.
- Advertising interval trades discoverability against power draw — aggressive during pairing, power-conserving after connect or timeout
- RSSI-based proximity feedback helps users find the right device
- iOS/Android differ meaningfully in BLE permissions, background scanning, and OEM-level fragmentation
Real builds in smart home and connected consumer hardware.
Pulled from our case-study library — same AI/human split shown in full, industry context included.
Modular Smart-Home Hub, Local-First Voice Control
US-based smart-home technology startupA modular smart-home hub connects home devices and sensors while providing local-first voice interaction and automation, reducing dependence on cloud processing.
Smart-Home Router with Distributed Home Sensors
US-based smart-home / consumer networking companyA central smart-home router/gateway connects distributed home sensors and provides a unified platform for device provisioning, monitoring, automation and user control.
Multi-Sensor Water-Leak & Freeze Guard
US-based home-protection / smart-home startupA connected home-protection sensor combines multiple environmental signals to detect water leaks, freezing conditions and other potentially damaging events.
What we've written about Matter, Thread and radio coexistence.
Matter and Thread for Smart Home Product Design
Which one changes your silicon, firmware, and certification path is what actually matters for a product roadmap.
Read the article →Designing Multi-Protocol Smart Home Hubs That Don't Lock Users In
Speaking several incompatible radio protocols at once, on shared hardware, reconciled behind one coherent app.
Read the article →Building Reliable Building Automation Systems for Commercial Spaces
Commercial BAS is a different discipline entirely from smart home — legacy protocols, uptime, and live-building retrofits.
Read the article →Designing a Reliable Bluetooth Pairing Experience
Getting pairing right is a joint firmware-and-app problem, not just a UI one.
Read the article →What people ask before scoping a smart-home product.
Which RTOS / wireless stacks do you work with?
FreeRTOS, Zephyr and bare-metal on the RTOS side; BLE, Wi-Fi, LoRa, Zigbee and cellular on connectivity, chosen based on your power and range constraints, not by default.
Who handles device-pairing edge cases?
Pairing UX design and the trickier failure-mode handling — dropped connections, firmware mismatch, multi-device conflicts — stays with a senior engineer.
Do you build local-first, or does everything depend on the cloud?
Local-first where it matters — cloud connectivity is reserved for account sync, remote access and functionality that genuinely needs it, not the default execution path.
Can you take over a board someone else started?
Yes. We audit the existing schematic/layout, flag the risks, and either harden it or re-spin the sections that need it — we don't force a full restart by default.