The second edition of the Smart Living Forum took place in Solingen on June 14, 2025. And as previously announced, ioBroker was once again actively involved this year.
Solingen, the city of blades, aims to establish itself as a modern smart city. The focus is on key topics such as mobility, energy and the environment, security and resilience, urban and spatial planning, and the responsible use of open data and municipal data.
The city relies on digital technologies that are used in a practical way and made directly accessible to citizens.
An overview of current projects and the digital urban development strategy is available on the official platform: https://solingen.digital
On the way to the event – with Kai Kreuzer (center), founder and director of openHAB
Our team was represented with its own information stand, a presentation, and a continuous presence in talks and discussions on the topics of Smart Home and Smart City.
Special thanks to our guys who took care of the organization, technology, presentation and support on site.
From left to right: Denis, Eric, Marcel, Ingo, Moritz, Arthur.
In addition to ioBroker, other players in the smart home and digitalization scene also presented themselves with their own stands and contributions:
openHAB – Open Source Platform for Home Automation
Simon42 – "YouTuber" focusing on home automation with Home Assistant
HomematicIP – Smart Home System for Home and Building Control
dnt (Digital Network Technologies) – Solutions for building automation and LoRaWAN integration
Solingen Digital – municipal project for digital transformation
There was always something going on at the ioBroker booth
Despite the summer heat, which probably led to a few fewer visitors, the day was truly exciting and enjoyable for us. The atmosphere was open and friendly. It wasn't just about technology, but also about ideas, experiences, and mutual exchange.
The "Glass Workshop" was technically well-equipped as a venue. For example, we had two large touchscreens on which we could demonstrate ioBroker live – which was well received.
At our stand, we answered many questions, had exciting discussions, and were able to speak directly with interested visitors about their projects.
Daily schedule and presentations
After the official start in the morning with a welcome from Carsten Zimmermann (Department Manager) and an introduction by Nils Gerken (CDO of Solingen Digital), the event continued with exciting presentations.
The morning was dedicated to artificial intelligence and digitalization. Prof. Dr. René Frings from CBS University explained basic AI concepts and current developments. Kai Kreuzer (Telekom AI Competence Center & openHAB Foundation) then spoke about how software is changing through AI and what this means for the smart home sector.
From 12:30 p.m. after the lunch break, the community projects took over:
openHAB
ioBroker Lecture – Architecture, History, Ecosystem
The ioBroker presentation was given by Denis Haev (bluefox) and Ingo Fischer (Apollon77) and was divided into two sections:
Part 1:
- Introduction to ioBroker and its architecture
- Review of the development history: From CCU.IO (2013) to the founding of ioBroker GmbH (2017)
up to current developments such as vis-2 (2022) and the 10th anniversary in 2024 and what ioBroker is today.
- The strengths of ioBroker. Among other things, logic (Scenes, Scheduler, Rules, Blockly, Node-RED and JavaScript, TypeScript), flexible object structure,
own Alexa skills, visualization options (vis-2, lovelace, HABPanel, iQontrol ...)
- Use in industrial processes (e.g. Audi, Villeroy & Boch, Hoyer)
Part 2:
In his talk, Ingo presented projects that emerged from the ioBroker ecosystem and are now used far beyond ioBroker. These libraries are now also used in platforms such as Home Assistant, Node-RED, HomeBridge, and openHAB. ioBroker is thus making a significant contribution to the further development of open source technologies in the smart home sector.
Another focus was the new Matter standard. Ingo explained the technical fundamentals and advantages:
- Cross-manufacturer interoperability
- Local communication without cloud constraints
- Secure, encrypted data transfer
- Multi-admin capability
- Certification and testing processes
He also discussed the requirements for Matter in the home network, such as the use of Thread, IPv6, MDNS, and UDP. He also demonstrated how alternative implementations such as matter.js complement the official C++ version and how these open source versions provide an accessible foundation, especially for developers.
Here, too, it becomes clear that open source means collaboration rather than competition. Many of the tools presented benefit from mutual exchange between development teams, platforms, and projects – this is precisely what makes such technologies sustainable.
Simon42
A little extra at the end: Given the temperatures, the ice cream truck was just the thing.
Finally
The day was not only a platform for networking, but also an incentive to further develop ioBroker as a tool for creative, scalable and future-proof solutions.
Ingo also shared some insights in the forum:
We are already looking forward to the next event and to meeting many of you in person.
Stay smart and stay open.
Your ioBroker team!