Aqara has taken its next major step into the professional integration market with the launch of the Edge Hub M300—a plug-and-play, locally controlled smart home solution tailored for residential, multi-family, and light commercial environments—and companion Aqara Studio Connect software.
The system bundles hardware and software to unify home automation, offering native interoperability across widely used consumer and pro-grade protocols.
Aqara Edge Hub M300: Bridging Pro and Consumer Systems
The Edge Hub M300 supports major wireless standards—Zigbee, Thread, Wi-Fi, Ethernet, and Bluetooth—plus the interoperability of Matter.
It also integrates pro-level systems via KNX IP, BACnet IP and Modbus TCP, while offering bridges to professional control platforms such as Control4, Josh AI and Nice, as well as more middle-market platforms like Alexa, Apple Home and Google Home.
In addition to bridging multiple pro and middle-market systems, the Edge Hub M300 also opens access to Aqara’s own product ecosystem. This includes several unique products not commonly integrated into professional systems such as robovacs, home appliances and EV chargers.
Aqara Studio Connect, a simplified version of its flagship software, runs directly on the hub, providing lightweight installation and management for integrators via a web-based interface.
Aqara Studio Connect
An example of the Studio Connect interface. Image/Aqara
According to Aqara, the Studio Connect interface is meant to allow for management of client systems without the need for additional software installation.
The software adds remote access capabilities in addition to a ‘flow-based’ automation editor, which Aqara describes as being able to create automations on the network in a ‘no-code environment,’ reducing the overall complexity of work.
Aqara and the Decentralization of the Smart Home
While Aqara has offered a dealer portal on its site for quite some time, this latest announcement tied with its appearance at CEDIA Expo 2025, marks the most substantial push the company has made into the professional integration space to date.
This comes at a time when one of the main challenges being faced by integrators now is the demand of ‘simplicity’ from clients. While major smart home platforms continue to add greater interoperability between integrated devices the challenge remains in the interfaces used to control these devices.
Though, rather than fighting for a singular unified interface for everything, it seems as though decentralization of a smart home’s systems might be the direction the industry is heading, one where a smart home’s systems are controlled across a handful of apps or web-based portals.
This phenomenon has already been glimpsed somewhat in houses that incorporate Apple’s HomeKit into their systems, but the act of decentralizing smart home control also stands as an overarching goal of Matter, which has gradually been building its own capabilities with major product manufacturers beginning to add support for it into their products.
Aqara’s ecosystem fits snugly into that category of smart home platforms primed for decentralization, being able to reportedly control up to 500 connected devices through a single hub.
Additionally, Aqara’s ability to operate on a local area network through the Edge Hub M300 means devices connected to the Aqara network can still run even during outages, though it does have cloud as well as local backups.
Integrators interested in exploring Aqara’s offerings and who happen to be attending CEDIA Expo 2025 will be able to find the company at booth #729, Hall A-F, in the Colorado Convention Center.
