President, Chief Executive Officer & Director, SEMTECH CORP
Semtech's LoRa® vision - Hong Hou, Wienke Giezeman - The Things Conference
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About Hong Hou
Hong Hou, who became President and CEO of Semtech approximately 100 days ago after serving as a board member for a year, discussed the company's strategy for its LoRa technology at The Things Conference in October 2024. Hou described himself as a technologist by training with experience in national labs in China, Japan, and the US, and said he previously led the Ethernet and Cloud networking business group at Intel for five years. He stated that LoRa is "one of the bright spots" in Semtech's portfolio and that the company is committed to expanding the product portfolio and supporting the ecosystem. Hou outlined a five-year plan to identify key applications and work with ecosystem partners to provide more enablement from hardware and software to accelerate industry adoption. He noted that LoRa technology has demonstrated stability, with devices from 2015 still working with base stations purchased years ago, which he said gives confidence in the long-term strategy. Hou also mentioned that Semtech has a broader portfolio to solve IoT challenges including cellular, LoRa, and LoRaWAN, and that the company does not push any particular technology but develops enabling blocks to make integration easier. He said this was his first time at The Things Conference but would not be his last, and he looked forward to working with the community.
Transcript (16 segments)
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Interviewer0:05
Welcome, thank you. Good morning, good morning. So, you are the first CEO of Semtech to visit our event, so it's really great to have you here. You started three months ago, but I think the audience would love to know a bit about your history. The first thing I noted about your biography was that you are an electrical engineer, right? So I think that's a good thing, that's very exciting. But yeah, we would love to learn who you are.
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Hong Hou0:44
As you said, good morning. I am Hong Hou. I became the CEO of Semtech about 100 days ago, but I was a board member and I'm still a board member a year prior to that, so I know the company pretty well. I'm a technologist by training. I spent probably 10 to 15 years in the academic world. I'm probably one of the few who worked in national labs in three different countries: China, Japan, and the US. I also worked at AT&T Bell Laboratories. But I got into the commercial world and worked in communications and photonics for about 28 years. Prior to joining Semtech, I worked at Intel for five years in charge of the business group in Ethernet and cloud networking. So it's a very exciting time, as you said, right time, right place. I feel that way. I joined Semtech hoping I bring the right skill set to lead the company to the next step. So it's really exciting within my first 100 days to get this chance to join the Things Conference and visit the LoRa community, get a chance to talk to many of you throughout today, and I look forward to working with you in the future too.
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Interviewer2:21
Well, we're honored to have you here. So thanks a lot for coming over all the way. So you said your first 100 days, and you were already a board member. Looking at the entire portfolio of all the different chips and types of silicon that you make, what was your first impression about LoRa? How did you learn into it and how did you experience it?
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Hong Hou2:52
In my first 100 days, first of all, Semtech has a pretty broad product portfolio. We have done an in-depth review of the portfolio. LoRa is one of the bright spots, and I really love the technology. It has demonstrated tremendous potential. It has a very comprehensive ecosystem to push the technology from concept to product to now an industry. We continue to be very excited about LoRa, and this is one of the areas we will continue to invest and are committed to expanding the product portfolio and continuing to innovate and support the ecosystem. I have been learning LoRa, and that's not my area, but I think I can do installation of your gateway without a hard hat. You'll get one, so you're not leaving without one. It's a great technology. Also, right before I got here, I visited our design center in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, and over the last month or so we've been doing very in-depth review on the technology and product roadmap, and we identified some opportunities and some gaps. I'm committed to providing the resources to continue to innovate and support the ecosystem by providing key building blocks and enablement capabilities.
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Interviewer4:35
That's really great to hear this commitment. Semtech has always been a main supporter with all kinds of tools and initiatives. Maybe it's already too early to dive into this, but how do you see this moving forward? What kind of innovation directions can you already share? Is there something that we can look forward to?
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Hong Hou5:05
I am still learning, and my opinion continues to evolve. But I'm very proud that Semtech, as the inventor of the LoRa technology over the last decade, has pushed the product as a building block and enabled the industry to develop many applications. We've been very successful in smart metering, and now connected spaces. There are a lot of good use cases. In the future, for asset tracking, we want to provide more technology to make integration easier, to unlock the potential and help proliferate the LoRa technology for many different applications. We welcome your feedback on what's needed and what's impeding further expansion and penetration of this technology into the industry. We will take your input, incorporate it into our roadmap, and develop next-generation products. We have a very robust roadmap to enable new applications based on the feedback we have received, fundamentally to make integration easier and add more features.
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Interviewer6:33
Very interesting. I showed some slides on what analysts predict, like very steady growth going forward. Do you have a specific vision for five years from now, ten years from now? If I look back, when I started in 2015, I bought a Kerlink gateway as one of the leaders in the gateway market. The beauty of LoRa is that it's still on my roof, and if I buy a brand new device now, it still works flawlessly with that base station. So I think a lot of people in the ecosystem are confident in the long-term strategy that Semtech has with LoRa, otherwise there wouldn't be any adoption. They're sometimes a bit scared of the amount of new changes and releases that come within, for instance, the cellular segment. So what's your vision on that? Is this something you're embracing, as you just said? Ten years from now, we still want to have that story, want to innovate fast. Where do you want to be?
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Hong Hou7:58
My understanding is there's no one cookie-cutter solution for all the industry challenges. LoRa technology provides very unique capabilities: long range, low power, low latency, and high sensitivity. We need to think about applications in these areas. We continue to look at different requirements we can use for some unique applications. It has been very robust as a technology platform. What I want to do in the next five years is identify the key applications, work with the ecosystem and partner ecosystem to provide more enablement. We can provide more building blocks from IC and even software points of view to enable the industry to adopt the solution faster. I think that can be one differentiation provided by Semtech going into the next five to ten years.
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Interviewer9:10
Definitely. If you look at the firmware and software that's being widely used, many device makers use Semtech reference designs and software. I always like to describe it as LoRa is cracking a lot of different nuts, but you're giving me another one. It's a diverse cookie cutter, so that's great to hear. You mentioned that you're here to learn from the ecosystem, to learn all the different nuts that are being cracked. I literally after nine years still get excited and energized when somebody figures out a new solution. Can you share a bit about what kind of stories you've heard about end users that really got you excited?
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Hong Hou10:25
When I learned the LoRa technology and what can be done, I'm learning new things and getting more and more excited. For example, Monday when I was in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, where our R&D team for LoRa IC design is, I met with the EchoStar Telemark, and he drove by and showed that I can use the end device even without line of sight to talk to the EchoStar satellite and get a very high signal. It's just very fascinating. It's hard to believe that 36,000 kilometers away, we have that sensitivity and you can do tracking really nicely. It's just fascinating. I feel like the application is boundless, with boundless opportunities. We can turn on our innovation juice to develop new applications. I feel like this industry has evolved from hobbyist things in the beginning over the last decade into a sizable industry. Going forward, we should not be afraid of sharing the successful story. There's tremendous total cost of ownership benefits for using this technology, tremendous opportunities to reduce cost in factory automation, connected spaces, and asset tracking can be another very fascinating area to improve productivity. Those are the things every day I hear new use cases and success stories. Probably today you'll hear more than one.
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Interviewer12:31
Absolutely. That's why I wanted to cover as much ground as possible today, walk on the show floor, and talk to the leaders of the ecosystem. I'm very excited.
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Hong Hou12:44
That's great to hear. Here at the event, maybe there's one percent of our developer ecosystem, but many of them are looking online, and it's great that you shared it with them. I think everybody knows how to get in touch with Semtech; they have an FAE they can talk to, so they can get in touch even if they're watching online. This ecosystem here and where we originate from is all LoRa and LoRaWAN. But how we do our sales as a company is very consultative. We will never push LoRa in a way where it doesn't fit or where another technology is better. Many times a week we say, 'Hey, go use cellular, go use Bluetooth,' because that fits. Now you, as Semtech, have a broader portfolio. How do you see that? This crowd is here because of IoT, but everybody uses different technologies, and you have a wide portfolio to offer as well.
That's right. We have a broader portfolio to solve IoT challenges: cellular, LoRa, and LoRaWAN. Certainly we're not pushing for a particular technology, because I believe every technology was developed and exists and is thriving for a good reason. We depend on the users and specific use cases, but we will be developing the enabling blocks from hardware and software points of view to make integration easier, to make you do your job better. I myself brought about 20 some colleagues from Semtech here, so feel free to interface with them. We have global application engineering coverage to help proliferate this technology, serving customer needs. We'll continue to do that and expand our team. Ultimately, the application speaks for itself. They will choose the right technology for the right application. We're here to provide all the different enablement and different technology to enable that.
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Interviewer15:13
Great. Thanks. Do you have any last remarks you want to share? You have a big booth there, so people can find you there.
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Hong Hou15:21
That's right. We have a big booth. But it is my first time, and I can assure you it won't be my last time to be here. I really look forward to getting to know you, getting to know your application, sharing your successful story so that the whole industry will flourish. We will be backstopping you by continuing to innovate together on new technology. Give us feedback on what bells and whistles you want added into the IC capabilities and software capabilities. We will continue to support you and continue to innovate. This is a great industry. I'm really excited to be here, really excited to work with you in the future as well. Thank you.
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Interviewer16:14
Thank you very much for being here.