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Switched On: Light music
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. Last month, Switched On discussed two of the Android expansion initiatives announced at Google's I/O conference -- the relatively easy to execute Android Open Accessory program and the relatively difficult to execute Android@Home initiative. In support of the latter, which would seek to wedge a new home networking standard among wireless systems such as Zigbee, Z-Wave and Insteon. In making the case for Android@Home, Google showed off a new LED light bulb from Lighting Science Group that included the necessary data radio embedded in the bulb. The advantage versus traditional lighting controls is that it removes the requirement for an electrician (or at least advanced DIYer) to build the radio into the wall plate. NXP Semiconductors has also shown off both compact flourescent and LED bulbs that can be controlled wirelessly via smartphones and other devices. But in a quest to tackle two staples of the smart home in one flip of a switch,, speaker house Artison has teamed up with lighting company Sylvania. to create MusicLites. As its name suggests, MusicLites combines lighting controls and multi-zone distributed audio in in a single product, but is it an approach you'll buy into?
MusicLites shoves a speaker, wireless transmitter and LED light into single canister
Look, we've no beef with Osram Sylvania (nor Artison, for that matter), but calling these MusicLites "a first of its kind" is a bit of a stretch, if not an outright falsity. Klipsch launched essentially the same thing back at CES this year with the LightSpeaker, but hey, we've no gripes with a little competition in the space. The aforementioned duo has joined up in order to produce something that should make the art of integrating whole home audio into your own abode a good bit easier, with the MusicLites design combining a 10-watt LED light, a 70mm full-range loudspeaker and a wireless audio receiver. The device can slide into four-, five- or six-inch recessed cans, and we're told that it'll provide light output equivalent to a 65-watt reflector bulb. As you'd probably expect, there's a proprietary 2.4GHz transceiver that works with a variety of sources, some of which include USB, smartphones and PMPs. Each kit will ship with a pair of 3.8" x 5.3" modules and a remote that controls light dimming and audio settings, and while mum's the word on pricing, it'll be commercially available sometime in the fall.
