Sony first unveiled its LED Light Bulb Speaker at the previous IFA event in Berlin, which is in line with the company's Life Space UX project. The LED bulb with Bluetooth speaker built in is meant to delight consumers with the exciting combination between nice lighting and sound.
The pairing can be a very interesting idea, particularly among customers who want certain places inside the house to be filled with relaxing or entertaining music. It's also space-saving and cheaper since there is no need to purchase a separate speaker for producing melodic sounds.
The LED bulb can be easily manipulated with a smartphone app for controlling brightness and volume. Customers can also use a dedicated remote that can be paired with the bulb through NFC. The bulb has a 40 mm driver built in and can produce an audio output of up to 2W. The light produced measures up to 360 lumens while the audio is ensured to retain clarity because of the bulb's unshielded front design.
The LED bulb connects both by Bluetooth 3.0 and by NFC remote control.
Sony released a number of images to promote the LED bulb as a way to present the technology between combining light and music in one tangible product. Based on the images, customers can enjoy the bulb-speaker tandem in places like the dining room, the bedroom, the living room and the kitchen. Since the setup would involve just a single LED bulb, customers can practically place it anywhere around their homes.
Sony, however, is not the first company to integrate a speaker within a light bulb. One example is the Hue bulb by Philips, which can also be controlled by a smartphone and boasts of a variety of colors. Sony's LED bulb shines only in white although this could perhaps be just at the beginning.
Sony, in the product's press release, touts the speaker as having a compact and attractive design. The company adds that the speaker allows customers to "play music in places where it's been difficult to put audio equipment before."
The Sony LED Light Bulb Speaker will be initially available in Japan beginning on May 23. The company's online store suggests that the bulb sells at around $199 (23,880 in Japanese yen).
