Nanoleaf's HomeKit-compatible Canvas panels coming Dec. 1

Nanoleaf's next foray into smart lighting, the Canvas panels, will finally ship on Dec. 1, the company's CEO revealed on Friday.

The panels are still in development but close to being finalized, Gimmy Chu told CNET at IFA 2018 in Berlin. A nine-panel starter kit will sell for $199.

The Canvas will be similar to Nanoleaf's current Light Panels, also known as the Aurora, but square and touch-sensitive with some effects triggered simply by touching a panel. There will also be labeled controls letting people cycle through patterns without having to use use the company's mobile app or a voice assistant.

Nanoleaf is promising support for Apple HomeKit and Siri, as well as IFTTT, Amazon Alexa, and Google Assistant.

Some changes have been made in the course of development, Chu noted. The number of panels that can be linked to one power source has dipped from 1,000 to 500, and a cross shape the company was originally hoping to get rid of will be left intact.

"We ran a poll, and the current design actually did really well with our users," said Chu.

Caught up with @Nanoleaf CEO Gimmy Chu at #IFA2018 last night. The new, touch-sensitive Canvas panels are set to arrive December 1st. Here's a peek at the latest design, with new base station controls like a shuffle button built right into one of the panels itself. pic.twitter.com/cmw5HtPIMw
— Ry Crist (@rycrist) August 31, 2018

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3 Comments

payeco

said about 5 years ago

So that wall is 45 light across (that is visible in the photo at least and 16 down. At $199 per 9 squares covering that wall would cost $15,920. I know it’s a marketing photo but who would pay nearly $16k to cover their wall in light panels?

techprod1gy

said about 5 years ago

payeco said:

So that wall is 45 light across (that is visible in the photo at least and 16 down. At $199 per 9 squares covering that wall would cost $15,920. I know it’s a marketing photo but who would pay nearly $16k to cover their wall in light panels?

Most wouldn't do that. It would be obnoxious...typically I have seen this product (I have the triangle panels) used as an accent. I have 30 of the triangles and they are pretty nice.

lightbow

said about 5 years ago

payeco said:

So that wall is 45 light across (that is visible in the photo at least and 16 down. At $199 per 9 squares covering that wall would cost $15,920. I know it’s a marketing photo but who would pay nearly $16k to cover their wall in light panels?

If you're a restaurant or other specialty commercial space, that's actually not too bad. Yes, the raw materials are much cheaper if you assemble it yourself on Amazon, some Chinese hardware, and some firmware/coding skills, but with a product like this, $16k is an absolute bargain considering you get product support, returns if a tile goes faulty, turn-key functionality, etc. I remember when "smart lighting" first came out and people complained that color light bulbs were in the $50-100 range, but the thing to remember is that the products they were replacing cost 10-100x that price, either for wealthy residential customers or other businesses willing to pay premium for special accents. This stuff will only get cheaper and cheaper over time.