Govee Skyline Package evaluation: Beautiful floating LED accent lighting

I maintain questioning when the good lighting class will change into tapped out. Bulbs, lamps, strings, and strips. We’re certainly approaching peak good lighting about now.

However we’re not there but, thanks partially to the Govee Strip Gentle with Skyline Package, conveniently abbreviated as simply the Skyline Package. Govee is already considered one of my favourite good lighting producers—I’ve 5 of its merchandise put in in my residence proper now—and the Hong Kong-based operation continues to innovate.

As Govee places it, the Skyline Package is “greater than a lighting accent,” it’s a “refined design factor that makes use of mild to form and elevate inside areas.” That aim is achieved by attaching a normal adhesive strip mild to a strip of flattened metal wire, permitting you to droop the strip mild in open area as a substitute of sticking it to a wall.

If that doesn’t make sense, that is a kind of instances the place an image tells the story finest. However in different phrases, the Skyline Package is accent lighting that emanates from mid-air, throwing mild right into a darkish nook, onto the ceiling, or from beneath an alcove.

Specs

There may be nothing particular concerning the underlying lighting tech right here: That is merely an LED strip mild, outfitted with a flowery backing system on which to hold it. The LEDs within the strip use RGBWWIC know-how (there are discrete pink, inexperienced, blue, white, and heat white ICs) with a most cumulative energy draw of 36 watts. The strip consists of eight addressable zones, with every zone containing six lamps.

Set up and setup

From the bounce I’ll say this is without doubt one of the most tough and wearisome good lighting installations I’ve undertaken. I might categorically not advocate you try to put in it until you’re utterly comfy with the fundamentals of residence enchancment, you don’t thoughts drilling a variety of holes in your partitions (eight), and also you’re rock regular whereas working excessive on a ladder.

In broad strokes, you’ll have to stretch the aforementioned wire between two reverse partitions, protecting it taut so the strip mild connected to it doesn’t sag within the center; in any other case, the LEDs gained’t ship the specified impact on the ceiling. All that requires some fancy footwork on Govee’s finish—and a variety of trial and error on yours.

Christopher Null/Foundry

I gained’t stroll via your entire set up course of, however I’ll hit the most important steps to offer you a taste for it. My first problem was merely discovering a spot in my residence the place the Skyline Package would even work. The equipment shall be obtainable in two variations, relying on size: 4 meters ($120) or 6 meters ($150). Govee despatched the shorter model upfront of the product’s Might 11 launch, however discovering two partitions lower than about 13 ft aside—with entry to a close-by energy supply—proved tough.

Virtually each location the place I believed the Skyline Package may look good was simply too huge, and in contrast to customary strip lights, there’s no approach to prolong the Skyline Package with extra items. (It will possibly, nevertheless, be reduce shorter utilizing common scissors: snip the wire after which the sunshine strip at common intervals denoted on the tape.)

Finally, I discovered a spot that might work in my storage, primarily illuminating a prolonged work bench about 10 ft lengthy. That is in all probability not what Govee had in thoughts for a “refined design factor,” but it surely turned out to be an excellent match for testing.

Christopher Null/Foundry

Step one is to put in two mounting bases on reverse partitions, every of which will get connected with 4 screws. Govee consists of wall anchors within the field in the event you’re mounting to drywall; sadly, these are usually not the most effective wall anchors for the job, and so they pushed via on one facet of the wall throughout my set up course of. This brought on the mounting base to tug away from it.

So, I’d advocate utilizing higher-quality anchors, as you will have these mounting bases to look as clear—and as safe—as doable on the wall.

Subsequent, you’re tasked with unspooling the wire strip and flattening it out (plan to have a variety of flat area for this, like a hardwood ground), then adhering the lighting strip to the wire strip. I didn’t actually perceive why Govee didn’t present the 2 already linked—particularly for the reason that mild strip should be put in with a spot of precisely 7.5 centimeters at one finish of the wire strip. That’s a tedious and considerably delicate course of.

The wire then attaches to the mounting base by way of what Govee calls “fixing bars,” pairs of units that allow you to pull the wire tight by screwing the 2 halves of the fixing bar collectively, slowly elevating the strain on the wire till it’s taut. After one fixing bar is put in, you then reduce each the steel wire and the strip mild to suit earlier than connecting them each to the second fixing bar.

Christopher Null/Foundry

That is the place I bumped into essentially the most hassle of the day, as my wire turned out to be too lengthy, requiring me to disassemble issues, reduce it, and take a look at once more. On the second attempt it was once more too lengthy, and solely on my third try did it daybreak on me that the trick was to aim to maximize the size of the fixing bars, not reduce it. Screwing the fixing bars collectively is tough work, and it can save you your self a giant headache by reducing the quantity of rotating it’s a must to do to tug the wire in good and tight.

Professional tip: Pay shut consideration to each element within the full printed handbook (simply ignore the quick-start information) at every step of the method. Hopefully, movies will even be obtainable when the product ships to retail that may make clear among the trickier points.

Eventually, with the wire taut throughout the room, the Skyline Package will be powered up. That is performed by way of a pigtail that snakes out from one of many fixing bars. There’s sadly no nice resolution for mitigating this eyesore. As with most strip mild merchandise, you’re by yourself relating to hiding the uncovered wiring. You’ll in all probability need to make sure you depart entry to the inline management field, which supplies entry to on-demand energy, a color-changing characteristic, and a brightness adjuster.

Utilizing the Govee Skyline equipment

Christopher Null/Foundry

After greater than two hours of labor, I had the equipment put in and operational. Even earlier than I configured it, the Gove Skyline’s impact was spectacular, casting a energetic, aesthetically pleasing backlight right into a previously darkish nook. And whereas not likely the purpose of the product, it additionally supplies some useful working mild to the area after I wanted it. The colours are vibrant—very like Govee’s strip lights—and the whites vivid.

You’ll use the Govee app to handle the lights, and also you’ll virtually definitely want it regardless of the machine’s Matter assist, as a result of that’s the one approach to handle its coloration options. The Govee app found the Skyline Package robotically after it was powered up—though the app recognized it as a normal strip mild—and I used to be capable of instantly begin working with it.

So far as the Govee app is anxious, the Skyline is a daily strip mild, and it may well do all the identical issues, together with selecting from dozens of scenes, setting a normal white coloration temperature (a heat 2700 Kelvin to very cool 6500K), and pulsating in time with music both by way of a microphone connected to the ability wire of the machine or via your telephone’s mic.

Christopher Null/Foundry

Govee’s AI assistant may create customized scenes based mostly on verbal or typed prompts—or perhaps a photograph you’ve snapped. That stated, none of those options are any totally different than you’ll discover on customary Govee strip lights.

This evaluation is a part of TechHive’s in-depth protection of the most effective good lighting.

I did encounter one downside when calibrating the size of the lights. An ostensibly useful instrument helps you to inform the Govee app precisely the place you narrow the strip of lights, which helps you to recalibrate scenes and reset the beginning and finish factors of lighting results.

I adopted the instructions within the app however this merely didn’t work proper: After calibration, the final foot or extra of lights remained white throughout most coloration operations, as if these lights didn’t exist. I ended up recalibrating the lights to inform the app that the strip was 5 steps longer than it really was with a view to get these final segments to mild up correctly. I presume that is only a bug that may ultimately be resolved by way of a firmware replace.

Do you have to purchase a Govee Skyline Package?

Christopher Null/Foundry

As with all good residence tech, I have to now determine whether or not to depart these lights in place or dismantle them now that my testing is full. For now, I’m planning to depart them put in, partially as a result of I do know removing shall be a headache and partially as a result of I need to see how helpful they’re over the long run. The sunshine appears nice. The chunky mounting brackets on both wall and the dangling cable, not a lot, and I’m hoping that model 2.0 of this know-how cleans up the {hardware} a bit.

If you could find a spot in your house the place this resolution is smart—and each its brackets and cabling will be no less than considerably hidden—it’s price contemplating as a probably highly effective assertion piece.