A new Philips Hue outdoor lighting product was leaked today by esteemed German website SmartLights.de, namely the Hue Wave Linear. According to the post, the new product, which is sort of a cross between longer Hue Play Bar, and the Hue Outdoor Lightstrip, is due to drop very soon – i.e. possibly this year (what’s left of it…), although it’s much more likely to be in early 2021.
The Wave is designed to throw colour onto garden walls, hedges, fences etc. and comes in an 80cm / 31.5in enclosed strip capable of the standard 16 million colours, with a height of 5cm / 1.97in, and 6.8cm / 2.68in deep. It also comes with a sort of ‘baffle’ that allows the light to be directed to just one side.
The Wave is designed to work with Philips own low voltage system, which also means the strips can extend further along your garden, with the use of extension cables. According to the original article, the system can extend to five Wave strips in total, with each strip pulling 20w, for a total of 10ow from one power source. Each strip is capable of an impressive 1400lm and is also capable of warm to cool whites. As with all Hue products, this uses Zigbee and for this, it will require a Hue Bridge, although it doesn’t seem to use Bluetooth, unlike a lot of their newer products, which makes sense if it’s going to be in a garden. As these are outdoor lights, they come with both IP65 and IP44 ratings.
German site HueBlog.de also reports on a new and updated Dimmer Switch, that replaces the typical four-button design for a three-button version, taking the two central dimmer buttons, and replacing them with a new, combined rocker button design. Whilst the overall design looks similar in many ways to original, the new model looks a lot more up-to-date and cleaner. The top button features a raised strip to help you know which button is the top one if you happen to be in the dark, while the bottom button now features the Hue logo in place of an ‘off’ or text-based graphic.
Hopefully next year we’ll get an idea of price, but for now, start to make some plans for your garden wall…
Credit to Jonas from Smartlights.de for the find and images, and Fabian & Michael (hueblog.de) for the tipoff.