Philips' LivingColors launching in Asia

Juniper Foo | Mar 27, 2008

Philips' AmbiScene flexible lighting system has never been "just luminance. It's about illuminance", summed up Matthew Cobham at the Singapore rollout today. Brightness as opposed to the act of illuminating. Ironically, while Cobham attempted to simplify the concept behind AmbiScene, which targets mainly the retail sector and is making its debut in Asia, his title is a mouthful--Philips Lighting, LiDAC manager ASEAN, APR LiDAC coordinator.

Happily for consumers, there's a home application that's more in line with their needs. Besides Ambilight which generates ambient light effects around the TV and is now available in selected models, Philips will be rolling out its gorgeous light fantastic LivingColors for the first time in Asia, starting with Singapore come Q2.

Largely available in Europe since last year, this 20cm-tall organic glass orb contains four LEDs--two reds, one blue and one green. The combination yields a whopping total of 16 million unique colors, which makes it really hard to run out of hues to personalize your mood lighting. What's cool is that this is both directed and ambient lighting, so you can splash colors on your walls a la Vincent van Gogh, and impress the hell out of your guests.

This is controlled wirelessly by a funky-looking remote that sports a Click Wheel-like color wheel. It's all very intuitive. Tapping a color on this circle instantly caused our LivingColors demo unit to produce that color instantaneously, which was great fun. And since it's LED-powered, there is no heat generated from prolonged usage. The only downside we can see to this is that once the LEDs blow, the entire thing goes straight to the trash heap. And it isn't peanuts, going by the 149 euro (US$235.50) sticker. Fortunately, the LEDs have a lifespan of four to five years, based on 3 hours' usage per day (you do the math). Think you want freshly squeezed living colors to paint your home with? We do!

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