An often-ignored segment in the smart lighting space is outdoor lighting. Signify announced a bunch of outdoor Hue products last year, but they’ve been slow to deliver, and the products all still rely on line voltage. Professional outdoor landscape lighting is typically low voltage, and we’re seeing more and more viable battery or solar options, too. But not in the DIY smart space.
This year, Ring is bringing numerous new outdoor lighting products to market, fully embracing the products and technology they brought in with last year’s Mr. Beams acquisition. As part of it’s “ring of security” ethos, Ring’s new security lighting line-up is comprehensive.
If you already know Mr. Beams’ previous offerings, some of these products will look familiar to you. They have a spotlight (that actually is a spotlight), a floodlight, steplight, and pathlight…all of which are powered by batteries. They’ll also offer a wired version of the floodlight, a wireless motion sensor, and a transformer that you can use to convert your existing low-voltage landscape lighting. The big difference between this line and Ring’s current lighting options is that none of them have onboard cameras. They do, however, sport motion sensors.
Ring has been working to integrate the Mr. Beams products into its own ecosystem, so these new lights will work in conjunction with your other Ring devices via a new Ring Bridge. Front doorbell detects motion? Ring can turn on some nearby yard lights. Path lights detect motion? Turn on lights (or the camera) at your front door! This is an incredibly versatile system of yard and perimeter lights that can work up to 1000 feet [one thousand feet!] from the bridge.
One of our favorites in the new lineup is the transformer. Nobody else seems to be playing in this space. Replace your existing low-voltage transformer for your in-ground landscape lighting, and you can make that smart, too, through Ring. Set schedules, have all your exterior lighting turn on when any motion is detected, … the possibilities seem endless.
Alexa, Turn on the Beams
The pièce de résistance here is that Ring’s new security lights will, at launch, all work with Alexa. So sure…“Alexa, turn on the outside lights” will work. But imagine the power of Alexa Routines. Create schedules, includes exterior lights in scenes, trigger lights based on other events in your home, or even trigger other devices in your home based on motion sensed by any of these devices. This is truly powerful. It makes sense that they’d first integrate with Amazon, since Ring is now part of Amazon. But we sincerely hope Amazon doesn’t go all “Amazon v. Google” here and constrain the Ring team’s ability to extend this power to Google Assistant, IFTTT, and other integration platforms.
These new lighting products will be available in white and black. The lights will range in price from around $25 to $120, the motion sensor is just under $25, the bridge will cost about $50, and the transformer will run about $100. All of these new security lighting products are slated to hit the market in March, and many will be discounted at launch.
Keep an eye on all of our CES 2019 coverage right here.
