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Fri, 20th Mar 2015
FYI, this story is more than a year old

In the box this week were Rainbow smart bulbs from a New Zealand company Rainbow High Tech, with patent pending technology, so are they lighting up my day?

When a selection of ‘smart' bulbs appear, my existing plain LED bulbs are unplugged, and the test bulbs added. Being a geek, I have a high bar, and although there are some quirks that could be improved, the Rainbow smart bulbs are actually a cool little addition to the house.

The fun feature of the bulbs that I enjoyed were that these are the first in New Zealand to be able to respond to music. Yes, I would put my music on, and gain my own little disco!

Unfortunately, not being a teenager, I rapidly changed it back to normal lighting, which the Rainbow smart bulbs do very well. There are two types, one style that goes between cool and warm light, and one style that uses RGB LEDs to provide the colour. This does make creating pure white light tricky, as there's always a tinge to it.

The one thing that could be a bonus or a hindrance is the remote. The bulbs rely on IR to change their colours and activate features. This is fine with one bulb (it has actually taken the place of my reading light bulb), but if you want to activate the disco feature, it is difficult to get them all synced.

With the addition of bluetooth or wireless, these bulbs could be lots of fun, with the ability to change between normal lighting and disco for those who love hosting parties.

Rainbow Smart bulbs – Summary

Rainbow High Tech love creating new products, and are innovative at what they have achieved here. The Rainbow smart bulbs have a novelty factor that could be made use of, and is a lot of fun for party animals. I look forward to what else will comes out of the Rainbow stable.