Connected Objects
Decoration idea: Govee Glide – LED music
Published on: 02-11-2021 / Modified: 08-11-2021
The holidays are approaching and you will finally be able to see your friends at home after more than a year of covid and confinement. I've got a great idea for a decorative product to liven up your parties. You've probably already seen all sorts of LED ribbons that need to be glued inch by inch and assembled with visible cables, Govee brings a practical solution with Govee Glide.
The Govee Glide is a wall sconce in the form of LED light bars, these bars can be assembled pretty much as you like and you can also choose the type of lighting (automatic or musical).
Where to buy the Govee Glide?
You can find the Govee Glide on the official Govee website: Govee.com
You can also find Govee products on Amazon: Amazon.com
Unpacking
I tested the Govee Glide with 6 lightbars but there are other versions with more lightbars and therefore other configuration possibilities. The box contains the lightbars, a wall socket, an adaptor to turn on/off and receive the sound, an elbow to create an angle and a manual.
Assembly
The LED bars all have two connectors to link the bars together. Simply slide them together, assembly is very easy and there is no wiring involved. Each LED bar has two stickers to attach the bar just about anywhere, you can then let your imagination run wild to create shapes.
There was only one bend in the box I tested, so it allows you to create an L-shaped LED assembly to orientate as you wish. I just draw your attention to one detail that is important. The LED bars can only be assembled in one direction, which means that the bend will always go in the same direction. So assemble the bars first to see if they can be assembled the way you want before gluing them.
The LED bars must then be connected to the power adapter and the power button. This button will of course turn your LEDs on and off, but it is also equipped with a microphone that can pick up ambient noise and play it back as light. Assembly only takes a few minutes, gluing is also quite easy as there are no wires, you just need to make sure you glue the bars to an even surface.
Configuration
Although the LEDs can work with the power button, it would be a shame to miss out on all the possibilities offered by the Govee app. You can download the Govee app for free from the Play Store or the Apple Store. The app allows you to control the LEDs from your phone. The first step is to find the LEDs, this is the third time I've tested a Govee product and I've never had any problems with detection, it only takes a few seconds.
After downloading the app and matching your LEDs with it, you can start having fun. The app allows you to manage each segment individually, so you can decide to apply one style of light to one segment and apply another style to the others, or you can apply the same to all segments. You can choose to have uniform light, animated light, gradient light, or light with music.
To avoid going into a screen-by-screen description, I made a video where I go through the different possibilities.
The customisation possibilities are almost endless and I find the music tracking to be more effective than the LED ribbons I tested last year, the ribbons tended to light up in a disorganised manner. Here I find that the synchronisation with the sound is much more effective. I didn't cut the ad for Deezer, I don't make any money to do so but I thought it was a nice illustration of the quality of the sync.
My opinion
I find this product really interesting because on the one hand it is very easy to assemble and use, it can be displayed in plain sight unlike a LED ribbon that you always have to hide somewhere. It is possible to create all sorts of assemblies to personalize your home, I advise however to take a box with more bars and bends because with a box of 6, you will be able to create an L assembly and not something else.
As I said, the assembly is very easy but you have to make sure to stick the LEDs on a surface (ex: wall) after assembly because even if the connectors are very practical, they do not hold the assembly sufficiently without the help of stickers. I could see myself giving a Star Wars lightsaber demonstration to my son but without support the LEDs will come off. This is obviously not the point of turning these LEDs into a Star Wars lightsaber but I'm sure I'm not the only one who has tried.
The music sync works really well too, you can use it while listening to music or pairing your LED lights with a TV or projection screen. You can also use the LEDs to set the rhythm of your films and series, but I advise you to place the LEDs a little further back from the picture as the brightness may disturb your view.
Questions/Comments