One of the most fun and useful smart home product categories is that of Smart Lights. Part of what makes them so fun is all the many millions of colours they can light up in, as well as the unique and interesting configurations that many smart lights come in. Never has that been more true than with the modular lighting system known as Monster Smart IlluminEssence DIGIT 3D LED Art Panels. These colourful smart lights (that come in a 3 segment starter kit) can be arranged in a variety of clever configurations that can grow to something well beyond the initial 3 panels that come in the kit I’m reviewing today. For all the info and useful details, just keep reading the rest of this blog.
But before you dive all the way in, why not take a minute or two to check out my brief video overview of these smart panel lights? In it I show the lights up close, I show them lit up and in use, and I summarize my general thoughts on their overall service and performance:
Monster Smart DIGIT art panels features and specs
Monster DIGIT 3D LED art panels come in the 3 piece kit you see pictured at right, which not only allows them to be arranged in a variety of unique and interesting configurations, but also allows you to keep on adding more and more 3 piece sets to the mix to create whatever complex arrangement your imagination can conceive of. These lights also have some other cool features, like the ability to glow in millions (over 16 million, in fact) of different colours, special multi-colour and colour changing patterns that you can set them to glow in, and easy app based control via the Monster Smart App and your home’s 2.4GHz Wi-Fi network connection. Compatible smart phones and tablets include those running either Android 6.0 and higher or those with iOS 10 and up.
Other useful features include compatibility (and thus voice control) with smart voice assistants like Siri, Alexa, and the Google Assistant, as well as a special “custom engineered mounting system” that uses magnetic mounting brackets that easily affix to the lights and are themselves held to your wall via 3M Command fasteners (sticky adhesive strips that are both easy to install and just as easy to remove without damaging your walls).
These lights are designed for those with a creative imagination and an artistic eye. With them, you can easily design 3D glowing wall art that can be changed and re-arranged at your whim. Included in the kit are 3 of the DIGIT LED lighting segments, one DIGIT controller, a full complement of connection wires and mounting accessories, and one power adapter with which to plug your lights into a standard wall outlet. Also included are a handy Quick Start Guide and a special Design Guide to help you get started.
Setup, installation, and use of DIGIT 3D panels
Setup and installation/use of the Monster IlluminEssence DIGIT 3D LED art panels was easy. All I really had to do was remove them from their box so I could see how everything connects and download the Monster Smart App to my smart phone. Getting the app set up was also fairly straightforward. I had to connect the lights to my home Wi-Fi network, but having done this for various other product reviews recently, I have finally figure out where we keep our network password, so it only took a minute to get my account created and the lights up and running.
Once that was done, I plugged each of the light panels into its neighbour and started messing around with the lighting colours in the app. As I only had one kit to test (and thus just 3 panels), I choose not to place them on my wall. There just weren’t enough layout possibilities available, so instead I laid them out on a flat surface and shuffled them about in that manner. I can only imagine the possibilities of having, say, 15-20 of these light panels to mess around with. I’m sure some amazing designs could easily be made. Even with only 3 panels to work with, I was still able to come up with the patriotic layout you see in the header image at the top of this page. Do you recognize it?
And the app is certainly easy to use. Not only can you easily select the colour you’d like them to glow in with a quick tap of your smart phone’s screen, but there are also cool pre-programmed patterns, called Scenes, that you can choose from. And these patterns don’t just cycle through a few different solid colours either—you can actually have each panel lighting up in multiple colours at once (kind of a dynamic lighting sort of thing). It’s very cool. Among the Scenes you can choose from are Festive, Leisure, Strobe Light, Sunset, Vortex, and many others.
Of course, you can also change both the brightness and saturation of any of the colours you choose to have your panels glow in, or you can simply choose to have them glow in white light. The choice is yours.
Final thoughts
I really like the Monster Smart IlluminEssence DIGIT 3D LED art panels. They’re simple and straightforward, easy to set up and use, and they’re a whole lot of fun to look at when they’re lit up in beautiful colours. Even though I didn’t affix them to my wall, I still spent a good bit time messing around with them and changing up the colours in the app. And I had a ton of fun doing it.
My only complaint—if I had one at all, is that the wires connecting each panel to the next on in the sequence are rather short, and this certainly limits the creative possibilities. It would have been nice if a combination of long and short connection wires were included in the kit.
If you are into smart lights, panel lights, or just like having fun with colourful lights that you can arrange in patterns of your own design, then I highly recommend these DIGIT panel lights. Only, don’t just get one set; three lights simply isn’t enough to really make super cool designs with.
For all your Smart Light needs, visit Best Buy Canada either in store or online today.
