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lately i'm finding it hard to keep over gobi's ever-growing product line
because they have been on an absolute tear over the past year dropping product after product even
products on top of products but looking back on it all as we approach 2022 it has been one heck
of a wild ride to say the least the gobi hexa wall pedal light is one of the latest releases
to hit the market but it is backed by an even more exciting development that comes to us in the form
of a software update a philips hue like tv color syncing feature that has been dubbed highlight
for this video we'll take a look at the hexa and a very cool life hack that will take your
panels to the next level and of course you know we have to do a deep dive on the highlight feature
and during the process we'll also take a look at a number of other new releases
to gauge as they perform within the govi tv ecosystem
the hexa wall panel light kit ships in a moderately sized box that has a surprisingly
good amount of weight to it and as has come to be expected the packaging is decorated in the
magenta and purple hues that always instills a sense of calm and serenity at a glance here are
all components included inside at the forefront we have 10 hexagon shaped light panels which
measure just about 6 and a half inches across and the mounting plates as well as the double-sided
tape comes pre-attached we also have 10 bendable leaking cables that measure just over 6 inches in
length a single control box the ac wall adapter an orientation piece that's used for installation
a leveler two additional double-sided sticky pads and a quick start guide that actually pulls up a
very useful installation video via the provided qr code when the time comes to install the panels up
in your wall if you've ever owned or installed any of nanoleaf's wall panels you immediately
realize that there is no auto detection feature for the panels when they are either added on or
repositioned but to gobi's credit when going through the pairing and installation process
the app holds your hand probably more tightly than any other govi device installation before it it
literally walks you through the installation for each and every panel one by one which i honestly
found to be overly thorough but if you're new to the panel like game this is something that you
will probably appreciate when your hexa panels arrive if all prep and everything else goes out
the window remember this basic principle and you really can't go wrong each connection link
has a u-shaped head on one end and a flat shaped head on the other all panels are one in the same
so the flat head can be placed in any of the terminal slots on the back of any of the 10
panels with the exception of the slot that is not numbered and has an arrow indicator beneath it on
the flip side the u-shaped head will only fit the non-numbered slot that has that arrow so flat head
any of the numbered slots u-shaped head only the arrow slot remember that and that you can only use
a max of two linking cables per panel and with the help of the tutorial video in the app walkthrough
it really should be easy selling because the linking cables are bendable you can curve the
hexa effortlessly around corners as shown and i want to emphasize that you don't have to have
a gap at the corner as you see on my set you can indeed have the panels positioned snugly
together for a seamless look and the only reason that i have a gap is because this is actually a
cabinet with a swinging door so that slight gap is necessary in order to operate the door as normal
but it's pretty cool that when the cabinet door is fully pulled back that gap disappears and the
line of panels becomes seamless just something to keep in mind to get the creative juices flowing
now what sets the hexa apart from the highly acclaimed nanoleaf wall panels well outside of
msrp the first immediate apparent advantage that the hexa has over the nano leaf canvas and the
rhythm light panels which i've owned for several years now is that each and every individual hexa
panel can produce a multi-color line of lights and it's funny because i never really gave this much
thought with the nanoleaf panels before the hexa arrived because the nanoleaf panels do a really
great job of rolling the colors from panel to panel and manipulating brightness to create
the illusion of rgb ic tech but after seeing how colors of each hexapanel gradually ripples from
one side of the panel to the next the difference is not in day the dreamlike scene is especially
good for showing this off the next advantage that i would say the hexa has of the nanoleaf panels
is not something that you can immediately see a much more stable wi-fi connection because my nano
leaf panels are notorious for going offline at random parts of the day though they do generally
reconnect on the back end automatically but it has become all too common at this point
for alexa to announce that my nanoleaf panels are no longer responding as with the majority
of govi products the hexa connection is very solid though there is a bit of a delay when
operating the device inside the app as it works to establish a bluetooth connection as far as
features go there is just a ridiculous amount of customization options at your fingertips for hexa
from 6 music modes 28 scene modes and the ability to adjust directional movement of the lights for
each and every scene as well as diy effects though you can make a few more granular customizations
for nanoleaf and there is a larger catalog of community diy scenes and effects to choose from
when it comes to overall brightness the hexa is very much on par with my nano leaf canvas panels
but the triangular rhythm panels blow them both out of the water they are nearly twice as bright
but if i'm being honest i never crank these panels up to 100 percent for that very reason unless i'm
using them as supplemental lighting while i'm shooting a video if you're interested in taking
the hexa to the next level so you can have even more flexibility with the panels and in my opinion
an even more compelling tv seeking experience then this section of the video is for you hexagon
shaped sound panels have been rising in popularity over the last couple of months and there's even a
trend starting where people are attaching light strips around the sound panel to make them pop
at night personally i think this is a pretty ingenious idea but i wanted to try something a
little bit different with merging 14 inch sound panels with the 6 inch hexagon light panels
but i wanted to achieve a softer glow behind the panels and i wanted to hide the led beads as
best as possible to create a clean and seamless look so i ultimately decided on these 15 inch
cable raceways to achieve the look i experimented first with laying the panels down backside up and
then i cut the raceway pieces to fit within the scope of my desired design once i was satisfied
enough i added some electrical tape to the top and bottom of the raceway pieces to prevent them from
sliding and then i attached the raceway pieces to the wall using the provided double-sided tape
next i ran a 16-foot rgbic pro light strip all the way around the border and finally i
attached the hexa light panels directly to the raceway leaving a slight gap between each one
followed by the hexagon foam panels using a very gummy double-sided tape that i picked up on amazon
and this is the result very simple but effective this hack adds a new dimensional layer to the
hexa that i think looks absolutely stunning now we can run the pro light strip backlight on its own
which creates a soft glow around both the light and the foam panel and as you can see when doing
so the light faintly permeates through the hexa panels or it can fire up the hexapanels themselves
alongside the strip and the various combinations that you're able to create are virtually limitless
so if you haven't been living under a rock for the past few weeks you know govi recently dropped
probably their biggest and most anticipated app update ever because it includes a tv color syncing
feature that allows separately so light products to synchronize with your tv using the 1080p camera
of the latest govi immersion light kits now this is a huge deal because no other
smart light manufacturer outside of philips hue offers a seamless large-scale comparable feature
for the living room because while nanoleaf screen wearing feature is certainly more than a worthy
mention is much more geared towards pc and desktop setups and the only means of taking advantage of
the screen mirroring feature in the living room is by connecting a laptop or pc to your tv via hdmi
or by using apple play or chromecast devices to cast your content from a nearby computer to the tv
which is not going to be very ideal for most people so when it comes to wall panel lights and
living room setups alongside streaming content gaming on your ps5 or xbox series x nintendo
switch etc the govi hexa is the only current wall light panel option that can seamlessly sync with
your tv because philips hue has yet to dabble in the space on to the highlight feature specifics
first and foremost there are 20 different color zone options available to you inside
the highlight feature which is very impressive though you definitely won't be able to leverage
each and every zone or anything close to that because there are a number of limitations for
this new feature at the moment probably the biggest is that a single control box can only
control a max of five separately so light products when i first started playing with highlight five
products seem fairly manageable but as you'll see as you begin to build out your gobi tv ecosystem
that five product cap is going to hit fast the second overall limitation for the highlight
feature altogether is that you cannot regulate brightness on a product by product basis
not all govi light products are created equally some produce a higher lumen output than others
such as the hexa and with the current setup for the highlight feature you're unable to dial in the
brightness for each and every one of your products to have a more even distribution of brightness
now with all that said i've actually found an immediate workaround for these two major drawbacks
for the five product cap and the brightness issue and to govi is hopefully able to release an update
to address these limitations two cameras now i know i know this is not ideal in any way shape
or form and to be honest if i hadn't come up with my camera hack system a few months back
i wouldn't even consider it but with this setup one camera or two is honestly all the same from
a visual standpoint by using a second camera i can instantly add five additional devices to my
tv syncing system and i can also regulate the brightness for these five additional products
independently of the main immersion backlight the setup on the back end is a second set of light
bars mounted beneath my tv cabinet that's paired up with an independent control box i have these
light bars and all products that are linked to it run at 15 brightness a pro tip before you install
strips to be used for highlight pull up a test video that splits the screen right down the middle
and then set the zones accordingly inside the app then locate that sweet center spot on the
strip and ensure that it's perfectly centered wherever you're going to be installing them
yes
me
me thank you
if you guys are interested in picking up additional gobi products for the highlight feature
out of all of the products that i've tried so far i found that the rgbic pro strip followed by the
lyra and the neon rope were the top performers in terms of their ability to accurately translate
colors in line with the immersion the neon is a 10 foot flexible diffused light strip that i think
looks absolutely stunning no matter where you choose to place it you can bend and install this
rope light with all sorts of different shapes and designs and it comes equipped with a ton of scenes
and customization levers i decided to install the neon underneath my couch because unlike
traditional light strips the bracket system makes it easy to install on wood and non-smooth surfaces
using the provided mini screws i really like the fact that when i'm ready to change out
my furniture i can simply detach the rope from the brackets with light strips once you get that
first good use in it's pretty much a wrap the gobi glide and lively wall light were next on my list
as they're able to leverage multiple color zones as well though i found their performance was not
quite as strong the glide lively wall light is very similar to the original glide with the
exception that it's slightly thinner it doesn't ship with any curved corner pieces and it can be
used in two parts so that you can position it on either side of a tv or a couch for example
the next top performers for the highlight feature i'd say was the hexa followed by the star pal the
or table lamp and finally the rgb www smart bulb because these products unfortunately can only
leverage a single dominant color at the moment but i'm hopeful that for products such as the
hexa and the aura this limitation will soon be a thing of the past the hexa especially has so
much potential to really kill it in the highlight feature after seeing the panel by panel rgb ic
tech that it's equipped with but for the time being if you duplicate this hack you can create
a multi-color line effect with the hexa be it at a more limited capacity overall i'm really
really digging the new highlight feature because it has really enriched the gobi product line
now whenever you pick up a new gobi product the features that you have at your disposal
are even more exciting music modes scene modes diy customizations and now they can all be synced up
with your tv now with all of that said there are a number of areas that still need to be fine-tuned
to better improve the overall highlight feature experience first off i've noticed that when the
screen is predominantly black some eye colors for sync products can emerge especially at lower
brightness levels while the immersion and the linked bars are consistent in downshifting to a
cool white glow secondly color transition can also be smoother as well to better mimic the
immersion's handling and load times to sync up all of your products within highlight can get pretty
lengthy inside of the app thirdly as i touched on earlier products are not individually responsive
when highlight is active but at the very least we really need the option to regulate brightness
on a device level to ensure that we're getting the most optimal experience for our environment moving
forward i would also like to see more integration with voice assistants in third party platforms
such as ifttt because as it stands now the only means of activating the highlight feature
is by going inside of the app to manually toggle it on and lastly while my camera hack that
i've been using for many months now really does help to clean things up and improve the overall
user experience it would be amazing to see new innovative ideas for the camera with newer models
ideas that would aid in fitting the camera into living room setups more seamlessly
perhaps designs to help the camera look and feel more decor centric but all nitpicks aside the
highlight feature right out of the gates be it still in beta is much more reliable
and sophisticated in the early stages than i anticipated and if gobi continues to direct the
resources towards it there's nowhere to go but up from here this feature has been long overdue
but i think that i speak for many when i say that i'm happy it's finally arrived i'm excited to see
how things progress over the coming weeks and months ahead as more new products are introduced
because as it stands today the gobi tv ecosystem has the fewest barriers of entry of any competing
brand in the space you can sync your lights while gaming at 4k 120hz refresh rate you don't need to
cast your content from a pc or mac you can stream content from your tv's built-in smart tv apps
and you can do all of this without having to worry about drm restricted content the hdmi tv syncing
products such as the philips hue sync box are becoming more and more plagued with i hope you
guys enjoyed this review and found it helpful and if you have any general questions for me
leave them down in the comments below and i will do my very best to get back with you as always
thanks for watching and supporting the channel and i will see you guys in the next one peace