- Bringing light and sound together is how the Zuma company describes the Zuma Lumisonic System solution, a smart lighting solution designed for ceiling installation.
The products offered by Zuma under the slogan Zuma Lumisonic System are clearly to be understood as a system that goes far beyond a conventional lighting system. Zuma Luminaire, Zuma Bezels, Zuma Smart Bezels Voice and Zuma Lumisonic are the names of the products currently offered by the company, all three of which are recessed ceiling luminaires. However, and this is what is particularly exciting, they are smart recessed ceiling luminaires that are capable of much more than simply providing optimal lighting in the room.
The Zuma Lumisonic solution in particular stands out here because it combines light and sound, being designed as a Smart Speaker in the form of a recessed luminaire.
Zuma – A young company with top-class developers
Zuma may be a relatively young company, but it claims to have employees with a wealth of experience in a wide range of fields. Zuma was founded by Morten Warren, who now serves as CEO and, according to the company, has over 25 years of experience in industrial design alone with various leading global brands.
Also on board are the likes of Trevor Wilson, formerly of Naim Audio Ltd, Laurence Dickieder, creator of the iconic Bowers & Wilkins Nautilus, and the smart home savvy Alex Kiernan, who holds the role of CTO at Zuma.
Zuma is said to have been born, as it often is, out of frustration with existing smart home technologies. Existing solutions were not considered to be truly cross-system, flexible solutions that were also time-consuming to install and complex to use. Zuma wants to offer consumers an alternative approach that is simpler and therefore better.
The fact that lighting systems are the main focus here is probably particularly exciting, as experience shows that in most cases this is the entry point for consumers into the smart home sector.
Zuma lists two locations on its website, one in Great Britain, specifically in London, and the second in San Francisco in the USA.
Zuma Luminaire, Zuma Bezels and Zuma Smart Bezels Voice
The Zuma Bezels solution is a particularly compact downlight that is available in four design variants, each with a round or square bezel.
Zuma Smart Bezels Voice is a version of the downlight just described that is equipped with Amazon Alexa, which means that voice control can be integrated directly into the living space as a custom installation solution.
Zuma Luminaire is described by the manufacturer as a high-performance smart LED downlight, whereby a particularly flexible adjustment to the time of day or mood is supposed to be possible. The manufacturer specifies 100 steps for dimming the light intensity and a range between 2,800 and 4,800 K for the gradation between warm white and cool white. Zuma Luminaire is the lighting-only counterpart to Lumisonic.
Zuma Lumisonic – Wireless Smart Speaker as Downlight
The most flexible solution from Zuma so far is Zuma Lumisonic, because here one can justifiably speak of a so-called Wireless Smart Speaker, which presents itself in the form of a downlight, i.e. a recessed luminaire designed for the ceiling.
As already mentioned, the manufacturer itself refers to the Zuma Lumisonic System, which clearly indicates that this is not a single product, but rather a system concept.
First and foremost, Zuma Lumisonic is, of course, a downlight based on a high-performance LED that not only allows the light intensity to be dimmed over a wide range, but also the colour temperature of the light to be adjusted.
With an output of 6 watts, it delivers 536 lm and can be adjusted between 2,800 and 4,800 K.
In practical terms, this solution has a diameter of 94 mm and a depth of 120 mm, the aluminium cover measures 104.5 mm in diameter and has a height of 4 mm. The Zuma Lumisonic is IP65 certified, so it can be used throughout the home without any problems.
Two-way speaker with Class D amplifier and DSP
It is astonishing that the Zuma Lumisonic System also functions as a wireless speaker, in this case even as a two-way system, with a horn-equipped 20 mm Silk Dome Tweeter and an 80 mm High Excursion Super Formed Aluminium Woofer, which are driven by a Class D amplifier module with 75 watts.
The DSP-based signal processing is particularly important, as it guarantees optimal control of the drivers, so that a frequency range between 40 Hz and 25 kHz can be covered.
The DSP is a quad-core 1.5 GHz ARM Cortex-53 CPU, which is also responsible for the signal processing around streaming.
Versatile streaming client
The integration into the network is, of course, done via WiFi, using a module according to IEEE 802.11ac. In principle, it would also be possible to connect via cable using an adapter, but this is mentioned for the sake of completeness.
The Zuma Lumisonic system understands Apple AirPlay 2, Amazon Alexa Audio as well as Spotify Connect and even TIDAL Connect, so it can be used directly via the corresponding platforms or the corresponding apps, even in a multi-room audio network. Surprisingly, playback is supported up to hi-res audio with 24 bit and 192 kHz.
This is all the more exciting because the manufacturer also advertises the Zuma Lumisonic System as Roon Ready.
Nevertheless, with the Zuma App, a separate control solution is also available, which can be used not least for controlling the light.
It should also be mentioned that Zuma offers drivers for the Zuma Lumisonic System for common custom installation systems, such as Lutron, Crestron and Control4.
Bluetooth should not be missing either
Those who want to use smartphones directly as a source outside the network can do so via Bluetooth; the Zuma Lumisonic System has an integrated Bluetooth module.
Prices and availability
Unfortunately, Zuma has so far only listed partners in England from whom the company’s systems can be purchased. However, the manufacturer’s website has a webshop where the products are supposed to be available directly.
Zuma Luminaire is listed here at £ 179,99 and Zuma Lumisonic at £ 499,99. The Zuma Bezel and Zuma Smart Bezel Voice solutions are not yet listed here.
Getting to the point
It is an extremely exciting system in the field of custom installation that the young company Zuma is now building around the Zuma Limisonic system. The focus here is clearly on the Zuma Lumisonic, a so-called downlight, i.e. a recessed LED luminaire for the ceiling that also functions as a Wireless Smart Speaker. The special feature here is that it is a particularly high-quality system that is supposed to be able to come up with fine sound, and which can accordingly be used as a flexible audio system with Apple AirPlay 2, Spotify Connect, TIDAL Connect and even Roon Ready. This solution is flanked by products such as Zuma Luminaire as well as Zuma Bezel and Zuma Smart Bezel Voice.
| PRODUCT | ZUMA LUMISONIC SYSTEM WIRELESS SMART SPEAKER |
|---|---|
| Price | Zuma Luminaire £ 179,99 Zuma Bezel N/A Zuma Smart Bezel Voice N/A Zuma Lumisonic with £ 499,99 |
