About this project
$104,117
842
What is the Q?
The Q is the world’s first smart home lighting system that integrates light and sound.
Our energy-efficient and affordable LED light bulbs connect to the world through the Q Station router, allowing you to both create a Q (queue) of music and send lighting Qs (cues) from the same smartphone app.
The Q Station has a standard 1/8" audio jack as an output to your home audio system or headphones. Once connected to the the Q Station, your audio system becomes WiFi-enabled. That means you can play music to it from a networked device like a smart phone or computer.
When playing music over WiFi, the Q intelligently provides a light show for each song you listen to. You can personalize the show based on your mood with presets in the Android/iOS app. It's easy to customize your playlist and share it with your friends!
What can I do with the Q?
How does it work?
The Q Station is a WiFi router that also talks to the Q Bulbs over a lower-power wireless connection. You use the Q Station like you use a normal router, with settings for music-response customization built into the router's settings web page. You have the option to automatically synchronize the lights to any music you play through the Q Station, whether that music streams from the Internet, your cell phone (wireless speakers), or a USB drive plugged into the Q Station's USB port.
Key features
Specifications
How we are different:
1. WiFi Audio Streaming
We support wireless audio streaming through WiFi from your smart devices to your home stereo system (similar to Sonos). Our Q Station supports Airplay, Q-Play, DLNA, BubleUPNP, audio streaming/sharing protocols. In addition, we support SoundCloud and are working on integration with other cloud music sources like Spotify and Songza.
2. Smart Home Platform
Your next smart home technology will work seamlessly with our smart LED lights. We support AllJoyn, which is used by many existing smart home appliances. AllJoyn makes it easy for smart device app developers to communicate with our lights in the same way they communicate with other smart appliances. We also have joined Apple's HomeKit program to work on the integration of Q system and the HomeKit.
Even without programming, you can set up event-driven signaling through Zapier/IFTTT, so your lights can let you know what's happening across any of 300+ different online services.
The Q Station is built on OpenWRT and supports thousands of existing software packages for Linux/OpenWRT. We will provide an SDK including examples to get you started developing with the Q. We are looking into building an IDE into the router configuration web page for educational programming and simple scripting. We'll need your input to make sure the scripting language supports the most useful modes of operation.
3. An Affordable Wireless LED Bulb
There are many colorful, wireless LED bulbs on the market, but we don't think any of them come close to the cost performance of the Q.
In order to drive mass adoption of smart LED lighting, we developed a proprietary cost effective 2.4GHz RF radio for networking and control of the LED lights. Our patent-pending technology delivers comparable RF performance at less than 1/4 of the cost and more energy-efficient than other wireless technologies such as WiFi, Bluetooth, and ZigBee.
Why open platform?
- No other wireless LED lighting system is future looking about the smart home. we want anyone to be able to leverage our hardware for smart home applications.
- OpenWrt makes it possible for developers to add their own functionality.
- AllJoyn enables home appliances and smart devices to inter-operate easily with our Q Station to control the lights.
- USB port makes it easy to expand and connect with sensors, arduinos, and other hardware development platforms
What people are saying about the Q:
"I would wire up my whole house with smart LEDs if the price is right, I am just not going to do that if it costs me over $50 each." -- Alex, IT Geek
"I love the idea of combining music and technology! It makes me feel like I can control the setting for the avid music enthusiast myself! Lighting is an integral feature. I cannot wait to see what a product of this nature would look like." -- Nimay, Nightclub DJ
"My kids would love to light up their room with a different color each day!" -- Michelle, Mom
We need your help!
We've spent a lot of time and effort getting this project ready for the world. We have working prototypes of the Q Bulb, Q Station, and Q App and an international group of contributors. Our manufacturing contacts are ready to put the Q into production and we have a lot of improvements scheduled -- but we need to order over 1000 units of each device to make the Q at a reasonable cost. Please back this project and help bring the Q to the world!
Project Timeline
Team
Belleds was founded by a team of MIT and Harvard alumni and students with the goal of making the home smarter, more energy efficient and a fun place to live. Our team is composed of experts in wireless technology, LED lighting and user experience.
Awards & News
Forget Renovating—Get This Integrated Smart Lighting And Sound System
Risks and challenges
We foresee two potential obstacles to bringing the Belleds Q to our customers’ homes: regulatory approval delays and supply chain difficulties.
Regulatory approval: Our products require regulatory approval from UL and FCC before they can be shipped to the US. We are confident that we have a reliable and safe product. However, the approval process can be unpredictable. If it takes longer than we expect to obtain regulatory approval, there may be delays in delivering our product to Kickstarter backers. We have mitigated this risk by designing for certification and hiring a person with decades of experience navigating the certification process.
Supply chain: Our team is highly experienced in managing high-tech manufacturing processes, and we understand the risks inherent in such complex high-tech manufacturing operations. We estimate that it will take three months to set up our global supply chain. We have designed the Q Station using off-the-shelf components. We have an international supplier for the LED light bulbs and an OEM that will make the Q Station with a standard manufacturing process. However, there may be unforeseen problems arising in our supply chain where components become unavailable that can cause delays in delivering our product to Kickstarter backers.
Our certification from Dragon Innovation means that we’ve had a third party check the feasibility of our timeline as well as the financial viability of the company. At Belleds, we plan to go above and beyond the basics to ensure we are making the best possible choices for the manufacture and delivery of the Q.
We will be keeping all our backers fully informed as we finalize our manufacturing partners, receive regulatory approvals, and start production. We also plan to concentrate on refining the app and making it available to play with while we await hardware turnaround times. We look forward to your support as we do our best to overcome any obstacles we might encounter.
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Funding period
- (30 days)