Zuma Lumisonic speaker
Courtesy Zuma

This Discreet Speaker Combines Mood-Enhancing Lighting With Superior Sound

Zuma’s Lumisonic ceiling-mounted speaker is equipped with an LED light source that users adjust with an app.
By Brian Libby
August 7, 2021
2 minute read

The greater our technological advances, the smaller our devices—or so it seems, at least, in the case of speakers. In the digital age, sound-emitting contraptions can fit in the palm of your hand, but when installed at home, often require hiding wires or disguising speaker boxes that never disappear completely. Veteran speaker designer Morten Villiers Warren, founder and CEO of the start-up Zuma, found a way to do exactly that with the Lumisonic, a wireless ceiling-mounted apparatus that combines superior audio with a dimmable LED light source for a singular atmospheric experience.

Each compact, easy-to-install unit, created by Zuma’s transnational team of industry experts in London and San Francisco, stays in place via a pair of built-in metal mounts, and is covered by a discreet mesh bezel. Using its app, listeners can connect the Lumisonic to Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or any streaming service. The resulting sound waves, projected vertically from above, are less likely to bounce off of furniture or other objects, allowing ears to process them in a more direct manner. “It’s like headphones for the room,” says Marcus Mustafa, the project’s UX design director, in a video explaining the implement’s design. “The sound is omnipresent.”

The idea is to use an array of Lumisonics (Zuma recommends at least four) to create a series of sonic zones that can be divided up by room or can play the same tones. To enhance the sound, adjust the brightness of the light on the app, which includes a circadian mode that mimics the intensity and temperature of natural light as it changes throughout the day. Or try its “Wellbeing” section, which features preset fusions of light and soothing sounds. Whatever the combination, expect a speaker that can inconspicuously, and sensorially, enhance the mood of a space.