Twinkly Plus: Professional smart LED lighting for everyone

Twinkly Plus is a new line of Smart LED decorative lights that combines the ease and versatility of Twinkly with the reliability, durability, and scalability of the Twinkly Pro professional line.

Twinkly is the benchmark brand for decorative lights where anyone can easily customize the color and lighting effects to adapt them to the event or environment they want to enhance.

The lights thus become a decorative object to be used all year round, a fundamental element to create the perfect setting to welcome our guests or clients, or simply to make us feel good.

The first Twinkly lights introduced to the market were designed for residential use or for small setups inside shops or venues. In the following years, thanks to the gained experience, the Twinkly Pro professional series was born.

Twinkly Pro was designed for large-scale professional setups where the lights are built to withstand outdoor conditions for extended periods, thanks to resin-coated LEDs and reinforced cables. The included accessories also allow for complex outdoor installations even without a local wired or WiFi network infrastructure.

Despite the complexity of the setups that can be achieved, Twinkly Pro is relatively easy to use. There is no need for a technician to install or program the lights, nor is there a requirement for expensive software. Everything is managed through the free Twinkly app installed on your mobile device.

Why a new set of lights?

In many installations, whether they are small or medium-sized residential or professional setups, Twinkly Pro might be seen as a solution that is overly advanced, with some functionalities that may not be utilized to their full extent.

While Twinkly Pro is very simple to use, some experience is still required, especially during the initial installation and setup of the devices. Another limitation is that it is only compatible with iOS devices.

At the same time, Twinkly, the residential version of lights, is not suitable for prolonged outdoor use or situations where the management of thousands of LEDs is required.

Twinkly Plus combines many positive aspects of both the residential and professional lines, offering features and functionalities perfect for various applications.

The Twinkly Plus solution

The intention to create a simpler professional line has led to the definition of a narrower range of products:

CONTROLLER

The controller is the device that powers and manages the communication between the lights and the Twinkly App.

In Twinkly Plus, there is a single controller for all the lights. This controller is very versatile because, unlike other series, it integrates three types of network interfaces: two wireless (Bluetooth and WiFi) and one wired Ethernet interface.

Depending on the project, you can decide whether the controller's connection to the local network should be:

• Through the Ethernet cable, recommended option if:
  • The WiFi network is not optimal or there is a risk of interference.
  • There are many WiFi devices to connect.
• Through the WiFi wireless network, a possible option if:
  • There are few controllers to connect together.
  • The WiFi coverage is very good.
  • The objects to decorate are spaced far apart, and a wired connection would be complex.

One of the most interesting aspects of Twinkly Plus is that within the same installation, groups can be created between controllers connected via both Ethernet cable and WiFi, provided they are on the same local network.

This will allow you to prefer the wired connection where it is simpler, while leaving the WiFi connection for the controllers that are farther away.

The controller has 4 output ports to connect as many lights, with a maximum of 250 LEDs per port or 1,000 LEDs in total.

Different types of lights cannot be connected simultaneously to the controller.

LIGHTS

The Twinkly Plus lights have functional and aesthetic features very similar to the Twinkly Pro lights, although they are not compatible with each other.

Currently, there are 5 types of lights:

• String Lights;
• Festoon Light;
• Dots Lights String;
• Curtain Lights;
• Icicle Lights.

The integrated LEDs are resin-coated and therefore highly resistant to weather conditions. Moreover, they all have the same color profile, which includes RGB and Warm White.

This means that you can choose the light shade from 16 million colors (thanks to the combination of different brightness levels of Red, Green, and Blue LEDs) and pure Warm White. A truly wide range of light colors that will meet any decorative need.

Another important feature, especially for outdoor use, is the robust PVC cable, available in transparent or dark green/black color.

Typical applications of Twinkly Plus

Twinkly Plus is the perfect solution for many applications or events, such as:

When to choose Twinkly Plus

It's easier to explain how to choose the purchase of Twinkly Plus lights with some examples of installations:

As evident in all these cases, the use of Twinkly (residential version) is not recommended.

On the other hand, it is, of course, possible to opt for Twinkly Pro, but the management is more complex and expensive. The additional specific features of the Twinkly Pro line may not be necessary for this type of installations (for example, the use of DMX control).

All these applications are perfect for Twinkly Plus because:

As you can see, the most complex evaluation to make is between an installation with Twinkly Plus or Pro, as in many cases, both solutions are valid.

Let's make a simple example of an installation where we can evaluate the positive and negative aspects of the two professional solutions. Let's suppose we want to set up an outdoor tree that is 8 meters tall.

Twinkly Plus main features

AUTOMATIC DETECTION

One of the features that distinguishes Twinkly Plus from the Pro version, and makes it extremely simple, is the auto-detection of the type of decoration connected to the controller.

Once the lights are connected, the Twinkly App will automatically recognise whether it is a light string or a curtain and immediately set itself up to map the LEDs.

AUTOMATIC MAPPING

Mapping will allow you to create a virtual three-dimensional model of your installation.

Using your mobile phone's camera, thanks to a powerful computer vision algorithm, the Twinkly App will automatically recognise the position of each LED. The process takes only a few moments.

This function speeds up the positioning of the lights, because you do not have to arrange them according to a specific path but as is most convenient for you. It is the subsequent mapping that will locate each LED in its exact position.

CUSTOMISATION

The customisations are truly endless. You can use one of the many pre-installed effects and edit them, or you can create your own through the powerful FX Wizard tool.

You can also create texts, import photos and videos and project them on the lights as if they were the pixels of a large display.

REMOTE CONTROL

When the controllers are connected to the Internet, some functions of the Twinkly App will be available even if you are not physically at the installation location.

From the control panel you can:

• Switching the lights on or off;
• Adjust brightness;
• Select the colours, effects or playlist to be played.

MUSICAL SYNCHRONY

Twinkly Music is a USB-powered digital microphone that lets you animate lights in an instant in time to music. Twinkly Plus is the only professional series compatible with this device, which is very quick and easy to install and use.

TWINKLY ENTERTAINMENT

Twinkly Entertainment is a new software for desktop PCs that you can use to create an original immersive experience, in which the lights come alive depending on what is being played on the computer: audio and video.

The functionalities are as follows:

VOICE CONTROL

Some features of Twinkly Plus can also be managed with certain voice assistants, such as Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant.

Differences between all Twinkly versions

There are three versions of Twinkly, each designed for certain areas of application, but in some cases it can be difficult to know which one is best suited to your needs. That is why we offer you a table comparing the functionalities of the different versions.

Conclusions

Twinkly Plus has all the functionality of Twinkly but also all the reliability of Twinkly Pro. Compared to Twinkly Pro, it has some feature limitations that are only useful for advanced applications, such as third-party control (DMX, Artnet) or calendar programming via Cloud Console.

For this last feature, Twinkly plans to release a function in the mobile app in the future that will allow a power-on and power-off schedule very similar to that of Cloud Console.

If you still have doubts about the set-up you want to realise and would like advice, please remember that you can contact us without any obligation. We will evaluate together the best solution according to your needs.