If you want to camouflage your speakers so that they blend in with your interior decor, Ikea may have a solution for you: a frame with a Wi-Fi speaker. But you still have to accept a few aesthetic concessions.
Everything connects to the Internet now, even your paintings. Ikea has just announced a new connected product built in partnership with Sonos: a frame with an integrated Wi-Fi speaker.
The last product of the Symfonisk line (which had already been talked about a few weeks ago) ” sounds like music, but […] sounds like art According to Ikea. Concretely, the object actually takes the form of an imposing frame a few centimeters thick in which hides a speaker accessible via Wi-Fi via the Sonos application.
Camouflage your speakers
Over the frame, you can clip several interchangeable faces which will hide the sound system. It is obviously not yet possible to hide the enclosure with your own paintings or photos: you have to choose from the selection offered by Ikea whose prices vary from 20 to 30 euros.
The idea behind this product is the same as with the lamp / speaker released in 2019: to hide your sound system in everyday objects to have a more harmonious interior. ” We wanted the product to be seen as a traditional picture frame, in the way it is attached and paired with other frames on a wall. », Explains an Ikea product manager.
A not so invisible integration
Unfortunately, the integration is not exactly invisible for the simple reason that the speaker needs electricity to operate, and therefore a cable connected to a socket. As a result, a wire comes out of your painting / enclosure, unless you hide it in the wall or behind furniture.
Ikea has provided a 3 m cable and a storage system behind the speaker to make the whole as discreet as possible, but you will have to accept to see a cable dangling at the bottom of your frame. A detail that breaks the idea of an invisible integration into your interior.
The integration of a speaker into a lamp base (as Ikea did in 2019) was, from this point of view, smarter since the bulb cable was also used to power the sound system. It is more difficult to justify the presence of a cable behind paintings hanging on the wall. The presence of these interchangeable facades in front of the speaker may also complicate the diffusion of sound, even if Ikea and Sonos claim to have worked on this point and made sure that the sound is directed to the sides of the frame.
If you don’t mind these concessions, you can acquire Ikea’s connected framework from July for € 179.
