Best Piano Lamp

welcome to Milan recording studios my
name is James pavel chakras and in
today’s video I want to be reviewing not
a piano but another piano light a few
weeks back or maybe a bit longer than
that by now I reviewed a piano light on
this channel that was sent to me by a
small company called new LED or new
vending I think was actually the parent
company’s name but today the company
BenQ has sent me a piano light for
review as well so the only disclosure I
have here is that Ben Q offered to send
me this light but they did so with the
full understanding that would bring you
guys an honest review as always they
said if I like the light I’m more than
welcome to keep it but if it turns out I
don’t like the light I will either send
it back or perhaps give it to a friend
however I’ve heard lots of different
things about a Ben q throughout the
years and many of them have been
actually most of them have been positive
Ben Q is a company that typically seems
to focus on technology I think they have
a division that’s for making computer
keyboards and computer mice they make
computer monitors which I’ve heard very
good things about they also make
different types of the desk lamps and
now they’re branching out into the world
of piano lamps this one I believe is
their first piano lamp and it’s actually
a very high-end lamp indeed what do you
look online you’ll often see different
piano lamps that are advertised for
upwards of $200 and from my knowledge
many of these are simply just
high-quality build quality lamps that
simply are lamps designed for piano this
one is a high quality build quality lamp
designed for piano that also has a
number of cool tech features in it that
I think many of those other lamps might
not have so let’s open this up and check
it out I’m very excited because this I
think is going to be really really cool
in the description is going to be a link
to Ben Q’s website about this product
and also an Amazon link if you’re
interested in purchasing one of these
for yourself so let’s open up this box
and check out how it is packaged and
then once I unbox it I will also of
course test it out on various pieces of
equipment we have here in the studio now
I said there was one disclaimer about
the light but there’s also another one I
wanted to put out for you and you can
probably see it down here in the bottom
left corner for you it says designed for
upright piano now this is fantastic
because
most people will have an upright piano
in their house because most people
aren’t crazy enough like me to want to
have a full-size grand in their house
but this is an issue for us here at
Milan recording studios because we don’t
actually have an upright piano here so
we will be testing it out on everything
else that we possibly can I will see if
it works on a grand piano and I think
I’ll be able to do that but in case it
doesn’t work on a grand piano I’ll also
try it out on a Hammond b3 and a Fender
Rhodes and a Wurlitzer and anything else
I can think of so let’s open this thing
up take this out put this back here and
this here is the box within a box what’s
kind of interesting is that it’s
actually quite lopsided because this
this instrument it’s not an instrument
this light has a very heavy base so
that’s why the handle is here because
all of the weight is actually on this
end so to keep it balanced the handle is
offset very nice attention to detail
there makes it easier to handle
I believe the weight on this is like 11
pounds it’s a very hefty light and so I
think it’s gonna be pretty cool to check
out let’s see on the front of the box
does it have that on the backside – yeah
you can see here the light it’s a very
slim um shaped light and it has a number
of different touch sensitive panels on
the front here says here hello enjoy
your piano light together yeah together
okay so I’ll be enjoying it together
with you guys here we have a little
Quick Start Guide based on the
information I saw on their website it
seems to be very easy to operate so I’m
not sure how much I will need that this
here is a little shade that you can clip
onto the light to prevent light from
bouncing into your eyes it kind of helps
direct it down because if it’s above you
on an upright piano it might be shining
light into your eyes so you can put the
shade on it to keep that from happening
or at least to minimize that effect and
that also is a very nice attention to
detail that was something I found that
the new LED light kind of tended to do
but it wasn’t really a huge issue
because it also made lighting the video
pretty easy because the add the LED lamp
helps lighten my face up a lot it also
wasn’t incredibly bright so it wasn’t
like a super annoying it was just kind
of something it didn’t have that shade
so let me take out this whole thing here
cuz it’s kind of if I can it’s kind of
neat to see how it’s packaged like I
said very heavy towards the one side
because it’s got this huge base that is
basically like a brick I think that’s
everything in the box so this here is
the lamp you can see the massive base
that it has and then also the light
itself is right here so let me take this
out it has a very nice power cable here
which is has an odd connector on the end
so it must have let’s see here what do
we have in the way of power cable it
must be a really long cable either that
okay so what we have here this is kind
of an odd way to do the to do the power
but what we have here is the long power
cable and then this little brick will
plug in to here and then plug into the
wall so that’s kind of odd I’m not sure
why they did it that way maybe it was to
save space in the packaging or maybe
there’s an upgradable one of these
that’s even longer than this but seems
like the power cable just straight out
of the box is nice and long which is
nice as well that was the other thing
that the new LED didn’t really have was
a power cable it was instead powered to
USB which was kind of an advantage
because you could use it with a power
bank and use it on the go so kind of a
benefit and a drawback to that one this
one here is only I was only really able
to be powered through the wall socket
but as you can see here this light looks
really cool especially it will once I
get the plastic off these supports here
are really high quality they’re like
solid metal and this base here is really
heavy so you won’t have any issues at
all with this light toppling over
falling over and I don’t think would be
very difficult for like your cat to push
it off the piano so there is the base
all unpackage very nice and sleek and
modern looking now let’s get to the top
part here off how does this work
very nice willow that that has a really
nice feel to it that swivel ball joint
there that’s cool let’s see how this
comes off I think it’s just wrapped
around yeah there we go
and there’s tape stuck to it there we go
there’s that gone now we just have the
plastic that’s on these little supports
and that I think should be cut perhaps
maybe see if I can there we go
there’s that one and let’s do this one
there we go so that is the BenQ piano
light all unwrapped and as you can see
it looks really cool so this here can
swivel forwards all the way out like
this and then this can also swivel out
has a massive range of control and that
looks really cool it has a really nice
feel to it very very quality built
construction and I think I’m already
putting fingerprints on the front panel
this front panel is actually touch
sensitive and there’s a number of
different features you can do here you
can adjust the color temperature you can
adjust the brightness it has an auto
turn-on feature so when you walk up to
the instrument it will actually light up
automatically because it’ll sense you
coming there’s an infrared sensor
somewhere up in here so it has a lot of
cool features and when you make a
adjustment to the color temperature I
think if you tap and hold the little
heart-shaped button over here it will
create a favourites and then if you want
to return to that setting you can just
tap the heart button and it will return
to that original setting so that’s kind
of cool let’s plug it in real quick and
just see very quickly how it works and
then I will go put it on to some sort of
instrument I think the first thing I’ll
try to do is get it to work on a grand
piano which should work what I’m gonna
try is having the lid closed and then
leaning this over and seeing if I can
get that to go over the music desk but
it might not be tall enough but we will
try it out and see what we can do so let
me plug this in and I’ll come right back
to you and we’ll see how this works
so the operation of the BenQ piano light
is quite simple and of course after this
clip I will try putting it on different
instruments to really see how it works
and to put it to the test but to turn it
on and off you can tap the yellow button
in the middle and that will turn on the
light as you can see there is a button
here that can adjust the brightness so
if I tap this it should get brighter and
if I tap this it should get dimmer it
might have already been on the brightest
setting so you can manually adjust the
brightness of the light which is a very
nice touch you can also adjust the color
temperature of the light too and make it
nice and warm or make it a nice and cool
white and you can also have a mixture of
the two as well which is pretty sweet
there is a automatic and I think it’s
called presents detection where you can
turn this on and after a certain time
the light will turn off automatically
and then as you walk in towards the
light it will come back on and
automatically detect you with an
infrared sensor which is our very cool
touch there’s also an automatic dimming
feature as well which apparently will
adjust the lights to the ambient room so
it’s not going to be ridiculously bright
or ridiculously dim this seems to
possibly have a bit of a little lag
between it’s because when I put my hand
over it takes a moment to adjust to the
room but it does work definitely which
is a nice touch so you don’t have to
manually keep adjusting the light as the
day progresses and it becomes brighter
or darker it will do that automatically
which is wonderful and then also there
is a favourites button so what you can
do here is as you’ve tweaked the
settings and you found a color
temperature and brightness that you
really like if you tap and hold the
favorites button for three seconds they
will remember that setting then if you
make changes to the light again and want
to return to that previous setting you
can tap the favorites button and it will
return to that original setting now
let’s go check out the piano lamp on
various different instruments and see
how well it works so here we have the
BenQ piano light sitting on my 1965
Hammond b3 of course it’s not a piano
but the piano light still does a really
great job of lighting up both the music
desk for the organ and both of the
manuals as well so it has a really
really wide spread which is something
that BenQ says on their website and
definitely seems to be really true is it
has a very wide spread of light the
light down here on the bottom manual is
a little bit dimmer than the light on
the second manual you can still
definitely see all the keys and it
wouldn’t
any kind of an issue at all to play and
of course it’s really easy to adjust
this light on the fly so if you were in
the middle of a performance and you
wanted to get more light down here just
tilt it up a bit and now we have even
light on both of the keys but the light
on the music desk is a little bit dimmer
than it was before but if there was
sheet music here I probably should have
put sheet music up there huh if there
was sheet music up there it would be
still very easy at least for me to see
so the great thing about this one of the
great things about it is that it’s
really easy to adjust the light in the
middle of anything you’re doing because
you don’t have to worry about the rest
of the light falling over or flopping
over it’s very very solid and secure
that base is really really heavy so it’s
not gonna get knocked over by just about
anything unless someone deliberately
pushes it over which even still would be
pretty hard to do so it’s really easy to
move the light in any direction you want
it to and you don’t have to worry about
the base of the light shifting rotating
and falling over very easy to move and
really really great just to show you the
color temperature difference it’ll
change the way I look I think but I can
increase it to make it look really warm
and bring out the rich tones of the b3
but I might look kind of blue for some
reason now but I can also put it back to
where I had it before speaking of that
base if I fold this over you can see
right there that the base is massive
heavy and solid and that’s why it’s
really easy to adjust the top part of
the light so so far I’m very impressed
with the BenQ piano light and so far I
haven’t needed to put that little shield
on for the for the to prevent glare if I
tilt it up like this I sort of would
need it but it’s not really bright it’s
just I can see the little lights there
so as I continue to use it if I need to
put that shield on I will but so far I
haven’t even needed it but it was a
really great thing that BenQ included
that little shield in there they said in
the quick guide menu manuscript a little
quick guide paper that if you’re using
this piano lantern with children they
might need that because of course they
would be shorter and an upright piano
with light as taller they probably would
experience some bright glare let’s try
it out on another instrument and see how
it works it works amazing for this b3 so
now we have the BenQ piano light sitting
on my 1973 Fender Rhodes and it’s
actually working out very very well as
you can see here the light is perfectly
lighting up the keys if I twist it here
you can see that if I twill tit back it
lights up the top and if I tells it more
towards
the keys start to get very dim so at
this particular distance it has a bit of
a narrower kind of field of light it
still obviously has a wide spread it’s
lighting up all there back here and all
the way over here but it’s a little more
focused than it was for the hammond b-3
so as a result it lights up the keys
very very well so if you were using a
Fender Rhodes on location you could plug
in a lot like this and be able to see
what you were doing no matter what the
brightness of the surrounding stage was
like which might be kind of cool the
Fender Rhodes doesn’t really have a
music desk per se there is a very
shallow slot here that you can use to
fit a single stiff book or something
like that very thin um but it this light
does a really great job of lighting up
the keys which also is important and
it’s also something that BenQ mentions
on their site that when you have it on
an upright piano it not only lights the
sheet music but also the keys one thing
I wanted to talk about though was also
the design of the bass here for the
light the top of the Fender Rhodes is
curved it has a bit of an arch to it and
this light has no real issues at all
with that curved part of the reason for
that is because the design of the bottom
of the light is designed to work with
upright pianos upright pianos have
generally a hinge that runs in the
middle of the lid so if you were to set
this light on top of it there’s a groove
in the bottom that will accommodate that
hinge and not make the light wobble and
be crazy that gap I think that groove is
also helping it be more stable on the
Fender Rhodes I think if the bottom of
this light was flat it would be very
wobbly and I’d need to put something
under to compensate which would work
just fine but because the light has that
large groove underneath of it I think
it’s a lot more stable here on the
Fender Rhodes than it would otherwise be
so it’s a success with the Fender Rhodes
let’s go see if there’s another
strange odd instrument that I couldn’t
try it out on so now I’m here in Studio
B with my practice piano which is a
sheet myrin as you can tell it is a
grand piano and as you can tell I’ve
managed to make the piano light to work
forth the grand piano
now I’m not disappointed at all that it
doesn’t really work very well with
granite pianos because it literally says
on the Box designed for upright pianos
so I’m not saying this is a negative
thing for the BenQ piano light that it
doesn’t work
using with grand pianos but I do want to
say that I don’t think it would be
difficult for BenQ to make it work well
with grand pianos I think that all that
might need to be done is to extend this
arm out by maybe three or four inches
and if the bass is so heavy and sturdy
that that still should provide plenty of
stability and if you extend that arm out
you’ll be able to make a go taller and
also reach farther over the music disc
so that I won’t have to stack books
behind the music desk to raise the lamp
to the proper height I have three novels
behind here each of which are about this
thick and each of those are helping to
keep it the piano light up higher and
projected a little bit of Fords than it
normally would sit this helps it cast
excellent light over the fall I mean the
music desk of the piano however the lip
of the fall bird is getting in the way
and it’s not able to light up the keys
very well on this grand piano so again
I’m not saying that this is a negative
aspect of this light but I did want to
point out that you can make it work to
light up the music desk of a grand piano
and I’ll probably leave it here for a
while because I use this piano on a near
daily basis and it might be kind of cool
to need to use this lamp from time to
time although honestly here I have
pretty good light so typically I don’t
need a piano lamp so that is how it
works on a grand piano and I thought
that I would show you guys that because
it can be made to work with a grand
piano I really hope that you guys have
enjoyed this video
it’s a absolutely fantastic piano light
and while it does have this one
limitation of not working phenomenally
with a grand piano it works absolutely
amazing with everything else I’ve tried
it on the hammond b-3
the Fender Rhodes and I certainly would
have tried it on an an upright piano if
I had one here and I think it would have
worked amazing for that Ben q has put an
absolute massive amount of time
researching all the things that you
would need in a piano lamp and then some
the attention to detail is absolutely
amazing and one thing that just dawned
on me is the reason the power connector
on the end was so strange is because you
can actually swap that out for a
different power plug if you’re in a
different country because the power
plugs in Europe and in Asia are
different than the ones that we have
here in the States
so if you were traveling abroad with
this lamp you could simply switch it out
and it’s very easy for Ben Q to simply
you outsource different plugs that will
accommodate their lamp rather than
design
different lamps with 20 different power
plugs that is also a very nice touch as
well the features of this lamp are
really great the fact that you can
change the color temperature so easily
change the brightness so easily the auto
brightness feature is very nice as well
and the the sensor mode is very cool too
I actually haven’t really tried out the
the automatic turning on and off system
as you walk in towards the the light but
based on how great everything else works
with this light I’m thinking it’s gonna
do great I’ll try it out in the next few
days and if I if it doesn’t work well
I’ll make a comment here in the video
about how it works the favorite setting
is also really great too so you can tap
that and simply go back to your favorite
setting it’s really easy to change that
favorite setting and overall I
absolutely love this light
thank you very much Ben Q for sending
sending me this light it’s another
amazing addition to the awesome group of
things that I have here at the studio
I’ve got cool musical instruments and
now cooled musical equipment here too
like this light so thank you very much
Ben Q for sending me this I’m really
really enjoying it so far and I hope you
guys have enjoyed this video too
umm if you want I can put the
information for this lamp down in the
description so if you want you can go
check that out there’ll be a link once
again to Ben Q’s website and an Amazon
link for where you can purchase this at
the moment of filming it it says they’re
actually out of stock but hopefully that
will change in the future so if you guys
could check it out you can purchase one
yourself it is on the price of your side
of music lamps but I think it’s well
worth the money it’s the build quality
is phenomenal and the features that it
has are absolutely incredible too so I
really hope that you guys enjoyed this
video if you did it you also might want
to go check out the rest of my videos if
you’re new here I’ve got lots of cool
videos of pianos organs keyboards
digital pianos and all kinds of other
neat stuff too so if any of that sounds
cool you might go check it out and if
you want to subscribe thank you very
much and I’ll see you in the next video
goodbye