We come together with Earl Naegele von Neptun, a leading name in the outdoor display technology, to discuss their latest innovations and strategies for the coming season. With more than a decade of experience in this special category, Neptune is prepared for your dealer network in 2025 in 2025 waves with new products and improved support. In this exclusive Q&A, Earl offers insights into its new color TV, the introduction of their new soundbar outdoors and the valuable programs with which CE -Pro integrators can thrive on the outdoor entertainment market.
CE Pro: Tell us a little about Neptune for those who are not so familiar, and what are some of your latest solutions and key functions of these products?
Napgele: Our 2025 portfolio consists of all three recognized series of our outdoor television. We recently launched a new Shade TV series, in which all three category regulations, partly and full sun, which are all in 55-inch and 65-inch sizes. Our products are supported by a Mart directive (minimum price) for all of our accounts for retail, e-commerce and CI accounts. We have also entered the outdoor soundbar in the category.
Those who have followed the outdoor category may remember that we were the first to introduce a driven soundbar outdoors about seven years ago. We have updated this to a third generation version since then, and it now delivers 150 watts of electricity. It contains a fully exhibited remote control for audio level, sound and input control.
As for the displays, the partial and complete sun models use LG Native Panels with IPS (switching on the level). As you know, the main advantage of the IPS panel technology is the broad off-get-up tour. This means that brightness, color and image are also alive when they are viewed from different angles, which is important in surroundings outdoors such as kitchens or terraces. We have many positive reviews online. For example, you can watch neptunetv.com or bestbuy.com. Our retail partners give us five-star ratings in all sizes and series.
We also introduced a new outdoor ceiling bracket this year (model: OCMUA). This product is designed in such a way that you complement the 55-inch and 65-inch shadow TV, which are often installed under a permanent overhang and a deck. In these situations, the television is usually installed from above. Our partly and full sun TV contains a Tilt wall bracket outdoors. Offering a separate mount for our Shade TV offers a chance of winning and offers more options.
The new Shade TVs are competitive and start in retail of less than 2,000 US dollars. Our price range increases up to 3,399 US dollars for the 65 -inch. In order to summarize the latest AV offers from 2025 Outdoor AV, we have two new color TVs, a new soundbar and a new ceiling assembly.
CE Pro: It sounds like she is pretty busy this year. Is the soundbar a separate product or does it have to be sold with one of your outdoor TVs to dig a little more?
Napget: No, a la carte is sold, so it is not bundled with the television, which gives dealers a lot of flexibility. It is delivered with two assembly configurations. Imagine scissors, a joke; A piece of metal assembles in the screw holes on the back of the soundbar, and the other piece matches the vesa pattern on all of our brackets. It is compatible with our mounts, the competitor and all Vesa -Mount patterns, so that it can be combined with any television outdoors. It is operated with AC, and if you don't have an outdoor TV, but have a deck – as I do outside of Chicago – you can easily connect them to a GFI outlet and play music by combining it with your cell phone. It is Bluetooth-capable so that you can stream from each source and delivers 150 watts of electricity and can act as an independent outside audio.
Many people assemble it on a railing or a wall and use it as a outdoor sound system so that it can be used with or without our TVs. It is competitive at 899 US dollars.
CE Pro: So you hope that integrators sell one for living areas outdoors and maybe another at the pool area? Is that the idea?
Napgele: Yes, it enables the end user to buy the perfect product for every location. For example, a winter garden with a little surrounding sunlight can be open, which is perfect for a shadow TV. Or you may have an overhang, but the television is north or south, not east or west, so it has no direct sunlight. This is ideal for partially sun television.
We are one of the few manufacturers who offer a full sun product without restrictions. When you read the manuals of the owners of some competitors, indicate the operating temperatures for your full sun TV. We don't because our LCM panel enables our full Sun TVs to use a real temperature assessment of the commercial panel. This means that it can be installed in places with intensive east-west sun such as a Cabana, a bar or a restaurant in Florida or Phoenix. As the name suggests, “full sun” really means that it can be in full sun all day!
The integrators for residential buildings used a significant business option during pandemic due to the work of home and home/hybrid school education. While the social patterns have changed, we expect a strong year for smart TVs outdoors. For example, I had planned a summer trip to Greece, but due to the geopolitical situation, I postponed it, I think, many people in the USA will do it. I think we will see a trend similar to pandemic, in which people spend more time with friends and family at home and enjoy entertainment. We assume that the demand for AV products will increase outdoors.
CE Pro: What does Neptune do all year round to help retailers sell more products, e.g.
Napget: We have four important support components:
First, training. Since the environment differs greatly from interior settings, training in terms of placement, best practice and installation is of crucial importance to ensure customer satisfaction and maximizing the transfers. We offer monthly training events for dealers, distributors and partners.
Second, marketing assets. We offer extensive content to clarify e-commerce accounts, retailers and other consumers about special outdoor products. Consumers cannot recognize the challenges of competition with a sunlight of 35,000. We give our partners the tools and assets to effectively market.
Third, demo units. There is a significant difference in the sales performance between a dealer or an integrator that shows the product compared to someone who depends on websites or sold leaves. It is efficient to experience an outdoor television in a real environment. So we offer up to 20% discounts from our best dealers or distributor prices for display and soundbar demos as well as a discount of 40% on mounts. This facilitates the dealers to present the product, demonstrate them and at the same time increase sales. At the end of the season, you can sell the display unit with a discount to benefit both the customer and the dealer, and then update your advertisement the following year.
The last component is our premium program called Pride of Ownership. Since the outdoor category is still relatively new, although we have built it for over a decade and are now in our seventh generation, awareness is important. Dealers can contact their distributor for details about the program. We also have an annual spring program in action to ensure that dealers have a product on their shelves for the sales season by April 1. The premium program distributes points for every Neptune product sold. To give you an example, a certain display can be worth 300 points, and a dealer can earn a free display for about 5,000 points. So if a dealer sells 20 displays for a Cabana Hospitality project and deserves 6,000 points, you essentially have a Neptune display free of charge. We have strong programs with which everyone can expand their outdoor television business.
Further information on Neptuns Outdoor AV line -up can be found at www.neptunetv.com.