One of the genuine highlights for us at Milan Furniture Fair 2017 was without question the launch of USM Haller E - a new development by which electricity can be supplied to USM Haller units, electricity which can be used to power LED lighting or USB chargers housed unobtrusively in the structural tubes. "Unobtrusively" being the keyword as it means the functionality of the system is extended without altering, adjusting or otherwise impacting on the aesthetics of the system. A genuinely very exciting development and one which extends not just the functionality but also the value the system.
And which got us thinking.......
Quite aside from the possibility of simply, elegantly, integrating that all important USB charger into your domestic furniture - for example, a USM bedside table with USB charger to charge up your phone over night - the possibility of illuminated filing and storage cabinets offer all sorts of daily advantages in an office situation, in which context the automatic on/off function with drop-down and extension doors is particularly satisfying.
On the rear cover of the USM Haller E brochure USM declare "This innovation represents only the start of a highly complex development process....."
We have no idea as to what USM are planning, honestly none, but if dreams were horses, this is how our paddock would look:
Contemporary lighting technology means that ever smaller and more powerful light sources exist, and are becoming possible. Through integrating a rechargeable light source into the classic USM Ball one creates the opportunity to develop a whole family of practical everyday objects: in essence screw the ball onto your USM Haller E unit to charge, unscrew and screw on to:
Your bike: a nicely reduced, highly effective bike light.......
..... or simply attach to a standard USM tube - an USM Haller torch.
A lot of contemporary office systems intended for "hot desking" situations include a personal roll container which you push/pull from a central storage area to which ever desk you will be using that day/shift. Waste of effort. Simply tell your autonomous USM Haller mobile container at which desk you're sitting, and let it come to to you. And then when you're finished simply hit the "Home" button and it automatically returns to the central storage bay and is recharged. If a vacuum cleaner can navigate your living room, a USM mobile container can find desk 23......
One of the great problems with fans in offices is where to place them so that they are effective, but not in the way. A problem solved by fans which screw directly into your USM Haller E unit, and can be freely attached atop or on the side depending on the ventilation required
This is an old dream of ours, and one for which we have developed a system that would allow the integration of a solid glass module into any existing USM unit. Or least theoretically have developed such a system. USM Haller E solves the problem of getting power to the system to run the pump and lights....
Because one shouldn't just take, but also give: the USM Solar Panel. (As an alternative one could also add wind turbines, panels would be for us the more elegant solution, staying as it does within the vocabulary of the system.)
The current USM TV & media boards are essentially about storage. USM Haller E offers the possibility to transform them into an essential part of the contemporary multi media experience. And not just through keeping your mobile devices charged and allowing input jacks so that you can plug your record player, tape deck or mobile device directly into your USM unit, but also allows for the integration of speaker modules. A couple of bass bins at floor level with some tweeters higher up, volume and bass control from your computer/tablet/phone...... Boom!
Back at Passenger Terminal Expo 2016 in Cologne USM Airport Systems presented a Corian panel with integrated LED display. It never occurred to us to ask how it was powered.... magic we supposed. Now all is clear. And of course it needn't be a Corian panel or indeed an LED, but a TV and/or computer monitor. The attraction at home is obvious, but in the office we, for example, would greatly appreciate such a USM highboard mounted monitor displaying the various social media feeds we follow, freeing as it would desk space, whereas in reception counters or display cabinets it allows a new level of communication and/or interaction.
And of course to top off the multi media experience
* All USM Haller units shown here were created using the smow USM configurator, and none are either available nor endorsed by USM. All exist alone and exclusively in the smow blog imagination......
