GEZE Insights

#GEZEhack – individual masterpiece with GEZE Slimchain drive

Automatic window and door drives from GEZE impress not only on large-scale projects in hotels and hospitals, but also as individual solutions. This “masterpiece” from Jonas Wessler demonstrates just how versatile our products can be on DIY projects.

Masterful: Sideboard with soundbar and technical highlights

Jonas Wessler is training as a master carpenter. The masterpiece is an important part of his training. A lover of music and technology, Jonas Wessler quickly grasped: his masterpiece had to involve music – and with an innovative technical surprise.

  • The goal: a self-designed sideboard with integrated music system.
  • The clever thing about it: the soundbar can be extended as needed – by intelligent remote control from a mobile phone.
  • The challenge: soundbar and lift drive have to offer an impressively slim design and intelligent user convenience.
  • The solution: the Bose Soundbar 300, combined with the Slimchain chain drive and the Somfy Smart Home app.

In pursuit of a goal – from first draft to full technical solution

The sideboard - the sound bar hides almost invisibly inside.

© Jonas Weßler / Weßler GmbH

Thanks to the Slimchain chain drive, the soundbar moves out of the sideboard.

© Jonas Weßler / Weßler GmbH

Jonas Wessler explains how his movable electric music system, which he has integrated into his self-designed sideboard, came into being.

“When the first drafts of my sideboard were ready, I bought a Bose Soundbar 300 because its slim design fitted well into my overall concept. As the space requirement was minimal, I had to find a small and discreet motor.”

The difficulty lay in finding a drive motor offering a slim design and quiet operation. It was here that Jonas Wessler’s specialist background knowledge came into play:

“As the third generation in my family’s business, which manufactures front doors for sale throughout Germany and also runs a regional timber store, I am very familiar with several professional products. This was the advantage for me: I bought a GEZE Slimchain chain drive, which is normally designed for opening a window, and which was easy to fit into my music sideboard due to its slim design. After several attempts and deliberations, I was able to move the soundbar electrically using this drive, exactly as I had imagined.”

The idea of using the intelligent GEZE Slimchain window drive offered another advantage for the DIY project:

Next, I faced the problem of how to control the motor so that the soundbar could be retracted and extended by mobile phone. For this, I chose a Somfy Smart Home control. This allows me to use the Somfy app, which normally controls shutters, to now control the GEZE Slimchain drive.

Jonas Weßler

The result is impressive: when closed, the soundbar is invisible, so it’s quite a highlight when the soundbar is extended via the GEZE drive and the Somfy app.

“Even today, I still find this solution impressive, as I can now use my mobile to extend the soundbar from the sideboard, and then connect to the soundbar via Bluetooth, before playing the music I want.”

Impressive solution with intelligent user convenience

This intelligent solution impressed not only Jonas Wessler and his trainers: on 10 November 2018, he had the opportunity to present his “sideboard with sound” in Koblenz to a wide audience at the “Nacht der Technik” technology show. Trade fair visitor and Federal Minister Julia Klöckner also loved the solution.

So we ask the question: are there more GEZE customers out there using GEZE systems innovatively for their DIY projects? If that’s you, or you know of someone, please drop us a line! We can’t wait for you to share your #GEZEhacks with us!

Individual solutions from GEZE

Are you on the lookout for an innovative solution for a particular project? Let our experts advise you: we can find an individual solution for your project. For example, an automatic GEZE swing door drive offers convenience not only in hotels: used on a wood-burning stove door, it makes adding more wood much more convenient. Sounds good?

Find out more about the individual swing door solution from GEZE