We sat down with Earl Naegele of Neptune, a leading name in outdoor display technology, to discuss their latest innovations and strategies for the upcoming season. With over a decade of experience in this specialized category, Neptune is poised to make waves in 2025 with new products and enhanced support for their dealer network. In this exclusive Q&A, Earl provides insights into their new shade TVs, the introduction of their new outdoor powered soundbar, and the valuable programs designed to help CE Pro integrators thrive in the outdoor entertainment market.
CE Pro: For those who aren’t as familiar, tell us a little bit about Neptune, and what are some of your latest solutions and key features of those products?
Naegele: Our 2025 portfolio consists of all three recognized series of our outdoor televisions. We’ve recently launched a new shade TV series, completing all three categories—shade, partial sun, and full sun— which are all are available in 55-inch and 65-inch sizes. Our products are supported by a Minimum Advertised Price (MAP) Policy for all our retail, e-commerce, and CI accounts. We’ve also re-entered the powered outdoor soundbar category.
Those who have followed the outdoor category may remember that we were the first to introduce an outdoor-rated powered soundbar about seven years ago. We’ve since updated that to a third-generation version, and it now delivers 150 watts of power. It includes a full featured remote control for audio level, tone and input control.
As for the displays, the partial and full sun models all use LG native panels with IPS (In-Plane Switching). As you know, the primary benefit of IPS panel technology is the wide off-axis viewing. This means brightness, color, and picture remain vibrant even when viewed from various angles, which is important in outdoor environments like kitchens or patios. We have many positive reviews online; you can check out neptunetv.com or bestbuy.com, for example. Our retail partners give us five-star ratings across all sizes and series.
We’ve also introduced a new outdoor ceiling mount this year (Model: OCMUA). This product is designed to complement the 55-inch and 65-inch shade TVs, which are often installed under a permanent overhang like a deck. In those situations, the TV is typically mounted from above. Our partial and full sun TVs include an outdoor tilt wall mount. Offering a separate mount for our shade TVs provides a profit opportunity and gives dealers more options.
The new shade TVs will be priced competitively, starting under $2,000 retail. Our full price range goes up to $3,399 for the 65” Full Sun. However, to summarize, for the newest 2025 outdoor AV offerings, we have two new shade TVs, a new soundbar, and a new ceiling mount.
CE Pro: It sounds like you guys are going to be pretty busy this year. To dig in a bit more, is the soundbar a separate product, or does it have to be sold with one of your outdoor TVs?
Naegele: No, it’s sold a la carte, so it’s not bundled with the TVs, which gives dealers a lot of flexibility. It comes with two mounting configurations. Imagine hinged scissors; one piece of metal mounts into the screw holes on the back of the soundbar, and the other piece aligns with the VESA pattern on all our mounts. It’s compatible with our mounts, competitor mounts, and any competitor VESA mount patterns, so it can be paired with any outdoor television. It is AC powered, and if you don’t have an outdoor TV but you have a deck—like I do outside of Chicago—you can simply plug the soundbar into a GFI outlet and play music by pairing it with your phone. It’s Bluetooth-enabled, so you can stream from any source, and it delivers 150 watts of power and can function as standalone outdoor audio.
Many people mount it to a railing or wall and use it as an outdoor sound system, so it can be used with or without our televisions. It’s competitively priced at $899.
CE Pro: So, you’re hoping integrators will sell one for outdoor living areas and perhaps another one by the pool area? Is that the idea?
Naegele: Yes, it allows the end user to buy the perfect product for each location. For example, a sunroom might be open to the outdoors with some ambient sunlight, which is perfect for a shade TV. Or, you might have an overhang, but the TV faces north or south, not east or west, so it doesn’t get sustained direct sunlight. That’s ideal for a partial sun TV.
We’re one of the few manufacturers that offer a full sun product without any caveats. If you read the owner’s manuals of some competitors, they’ll specify operating temperatures for their full sun TVs. We don’t do that because our LCM panel allows our full sun TVs to use a true commercial-grade panel temperature rating. This means it can be installed in places with intense east-west sun, like a cabana, bar, or restaurant in Florida or Phoenix. As the name suggests, “full sun” truly means it can be in full sun all day long!
Residential integrators realized a substantial business opportunity during the pandemic as a result of work from home and home/hybrid schooling. While social patterns have changed, we anticipate a strong year for outdoor smart TVs. For example, I had planned a summer trip to Greece, but due to the geopolitical situation, I’ve postponed it, as I think many people in the US will do. I believe we’ll see a similar trend to the pandemic, where people spend more time with friends and family at home, enjoying entertainment. We expect that to drive demand for outdoor AV products.
CE Pro: To that end, what does Neptune do throughout the year to help dealers sell more products, such as providing training or helping them set up showroom displays, especially now that you offer soundbars and mounting devices in addition to displays?
Naegele: We have four key support components:
First, training. Because the outdoor environment is very different from indoor settings, training on placement, best practices, and installation is critical to ensure customer satisfaction and maximize referrals. We offer monthly training events for dealers, distributors, and partners.
Second, marketing assets. We provide rich content to help e-commerce accounts, retailers, and others educate consumers about dedicated outdoor products. Consumers may not realize the challenges of competing with 35,000-nit sunlight. We give our partners the tools and assets to market effectively.
Third, demo units. There’s a significant difference in sales performance between a dealer or integrator who displays the product versus one who relies on websites or sell sheets. Experiencing an outdoor TV in a real-world setting is powerful. So, we offer up to 20% discounts off our best dealer or distributor pricing for display and soundbar demos and a 40% discount on mounts. This makes it easier for dealers to showcase the product, demo them, while increasing sales. At the end of the season, they can sell the display unit at a discount, benefiting both the customer and the dealer, and then refresh their display the following year.
The last component is our rewards program, called Pride of Ownership. Because the outdoor TV category is still relatively new, even though we’ve been building them for over a decade and are now in our seventh generation, raising awareness is important. Dealers can contact their distributor for details on the program. We also have an annual Spring into Action loading program to ensure distributors have product on their shelves by April 1st for the selling season. The rewards program allocates points for each Neptune product sold. To give you an example, a specific display might 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, earning 6,000 points, they essentially own a Neptune display at no cost. We have strong programs in place to help everyone grow their outdoor television business.
To learn more about Neptune’s outdoor AV lineup, please visit www.neptuneTV.com.
