TruLight vs Gemstone Lights: What Salt Lake City Homeowners Need to Know

If you have been shopping permanent outdoor lighting in Salt Lake City, you have probably come across Gemstone Lights. They are one of the oldest names in this space and they helped build the category. Good company. Real product. But the technology has moved, and after putting a Gemstone light side by side with a TruLight light on our workbench, the gap is bigger than the marketing suggests. We filmed the whole breakdown. You can watch it in our TruLight vs Gemstone comparison, or keep reading for the write-up.

What Is the Real Difference Between TruLight and Gemstone?

TruLight uses a UCS7604 RGBW chip with 6 LEDs per fixture (3 RGB plus 3 dedicated warm white), runs at 48 volts, and ships with an app that has 144-plus motion patterns, density control, background coloring, and motion sensor zones. Gemstone uses a WS2811 RGB chip with 3 LEDs per node, runs at 12 volts, and has 27 motion patterns with no density or background controls. Same price range. Very different feature set.

We do not say this to bash Gemstone. They build a real product, the installers are experienced, and the homes they light up in Draper or Sandy look fine. But when you put the two side by side on a bench, the difference in LEDs, voltage, and app capability is obvious within about two minutes. Specs based on manufacturer published data as of April 2026.

Why Does 48V vs 12V Actually Matter for Salt Lake City Homes?

Voltage affects how far the system can carry power before it needs a power injection point. Gemstone's 12V system requires a power injection every 50 to 70 lights. TruLight's 48V system needs one every 400 lights. On a typical Wasatch Front home with 200 to 300 fixtures, that is the difference between one clean run and four power injection points drilled into your fascia.

Think of it like a river. A larger river carries water farther before it trickles out. At 48 volts, TruLight pushes power and data much farther on each run, which is why we also use thicker 16-gauge wire compared to Gemstone's 18-gauge. Fewer power injections mean fewer holes in the house, fewer connections that can loosen during freeze-thaw cycling on the East Bench, and a cleaner install that looks invisible during the day.

This also changes brightness. Because the power stays consistent from the first fixture to the last on a 48V run, the far end of your TruLight roofline is just as bright as the first fixture next to the controller. On a 12V system with multiple injection points, each segment has its own small voltage drop between injections, which can produce slight brightness variations along a long roofline in Cottonwood Heights or Holladay.

Which LED Chip Is Better: WS2811 or UCS7604?

The UCS7604 is a 4-in-1 RGBW chip with 16-bit color depth, which means 65,536 grayscale levels per channel and a dedicated warm white LED baked into the chip itself. The WS2811 is an 8-bit RGB-only chip (256 levels per channel) designed for 5V and 12V systems. Google the two chip names yourself. We did exactly that on camera in the comparison video, and the public spec sheets tell the story.

Gemstone uses the WS2811 with 3 LEDs per node. TruLight uses the UCS7604 with 6 LEDs per node: 3 RGB plus 3 dedicated warm white. That is the hardware reason TruLight can produce a real warm white and a true pure white by blending all 6 LEDs. No RGB-only system can do that regardless of software updates. It is a hardware ceiling.

Signal redundancy is another UCS7604 advantage. If one TruLight fixture fails, the chip reroutes signal around it and the rest of the line keeps working. On WS2811, if one light fails the signal stops at that point and everything downstream goes dark until a tech gets up there.

Does Gemstone Have True White Light?

Not really. Gemstone recently added a small "quarter light" yellow LED to their nodes, which is enough to market a white-light option. It is not a full dedicated warm white channel. TruLight has 3 dedicated warm white LEDs per node, which gives you two distinct white modes: a real warm white that flatters stucco and stone, and a true pure white from blending all 6 LEDs at full.

White is the most commonly requested color for everyday use. Accent lighting, security lighting, backyard entertaining, welcoming a guest at the front door at 9 p.m. All of that is white. If the white on your system is a blended approximation, you notice it every single night for the life of the install. On a Utah home with earth-tone stone and stucco, an off white reads as slightly blue or slightly green. It fights the architecture instead of flattering it.

Full Side-by-Side Specs

Build Quality: What Happens When You Actually Test the Lights

In the comparison video, we did a physical test. The Gemstone light has a plastic housing with thinner 18-gauge, 3-wire internals. We pulled one of the wires right out by hand. TruLight fixtures use a 16-gauge, 4-wire system in a housing that we have run over with cars and hit with hammers without breaking. That is not a brag. That is what the track and housing need to handle over 100,000 hours of service life in a Utah environment that swings from minus 10 in January to 105 in July.

Both systems mount inside aluminum track. If any permanent lighting company in Salt Lake City is installing plastic or acrylic track, walk away. That is the baseline you should expect. The UCS7604 rating of 100,000 hours is double the 50,000-hour rating on the WS2811, which matters over the lifetime of your install. At 5 hours per night of runtime, 50,000 hours is about 27 years. 100,000 hours is 54 years. Both are long, but the chip you pick determines which of those numbers you get.

App and Features: Where TruLight Pulls Ahead the Most

Hardware is where the comparison starts. The app is where it ends. TruLight's app has 144-plus motion patterns compared to Gemstone's 27. Both let you adjust direction, speed, and brightness. TruLight adds density control (how busy a motion pattern looks across your roofline) and background coloring (a static base color behind any moving effect). Gemstone has neither.

The biggest day-to-day difference is the animated preview. TruLight's app shows a virtual house with your chosen pattern running on it before you fire it on the real roofline. You pick a look from the couch instead of sending a kid outside to tell you whether the Halloween chase looks right. Gemstone's app lists the pattern name as text. That is the interaction.

Zoning is the other big one. TruLight offers true global zoning, where you create independent zones that each run their own patterns, directions, and effects at the same time. Your front yard can run a red, white, and blue chase on the Fourth while your backyard holds steady on warm white for grilling. Motion sensors can be assigned per zone too, so a sensor at the side gate triggers only that zone instead of flashing the whole home. Gemstone supports grouping and selection, not global zones.

"If they're using lumens to sell you, you're getting swindled."

That quote from the video is about voltage. A 12V system can technically push higher lumens per fixture, but because of the power injection intervals, the last fixture on a long run often delivers less than the spec sheet claims. A 48V system with consistent voltage across the run delivers the same brightness from the first fixture to the last. Brightness is a function of the whole system, not a single LED rating.

Permanent Lighting for Draper, Cottonwood Heights, Sandy, and the East Bench

Salt Lake City has a specific install context that makes the 48V vs 12V discussion more than theoretical. East Bench homes in Holladay, Cottonwood Heights, and parts of Sandy often have long, complex rooflines with multiple peaks. That layout chews through a 12V system's injection budget fast. On a 48V system, the same home runs clean on one injection point tucked near the controller.

In Draper and South Jordan, newer builds lean to big single-story ramblers and two-story stucco with wide front elevations. Both systems can handle these, but the TruLight 48V run stays consistently bright across the whole front, while a 12V system often needs a mid-run injection behind a garage gable to keep the far end lit properly.

Herriman and Riverton new construction often ends up with detached garages or long accessory walls. Those are the kinds of runs where the 400-vs-50 injection difference shows up visibly. For more on how we approach specific architecture, see our post on architectural lighting for stone and stucco homes or the permanent lighting service page.

Same Price Range, Very Different Technology

Here is the detail most Gemstone quotes do not lead with. In the comparison video, we reference a real neighbor who had quotes from both companies in hand. Gemstone was actually $200 more expensive than TruLight for the same general scope. That is anecdotal, not a price guarantee, but it lines up with what we see across the Wasatch Front. The two systems are in the same price range, and often TruLight comes in a little under Gemstone for a comparable home.

If you are going to spend $3,000 to $7,000 on a permanent lighting install that stays on your house for 25-plus years, the specs and the app matter more than the brand name. More LEDs per node. A newer chip. A higher voltage. A better app. A lifetime warranty. Same budget.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is TruLight cheaper than Gemstone in Salt Lake City?

In most of the Wasatch Front quotes we see, TruLight and Gemstone land in the same price range, and TruLight is often slightly lower on comparable scopes. Pricing varies by home size and design, so the best way to compare is to get quotes from both on the same property. You will also want to note what is included: controller type, warranty terms, and whether motion sensors or music sync are extras.

What permanent lighting company is the best in Salt Lake City?

TruLight SLC installs 48-volt UCS7604 RGBW permanent LED systems with 6 LEDs per fixture and an app with 144-plus motion patterns. We serve Draper, Cottonwood Heights, Holladay, Sandy, Herriman, Riverton, and the rest of the Wasatch Front. Every install carries a lifetime transferable warranty. You can reach us at (801) 783-2039 or request a free quote online.

Does Gemstone have warm white lights?

Gemstone recently added a small quarter-light yellow LED to their nodes, which lets them market a white-light option. It is not a full dedicated warm white channel. If you want true warm white and a true pure white on the same system, you need a dedicated warm white LED in the fixture, which is what TruLight's UCS7604 with 3 warm white LEDs provides.

Can I watch the full TruLight vs Gemstone video?

Yes. The full side-by-side comparison, with timestamps, is on our TruLight vs Gemstone comparison page. We cover hardware, voltage, build quality, app features, zoning, motion sensors, and music sync in about 33 minutes. The specs you see on the page are pulled directly from the manufacturer data sheets.

Gemstone built the foundation of the permanent lighting category. We respect the company and the product. But if you are shopping in 2026 along the Wasatch Front, the technology gap is real, and the pricing does not reward brand-name loyalty. Watch the side-by-side in our full comparison or call us at (801) 783-2039. We will come out, walk your home, and show you exactly what a 48V, 6-LED RGBW install would look like on your roofline.