Philips Hue home automation options – Picture and sound – .Plans

Most home, garden and kitchen users will use Philips Hue lamps to give their home that extra something mood lighting to provide. Of course there’s nothing wrong with that, but the tweaker community likes to take things in more depth. This also applies to Leo Schelvis, better known on the forum as Leowho can call himself a true fan of the product line with 32 Hue lamps.

Philips Hue had been around for exactly ten years at the end of October and is now indispensable in many homes. The lighting system, designed for home automation and manufactured by Signify, has recently undergone significant development and offers many possibilities: from indoor and outdoor mood lighting, to smart ways to wake up, to automatically turning on the lights when you’re not at home and the extension of color during the game, with Hue Play gradient light strips. Yet it can be applied much more specifically, and the house of Leo Schelvis is a good example. Tweakers recently posted a forum call, where we reported that we were looking for a true connoisseur of hues. Leo fits that description well and responded.

32 Hue lamps in the house

“The first time I bought Hue spotlights it must have been in 2012 or 2013,” says Leo. “I was curious to see what was possible with it. At first it was just about making some mood lighting. Anyway, my partner and I like to play around with gadgets and apps and see what we can use them for at home. Then it’s me who then organizes it through home automation, because it has to work, of course”.

In the years that followed, more and more Hue products entered homes. The counter is now 32 lamps, five remote controls, a motion detector and a number of smart plugs. “We now have Hue lamps in every room; both spotlights and sconces. We tried lamps from other brands in between, but they were really less good. Apart from that, the difference between the first and last generation of Hue lamps is noticeable. Later lamps are much better at displaying color. The green color in particular has improved tremendously.” When to apply 32 lamps during the current energy crisis one might wonder if this is an economic system. Leo is not very worried about this: “If these lamps were not there, we would have had other lamps. It’s not even like they stay on all day. I now have a standby consumption of 200 watts; it’s better than expected. With the right light settings you can also save energy, for example by using the dimming function. I am only interested in quiet mood lighting and the useful functions that are possible with it. I don’t have to organize a home disco.”

Automatically turn on when the fire alarm goes off

Most lamps are controlled by timed routines and turn on and off at certain times. One hangs in the hallway of Leo’s house motion sensorso that the lights turn on automatically when someone passes by. Much more complicated are the scenes that are triggered when Leo’s buzzer goes off in the middle of the night. Leo is a member of the volunteer fire department. “I have a P2000 receiver. Messages arrive through a specific code in which my address is encoded. When it shuts down, messages are spoken via audio through my smart speaker. You should think about specific notifications and information: what is the priority and which address does it concern? Then the light in the bedroom flickers on subtly for twenty seconds; that’s just enough time to get out of bed. The lights are also on in the hallway and living room, up to the front door.’

“Two variants are possible in the living room,” continues Leo. “Green light is priority 2 and red light is priority 1. Green light is less urgent; think of a garbage can fire or reports from smoke detectors. At the red light, nine times out of ten something seriously catches fire and we proceed with sirens blaring”. Most of the lighting turns off automatically, except in the living room. “I like not coming home to a dark house.”

You can learn to automate

Hue works easily with the Hue app, but Leo’s Home Assistant runs on Odroid and its SDR receiver is plugged into a Raspberry pi. Then all routines are tied together with Node Red. Of course, there are also other simpler applications of lighting. “We have an outdoor lamp that comes on automatically when it gets dark and goes off again at eleven in the evening. Also, some lights come on when we’re not at home. Our gold oruri pond has lamps from another brand, but they go through a shadesmart socket when the sun is at a certain height”.

“That’s the cool thing: figuring it out yourself and playing with it, until it works.”As a thank you for taking the call and giving this interview, Leo will be receiving a Hue Play gradient light tube. Place or mount this tube under a TV to reflect the different colors of your TV screen onto the wall. You can also rotate the tube to shine colored light in all directions of the room (living room). Does Leo already have an idea of ​​how he will use the tube next? “I have a 65 inch QLED TV and figured I should be able to connect the tube to the TV using the Philips Hue HDMI Sync Box.”

With this Sync Box users sync their Hue bulbs with media. Intelligent lighting therefore responds to what someone is watching or listening to. For example, you connect this box to a streaming device, game console or set-top box, after which the lights dim, brighten or change color in sync with what’s happening on the TV screen. The sync box is compatible with 4k, Dolby Vision and HDR10+. Works with all Philips Hue White and Color Ambiance lamps and fixtures, with up to ten Philips Hue lamps. Leo: “I still have to dig into that, but here’s the fun part: figuring it out yourself and playing with it until it works.”

Do you also have experience with Philips Hue lamps and home automation? Let us know in the comments.