Philips Hue Lights to Get New Brightness Balancer Feature and Additional Automation Controls

[MacRumors]

Lighting company Signify has announced a new feature coming to the Philips Hue app that aims to give users better control over brightness in their home, as well as a Hue bridge automation update that brings more nuance to motion sensor triggers.

Philips Hue lights will soon include a brightness balancer that lets users customize the relative brightness of individual lights in an Entertainment area, instead of controlling the lights as a group.

Signify says the new feature was developed following requests from Philips Hue's users who wanted to more control over their lights while watching a movie, listening to music or gaming.

Using the brightness balancer, users can "make lights that have higher lumens dim lower than lights with lower lumens," according to Signify, allowing users to choose what is in the spotlight when syncing lights to movies, games, or music.

In addition, a forthcoming update to the Philips Hue bridge will allow users to have more control over lighting automation triggered by motion sensors.

Currently, Philips Hue motion sensors support two time slots for automating lighting conditions – daytime and night – so users can for example set up a bright light to come on in the daytime and a low-level light at night.

With the upcoming Hue bridge update, users will be able to customize lighting conditions using a total of 10 time slots, allowing for various settings throughout the day. The Natural light scene can also be selected as part one of these time slots, to mimic the sun throughout the day.

Signify says both the brightness balancer feature for the Hue app and the Hue bridge automation enhancements are scheduled to launch later this summer.

Article Link: Philips Hue Lights to Get New Brightness Balancer Feature and Additional Automation Controls

 

[johnnyturbouk]

My entire house has/had hue lights, but I have recently added some govee and Nanoleaf accent lighting and light strips.
I also have the hue tap dial and lutron switches, they all work together fantastically. I have most my automation setup either n the home or eve app. I welcome greater control over the lights and the hue app has made slow albeit solid progress over several years.

Recently, considering the astonishingly high costs of hue, I have begun to divest.
My brand new matter Nanoleaf light stip has failed [ie half the strip won't work], which is disappointing, but I do love the thread connectivity of the regular thread Nanoleaf light strip work amazingly. I have to say, the Govee lightstrip, RGB wall panels etc are fantastic, and work so well with Homebridge. My main grip with govee is that they should have invested in homekit compatibility some time ago and really need to move towards thread rather than wifi for connectivity.

 

[kiranmk2]

Glad to hear that the motion sensors are getting more timezones. Felt really stingy only getting two. There was a Hue Labs recipe for three settings, but the light sensitivity control was all over the place.

 

[Powerbooky]

Looks almost the same as the newly introduced 24 hour scene animation, which is actually a couple of (standard) scenes that sequentially fade each 2 hours. Its kind of like Apple's Adaptive Lighting, it really doesn't match the real outside ambient light condition - it just follows time.

This update could work for the rainy days when the ambient light is lower? I hope that the update also brings a regularly updated light level value to Homekit instead of only updating when motion was detected. This really would help to do other stuff with it, like detecting sudden thunderstorms during the summer. Usually the light level drops very quick when that happens.

 

[mazz0]

The motion sensors need more intelligence. If I have a light on quite bright and it detects motion I don't want it to dim the light, even if that's the light set for the current time slot. A manually set bright light should not be dimmed, but a manually set dim light should be brightened. You can achieve half of that with labs, but a. you can't achieve all of it, and b. you shouldn't have to mess around with labs.

 

[Htsi]

Wish dynamic scenes come to HomeKit, love them and have to use the dimmer switch or app presently.

 

[Unggoy Murderer]

My entire house has/had hue lights, but I have recently added some govee and Nanoleaf accent lighting and light strips.
I also have the hue tap dial and lutron switches, they all work together fantastically. I have most my automation setup either n the home or eve app. I welcome greater control over the lights and the hue app has made slow albeit solid progress over several years.

Recently, considering the astonishingly high costs of hue, I have begun to divest.
My brand new matter Nanoleaf light stip has failed [ie half the strip won't work], which is disappointing, but I do love the thread connectivity of the regular thread Nanoleaf light strip work amazingly. I have to say, the Govee lightstrip, RGB wall panels etc are fantastic, and work so well with Homebridge. My main grip with govee is that they should have invested in homekit compatibility some time ago and really need to move towards thread rather than wifi for connectivity.

I bought a Govee light strip (nothing fancy, was like £18 in a sale on Amazon for five meters) and I have to say it was excellent value. Light output was a little weak (acceptable for price though) and the app control was sensible and really responsive via BlueTooth. Also bought the Govee light bars for my mum's home office and she loves them, again excellent value.

I eventually used a HomeBridge extension to provide HomeKit support and it actually worked really well. I just needed an extra USB BlueTooth module, the built-in one for the Raspberry Pi where HomeBridge was running wasn't powerful enough to reach the strip. Once that was installed it ran flawlessly until I moved house and left for new owners (was integrated).

I currently have a mix of Hue, Lifx, IKEA and Nanoleaf lights, and I think the Hue ones feel to be the most dependable. Lifx definitely has a better overall product, but I've found their setup experience to be really hit and miss, to the point I dread ever having to reset the bulbs. I just used a HomeBridge extension to avoid this very issue 😂

 

[k1121j]

Now if only the bridge supported more then 50 devices.

 

[k1121j]

My entire house has/had hue lights, but I have recently added some govee and Nanoleaf accent lighting and light strips.
I also have the hue tap dial and lutron switches, they all work together fantastically. I have most my automation setup either n the home or eve app. I welcome greater control over the lights and the hue app has made slow albeit solid progress over several years.

Recently, considering the astonishingly high costs of hue, I have begun to divest.
My brand new matter Nanoleaf light stip has failed [ie half the strip won't work], which is disappointing, but I do love the thread connectivity of the regular thread Nanoleaf light strip work amazingly. I have to say, the Govee lightstrip, RGB wall panels etc are fantastic, and work so well with Homebridge. My main grip with govee is that they should have invested in homekit compatibility some time ago and really need to move towards thread rather than wifi for connectivity.

have you noticed any delay in controlling the non Hue lights ie dimming changing colors. I had looked in to lights that are homekit with out the need for a hub and the part i cant seem to live with is 1. delay from power on ohat they can be controlled 2. delay in control, 3. choppy color control

 

[madeirabhoy]

I bought a Govee light strip (nothing fancy, was like £18 in a sale on Amazon for five meters) and I have to say it was excellent value. Light output was a little weak (acceptable for price though) and the app control was sensible and really responsive via BlueTooth. Also bought the Govee light bars for my mum's home office and she loves them, again excellent value.

I eventually used a HomeBridge extension to provide HomeKit support and it actually worked really well. I just needed an extra USB BlueTooth module, the built-in one for the Raspberry Pi where HomeBridge was running wasn't powerful enough to reach the strip. Once that was installed it ran flawlessly until I moved house and left for new owners (was integrated).

I currently have a mix of Hue, Lifx, IKEA and Nanoleaf lights, and I think the Hue ones feel to be the most dependable. Lifx definitely has a better overall product, but I've found their setup experience to be really hit and miss, to the point I dread ever having to reset the bulbs. I just used a HomeBridge extension to avoid this very issue 😂

id never had an issue with any philips lights, but just last week the charger for one of my Hue Go lights died. i know its the charger as if i swap the light to another charger it works. I have a lot of Hue Go, i just think they are great looking lights and great for lighting the rooms up without having lights hanging from ceilings.

alas there are two different designs of Hue Go, and this was one of the older design. the connector is different. i only have 2 of them, so i have to keep swapping them over so one of them is getting charged and the other is running on battery. with it being an unusual connector and a sealed unit i suspect the long term decision has to be buying another whole unit.

 

[munpip214]

Why is there a limit on time slots??

 

[FelixDerKater]

Glad to hear they aren’t killing off the brand.

 

[Htsi]

have you noticed any delay in controlling the non Hue lights ie dimming changing colors. I had looked in to lights that are homekit with out the need for a hub and the part i cant seem to live with is 1. delay from power on ohat they can be controlled 2. delay in control, 3. choppy color control

There is a lag between my hue lights and my wiz lights via homebridge due to them working on Wi-Fi vs Zigbee.
I was not impressed by the nanoleaf bulb over thread when it launched either.
Hue has its flaws, but is my favourite.

 

[ChrisA]

The Hue motion sensors have built-in light level sensors that report "Lux". In the current Hue app, all you can use this sensor for is to trigger the lights to come on only if it is dark. You get to set the threshold.

But what is better is is use the light sensor to control the dimmer so that you have the desired light level. The Philips app can't do this. But using homekit, you can define a "shortcut". Shortcuts can do almost anything you can think of, including making better use of the light sensor and having more time slots.

In Homekit use "convert automation to shortcut.

 

[autumnmike]

I was curious if they were going to put in matter support with this latest bridge firmware update. Took a look at their developer message board. I don’t think it’s quite ready, but it’s looking like soon. Last beta was 11 days ago, a new one should be out this week fixing a major bug.

 

[ChrisA]

Why is there a limit on time slots??

It is just the way Philips wrote their app. I assume it was an attempt to balance the feature set with the need to keep the app simple to use for most people. If you add too much to an app, users are annoyed that they have to scroll 20 pages down to find options. You can hide features under "..." or "advanced" buttons but then users have trouble finding the feature. So they look for a balance.

 

[BeefCake 15]

Is there extremely expensive products worth the price vs. Govee and others?

 

[ChrisA]

have you noticed any delay in controlling the non Hue lights ie dimming changing colors. I had looked in to lights that are homekit with out the need for a hub and the part i cant seem to live with is 1. delay from power on ohat they can be controlled 2. delay in control, 3. choppy color control

Looking for lights that don't use a hub is a mistake. They ALL use a hub. Some use your WiFi router, some have their own branded hub (like Hue) and thread-based lights use either an Apple Homepod or newer Apple TV as a hub. You will not find lights that are completely peer-to-peer.

The last thing you want is 200 WiFi devices on your home WiFi network. Thread works well as does Zigbee that Hue uses. WiFi is slower and does not scale so well. But you can make WiFi lights and switches work if you are willing to install "bombproof" mesh 2 GHz WiFi using multiple routers with wired or 5 (or 6) GHz backhaul.

Thread works a lot like zigbee but has some better technical features but the Hue system is more mature and is VERY reliable. Hue's only downside is the cost. It is the most expensive by far. That aid, I'm noticing reduced prices for Hue on Amazon.

 

[k1121j]

Looking for lights that don't use a hub is a mistake. They ALL use a hub. Some use your WiFi router, some have their own branded hub (like Hue) and thread-based lights use either an Apple Homepod or newer Apple TV as a hub. You will not find lights that are completely peer-to-peer.

The last thing you want is 200 WiFi devices on your home WiFi network. Thread works well as does Zigbee that Hue uses. WiFi is slower and does not scale so well. But you can make WiFi lights and switches work if you are willing to install "bombproof" mesh 2 GHz WiFi using multiple routers with wired or 5 (or 6) GHz backhaul.

Thread works a lot like zigbee but has some better technical features but the Hue system is more mature and is VERY reliable. Hue's only downside is the cost. It is the most expensive by far. That aid, I'm noticing reduced prices for Hue on Amazon.

Thanks for the explanation of what is should have a called a bridge. I do have a Orbi 960 with 3AP with a wired backhaul so im good there. So far like you said i find the wifi lights slow and what feels like cheap when it comes to changing/choosing colors dimming etc. I have 48 hue devices soon to be on two bridges just hoping they will support more devices on v3 of the bridge.

 

[canonical]

it is quite unfortunate that the LED bulbs produce light that is so unpleasant: what they call warm white is as cold as winter in the Game of Thrones, and they have an dreadful CRI (colour rendering index) compared to halogen and incandescent bulbs which score perfect 100%. How does dimmer control assist me, if the basic light it produces is so ugly, at all dimmer/hue settings?

 

[Radeon85]

it is quite unfortunate that the LED bulbs produce light that is so unpleasant: what they call warm white is as cold as winter in the Game of Thrones, and they have an dreadful CRI (colour rendering index) compared to halogen and incandescent bulbs which score perfect 100%. How does dimmer control assist me, if the basic light it produces is so ugly, at all dimmer/hue settings?

I personally have no issues with the hue bulbs colour accuracy, and when I pick warm white it's very far from a cold white, it's a very warm yellow hue not that far off halogen. It's about time halogen and incandescent died out permanently, they use a ridiculous amount of power usage and a ridiculous amount of unnecessary heat.

The white ambiance bulbs can go from very cold to very warm, same for the colour ones so getting the temperature you want isn't that hard.

 

[ehrens]

I must be the only one who uses the Hue app only to pull bulbs and accessories into HomeKit.

 

[Jaro65]

Now if only the bridge supported more then 50 devices.

I don't know why it's taking this long to update the hub so it can support 100+ devices.

 

[MallardDuck]

And still no sign of an updated b

I don't know why it's taking this long to update the hub so it can support 100+ devices.

Big ditto on that one. I have three bridges now. Insane that we haven't had a substantial update.

I live in fear of one of them failing, because there's no backup/recovery/transfer option anymore. I'll have to manually repair each bulb - by serial number (because they're paired already) - and then recreate the entire setup.

They need to stop working on new niche lights and fix the backbone of the system.

 

[Victor Mortimer]

I must be the only one who uses the Hue app only to pull bulbs and accessories into HomeKit.

Given how awful the HK UI is for lights, yeah, you probably are.

The Hue app is far from perfect, but it's so much better than HK.