Philips Hue System

kennith

Well-known member
Apr 22, 2004
10,891
172
North Carolina
This may seem pretty stupid, but I assure you it's not.

Quite some time ago, a few computer games offered external ambient lighting functionality. A few products delivered the experience, but they could only be bought easily at computer shows, and were questionable at best.

It would be some time, but computer enthusiasts were eventually treated to a number of experience enhancing toys. A number of RGB LED lamps were available (if very difficult to connect in the numbers advertised), as well as a few other odds and ends, including a fan.

It never really caught on, but even today you can buy newer, better built versions of the lights. The technology was licensed to a few gaming perephrial manufacturers; first seeing it's new incarnation in Saitek keyboards.

Not too long ago, Philips tried again. Most of us will recall the "Ambi-Light" televisions. Surrounding the rear of the panel, lamps would extend the most concentrated display colors into a light wash across the wall upon which the screen was mounted.

Their television products didn't catch on here in the States, so the technology largely passed by unnoticed.

Now, it's back; with a proper marketing campaign behind it, and it is good.

I just fitted several of these lamps throughout what I generously call my house. It's all controlled by that damnable iPad that I bought simply because all my magazines were available in the proper format, but it will also work on Android systems. I'm expecting Windows soon, because Philips has clearly embraced the Microsoft Metro look.

Regardless, they are obviously programmable lights. You can tell them when to turn on and off. That's nothing new.

The neat part is that they are RGB lamps. They will display pretty much any color you want, from all the whites you'll ever need, to crazy shit like red and blue. Several of the lamps fitted throughout a room will work in tandem to create some very interesting effects. As an example, one "scene" is called something like underwater. Each lamp does something different, and it really looks like you're under water.

So, you've got programmable illumination, as well as neat color effects, which is a bit of a toy, but there's more to it.

You can keep all your lamps separate, or group them however you wish. The base unit will support up to fifty. Clearly, that fucking enough for pretty much any house. Each lamp or group of lamps can be told to do one thing or another at the press of a button, and you can calibrate light levels as well as colors in any way you please very easily.

Now the cool part:

At the moment, I've got the system set to "night". This illuminates one flood lamp in the kitchen in a warm, dim manner. Another lamp in my bedroom is illuminated in the same way.

I also set up an "evening" program. Mind you, I'm just fucking around here. I generally only use one lamp in the house at a time. In that program, three flood lamps illuminate softly in the kitchen, at a slightly cooler temperature, and two in the bedroom do the same.

It gets a bit better. My "Movie" setting kills everything. Just one button needs to be pressed, mind you. I also have, however, a "Movie Food" program. That fires up one flood lamp in the kitchen, very dimly; in a deep, dark red.

So, if I'm watching a movie in the dark, and the screen has been buggering my night vision, all I've got to do is press "Movie Food", and the single flood lamp illuminates in red.

Basically, I press a button, and every light in the house changes to a setting I've programmed for that button. Since they are grouped, you don't have to fuck up any lights that you always want a certain way regardless of the program.

These things are pretty expensive, but they are pretty nice, and really un-fuck lighting issues. Now, I can have lights on when someone stops by without bothering my eyes, because I can set the temperature at will.

More importantly, at the press of a single button, the whole house adjusts. On those rare occasions when I actually bother to sleep properly, I can just press "All Off", and it kills everything.

These will even do club-like effects, which might be nice for parties, and would certainly be cool around Halloween. If you have kids for some reason, you can put one in their bedroom as a night light, and it can be any color and intensity you want.

I can see these things really dropping an electricity bill, because even people who never bother to turn off lights will end up turning them off when they set the house to programs appropriate for the time of day. I'm not sure how long it would take to make back the purchase price, though.

This is another one of those products that seems stupid until you try it.

I bought the damned thing because my mother intends to grace my home with her presence for a week soon.

Yes, I do have a mother, believe it or not. Yes, she thinks I'm an asshole.

She can't stand the light levels I use. Now, that keeps her out of the kitchen, because I'm the only one that can see in my house.

This is a fucking problem. She cooks when she's in the kitchen. That means I get food without having to do anything about it. Naturally, that is a desirable scenario. Without light, though, she won't go in the damned kitchen!

Now she can have all the light she wants, at a temperature that won't bother me too much. That means I get to eat real food. So, for at least a week, breakfast won't consist of soda, smokes, and canned whatever the fuck I bought at 3am the previous night mixed with questionable leftovers.

All in all, these are awesome. If you buy them, you eat good food.

If you're even remotely interested in having what amounts to a universal remote for all the lights in your house that any idiot can operate, you ought to try them. Best Buy has a generous return policy, so you're not screwed if don't like them.

Setting it all up is so fucking simple that it took me half an hour to figure out that I didn't have to do anything aside from plug it into the router and download an app. Everything finds itself automatically.

Cheers,

Kennith
 

ERover82

Well-known member
Nov 26, 2011
3,899
450
Darien Gap
Hue leds lights:
controlled by ipad
make colors and effects
programmable presets
expensive
might actually be useful

Kennith:
extreme bachelor lifestyle
prefers dungeon lighting
mom thinks he's an asshole
 

kennith

Well-known member
Apr 22, 2004
10,891
172
North Carolina
...It didn't seem that long-winded when I was typing it.:D

Happens to me all the time. I just lose track of what I'm typing.

Cheers,

Kennith