How to Connect Philips Hue Lights.
If you’re looking for smart lights, you’ve probably guessed Philips Hue lights are some of the best and most versatile smart lights you can add to your smart home.
Philips Hue smart lights come in many varieties. Starter kits are the best value for money: four white lights and a Hue bridge starting at $59.99 or four white and colored lights with a Hue bridge starting at $199.99. You can also purchase other Hue products such as smart light bars from the Philips website or buy them from Amazon.
Whichever product you start with, the installation and configuration process is pretty much the same. You will need to install new Hue smart bulbs, physically connect the bridge to your router, set up the Philips Hue software on your Android or iPhone and/or computer, and set up the smart bulbs. In this guide, we will walk you through the entire process.
Connect Philips Hue Lights Hardware
Before you can set up the Philips Hue apps and start controlling your new lights over Wi-Fi, you need to connect your Hue system, including the Philips Hue bridge and Philips Hue bulbs.
The first thing you need to do is take the bulbs out of the box and install them in the lights where you want to use them.
After installation, turn on the light switch to turn on the lamps. Keep in mind that if your lighting system is dimmer controlled, you will need to set the dimmer to full on for the lighting to work properly.
Philips Hue lights may or may not light up right away, but you don’t need to worry now.
Take the Philips Hue bridge out of the box and place it next to your internet router. There are two connectors on the back of the bridge: a power port and an Ethernet port.
Connect the included power adapter to the power port and insert the plug into a power outlet or power strip.
Second, connect one end of the supplied Ethernet cable to the bridge’s LAN port, and connect the other end to an available LAN port on the back of your Internet router.
The Philips Hue Bridge should now have all dark blue or light blue lights active. If any of them are not lit or have a different color, unplug the bridge and plug it back in.
When your Philips Hue lights and Philips Hue bridge are on and your bridge is connected to your home internet, you’re ready to install apps and start using smart lighting.
Setting Up the Philips Hue App
You can download the Philips Hue app for Android from the Google Play store or for iOS from the Apple app store.
When you first launch the Philips Hue app, you need to add lights to a “room” in your home. A room in the application is a dedicated part of your house where lights are installed.
To do this, click on the three dots in the upper right corner of the application window and select Add Lights.
When you touch this, the Add Lights wizard will open. You can add bulbs by entering the serial number of each bulb or by using the “Search” button.
The “Search” button allows the bridge to scan your area for light bulbs and automatically identify them. If the bridge can find the bulbs (probably because they are too far away from the Philips Hue bridge, just add them by serial number.
Once you’ve added your light bulbs, you need to add a new room to the app. To do this, select the three dots in the upper right again and this time select Add new room or area.
This will open a new wizard for this. Select “Room” and on the next screen, you can choose the type or room you are adding, such as “Living Room” or “Office”. On the last page, you will need to select the lights you want to assign to this room.
Once you click Done, your Philips Hue app is set up and you’re ready to start controlling your Philips Hue lights!
Using the Philips Hue App
Now when you open the Hue app on your mobile device, you will see the rooms you can manage. When you select a room, you can control individual bulbs (brightness or color) or select a “scene”, which is a pre-programmed combination of colors that sets a certain mood or atmosphere in the room.
You can also use the single switch at the top of the Room window to control all the lights assigned to that room at the same time.
The Philips Hue app has some additional very interesting features and functionality.
Automation. Choose from creative ways to automate lighting, such as turn it on or off with a timer, or turn it on or off when you arrive or leave the house.Entertainment Zones: Assign specific entertainment “zones†light bulbs to a room in your home, so you can sync them with media or music playing in that room via your computer (see below).Voice Assistants: Connect to Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa to control your lighting with your voice. command. It also allows you to control your lighting through the Assistant app, Google Home app, Amazon Alexa app, or Amazon Echo app.Widgets: Set up a widget for your mobile device’s home screen. Before this works in the app, you need to press and hold on the home screen and add the Philips Hue widget from there. Then return to the app to set it up.
How to Sync Philips Hue Lights With In-Room Media
There are three ways to automatically change the lighting color to match the movies, music or other media you’re listening to in that room.
Link the app to your Spotify account.Purchase Philips Hue. Play HDMI Timing Block. Download and install the Philips Hue Sync software for Windows or Mac.
The Philips Hue Sync desktop app gives you maximum control at minimum cost.
If you have created Entertainment Zones using the Philips Hue mobile app, you will see the ones listed in the Philips Hue Sync app for PC.
Before you can do that, you need to select “Settings” and then select “Philips Tint” from the menu on the left. Select Connect New Bridge if you haven’t connected the application to the bridge yet.
You can also select Entertainment Zones from the menu on the left to see which areas are available for management.
Select “General Settings” from the menu on the left to fine-tune the sync behavior when the application starts.
You can set:
Whether to start the sync program at system startup Automatically start syncing media playing whenever the Sync application is launched Turn on “background†lighting so you never get distracted in the dark, even if the movie you are watching turns completely black.
When you’re ready to watch your media and sync the lights to it, just hit the “Start Sync Lights” button at the bottom and enjoy the spectacular show!
How to Connect Philips Hue Lights
How to Connect Philips Hue Lights