How To Control Lights With An iPhone Philips Hue vs OnSwitch for Philips Hue and LIFX vs Wink - Smart Home ... and 1 more
Edited by Frank Fazio, Eng
To give your home theater the finishing touch, you can install an app on your iPhone to control your lighting system. This will allow you to dim the lights just before the movie starts as the do in a real movie theater. It is not hard to do, as each controllable light bulb manufacturer makes an app for their product.
App 1: Philips Hue
Here is the iPhone app to control the Philips Hue, made my the Philips company. You can control up to 50 Philips products per bridge and you will need (at least) the following Philips starter pack to run this app:
- Bulbs + Bridge or
- Bloom + Bridge or
- Iris + Bridge or
- LightStrips + Bridge
App 2: OnSwitch for Philips Hue and LIFX
Described as "The simplest way to use Philips Hue & LIFX", this iPhone app has 30 pre programmed lighting scenes included with your install. To control your lighting scenes, just tap the effect you want on your iPhone and choose the bulb group of your choice. To run this app you must have (at least) the following:
- LIFX smart bulbs or
- Philips Hue bridge + light bulbs.
App 3: Wink - Smart Home
The Wink - Smart Home app does more than just control your lights, it is a total solution to automate your house. It works well with many light bulbs on the market. Many of the following manufacturers work directly with the app and others may need to be connected with the Wink HUB:
- Bali
- Cree
- Commercial Electric
- Dropcam
- Emerson
- GE
- GoControl
- Honeywell
- Kidde
- Kwikset
- Lutron
- Leviton
- Nest
- OSRAM
- Pella
- Philips
- Quirky
- Rachio
- Schlage
- TCP
App 4: Crestron
On more of the enterprise scale, the Crestron iPhone app will control your lights, but also many other things like your Air Conditioner. They also have an app for the Apple Watch that you can use to dim your lights, so you don't need your iPhone.
If you have problems with any of the steps in this article, please ask a question for more help, or post in the comments section below.
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Categories : Home Theater
Recent edits by: Frank Fazio
