Philips Hue

Requirements 🔗

• A Philips Hue bridge, v2 or v3 (Pro) - required
• Philips Hue lights (color capable for the best results)

Bridge Required

Philips Hue lights are only supported via a Hue bridge. A Hue bridge v2 (minimum) or v3 (Pro) is required to use Philips Hue lights with iLightShow.

How to connect Philips Hue to iLightShow 🔗

1. Ensure your Philips Hue lights are already set up and connected to your Philips Hue bridge using the official Philips Hue app
2. Open the iLightShow app
   
   
3. Go to the lights page by tapping on the lights button
   
   
4. Tap the icon in the top left corner to access the list of available lights/devices
   
   
5. Your Philips Hue bridge should appear in the list of available devices (automatically discovered by iLightShow)
   
   
6. Tap on the Philips Hue bridge to connect it to iLightShow
   
   
7. Press the “Link” button on the Philips Hue bridge when prompted by iLightShow
   
   
8. Your Philips Hue lights should now be connected to iLightShow
   
   
9. You can now select your Philips Hue lights from the list of available lights in iLightShow 🎉
   
   
10. iLightShow automatically manages Entertainment groups for you, so you don’t have to worry about creating them manually, just select your Philips Hue lights!
    
    

Hue limitations and workarounds 🔗

Lights compatible with Entertainment 🔗

Not all Philips Hue lights are compatible with the Entertainment mode. In general, Philips Hue lights that are color capable are compatible with the Entertainment mode. iLightShow can sync lights that aren’t compatible with the Entertainment mode, but they will not be as responsive as lights that are compatible.

Entertainment Mode 🔗

10 lights per bridge 🔗

The entertainment mode is a feature and protocol of the Philips Hue system. It is limited to 10 lights per entertainment group and only a single entertainement group can be synced at a time per Hue bridge.

New Hue bridge Pro (v3) limitations

The new Hue bridge Pro (v3) still has the same limitations for the streaming protocol (10 lights max per Hue bridge). This is a limitation of the Hue bridge Pro (v3) and not of iLightShow.

iLightShow automatically manages entertainment groups for you, but it can’t sync more than 10 lights at a time on a single bridge.

To get around this limitation, you can use multiple Hue bridges with iLightShow. If you want to use more than 10 lights, you can connect multiple bridges to iLightShow, which has already been tested with more than 120 lights across 12 Hue bridges.

Tutorial: sync more than 10 Hue lights with multiple bridges 🔗

Each Hue bridge can stream to up to 10 lights at the same time. To sync more than 10 lights, split your lights across multiple Hue bridges, then connect each bridge to iLightShow.

For example:

• 1 Hue bridge can sync up to 10 lights
• 2 Hue bridges can sync up to 20 lights
• 3 Hue bridges can sync up to 30 lights

A Hue light can only belong to one bridge

A single Hue light cannot be paired to multiple Hue bridges at the same time. Use multiple bridges by distributing your lights across them. If you move an existing light from one bridge to another, you need to re-pair it with the new bridge.

Before you start:

• Plug each Hue bridge into power and Ethernet
• Make sure your phone and Hue bridges are on the same local network
• Decide which lights should belong to each bridge, ideally grouped by room or physical area
• Keep each bridge at 10 selected Entertainment-compatible lights or fewer when syncing with iLightShow

1. Add another Hue bridge in the Philips Hue app 🔗

Use the official Philips Hue app first, then return to iLightShow after the bridge is ready.

1. Open the Philips Hue app, go to Settings, then tap My homes
   
   

   

   Open Settings and tap My homes.

2. Tap the info button next to the Home where you want to add the bridge
   
   

   

   Open the settings for the Home you want to use.

3. In Home settings, scroll to Bridges and tap the blue + button
   
   

   

   Use the + button in the Bridges section.

4. Tap Add new Bridge
   
   

   

   Choose Add new Bridge.

5. Scan the QR code on the Hue bridge box or on the bottom of the Hue bridge, then follow the Hue app setup steps
   
   

   

   Scan the bridge QR code to finish setup.

2. Pair new lights or move existing lights to the right bridge 🔗

After the second bridge is added, add lights to the bridge that should control them. This is also the process to re-pair an existing light with a different Hue bridge.

Moving an existing Hue light

If a light is already paired to another Hue bridge, remove it from the old bridge first. If the Hue app cannot find it on the new bridge, reset the light or add it using the QR code, serial number, manual, or ownership card.

1. In the Philips Hue app, go to Settings > Devices, then tap the blue + button
   
   

   

   Start from Settings > Devices and tap +.

2. When the Hue app asks where to add devices, choose a room under the bridge you want to use. For example, choose a room under Second Hue Bridge, not under your main Hue bridge
   
   

   

   Choose a room under the bridge that should control the light.

3. Tap Scan QR code and scan the code from the bulb, manual, or ownership card. If needed, use Alternative method to add the light manually
   
   

   

   Scan the light QR code or use the alternative method.

Repeat these steps for each bridge until your lights are split across bridges the way you want.

3. Connect each Hue bridge to iLightShow 🔗

Once your bridges and lights are set up in the Philips Hue app, connect every bridge to iLightShow:

1. Open iLightShow and go to the lights page
   
   
2. Tap the icon in the top left corner
   
   
3. Tap a Hue bridge from the available devices list, then press the physical Link button on that bridge when iLightShow asks you to
   
   
4. Repeat the same pairing step for each Hue bridge
   
   
5. Select your lights in iLightShow. You can select up to 10 lights from each bridge at the same time, so multiple bridges let one light show run across more than 10 lights
   
   

Performance 🔗

If your lights are not responding as expected, you can try the following:

• Make sure the Hue bridge isn’t being controlled by another app which uses the entertainment mode
• Try to place your Hue bridge as far as possible from your Wi-Fi router and other wireless devices, the ZigBee signal can be disturbed by other wireless signals
• Open the Philips Hue app and go to the entertainment area settings
• Select the iLightShow entertainment area (created automatically by iLightShow)
• Try to play with the options like changing the proxy light
  • The proxy light will proxy all the commands to the other lights in the entertainment area
• You can also try to change the ZigBee channel of your Hue system in the Philips Hue app
  • Before doing so, you need to make sure all your lights are powered on, otherwise they will become unreachable
• If you have more than 1 Hue bridge, try to split your lights across multiple bridges by respecting the physical location of your lights

Disabling the entertainment mode 🔗

If you only have non-compatible lights, you can disable the entertainment mode in the iLightShow settings. Please note that the light show will run in degraded mode and the lights will not be as responsive as with the entertainment mode enabled.