Four Ways To Sync Your LED Smart Lights To Music
While they may not grab headlines, the growth of LED smart lights is one of the big tech stories of recent years. Over the last twenty years, LEDs have enjoyed a phenomenal surge in popularity for several reasons. The first is their efficiency. Old-fashioned incandescent bulbs waste up to 90% of their energy, but LED bulbs convert that same amount into visible light, helping to deliver energy savings of up to 90%.
This translates into a much-reduced carbon footprint and significant cost savings, especially as they tend to last much longer than traditional bulbs. It's not surprising, then, that the global LED lighting market is projected to grow by 7.8% in the next five years. Add some Wi-Fi and some smarts, and you can operate them remotely and get them to turn on and off according to a schedule.
So far, so worthy. What I love about LED lights is their ability to deliver light across a wide spectrum of visual frequencies — or, in English, to emit light in a variety of colors. This is perfect for creating the perfect ambiance, whether it's greens and blues for a calming effect or pink and reds for a more romantic feel.
However, I'm partial to getting them to pulse and flash in response to music. Whatever you're into, whether high-tempo tracks, atmospheric rock, dance, or hip-hop, rhythmic lighting looks great and gets you more immersed in the music.
Here, then, is an overview of four approaches to getting your LED lights to dance to your tune.
1. Standalone LED smart light strips and lamps
These are the most cost-effective and easiest way to get lights that get their groove on.
These are strips of color LEDs with an adhesive backing so you can attach them to the wall. They come in a variety of lengths and can be picked up inexpensively from places such as Amazon. One downside, though, is that the adhesive backing makes it difficult to remove them without damage to the wallpaper or paint.
The advantage of this approach is that an external hub is not needed, with Wi-Fi integrated into an external box control unit and often a microphone too. There will usually be an accompanying app, which you set up to respond to music mode, and off you go. There will normally be a selection of pre-programmed patterns from which you can choose, from high-energy switching for faster tracks to gentler patterns for ballads.
There are many inexpensive Chinese brands to choose from, such as Govee, or you can go mid-range with names such as Lepro, which offer more ambitious lamp designs.
Govee is one of the more popular brands offering affordable color LED light strips.
At the high-end, you have Philips Hue, which offers strips and bulbs and lamps of all kinds. Its products are unquestionably expensive, but there's no doubting the quality of the LEDs and the robustness of the software. However, while some Philips Hue products work over Bluetooth, the functionality is basic, and for music syncing, you'll need to add a hub.
If you don't want the expense of a hub, you could go for Wiz. Owned by Signify, the same parent company that owns Philips Hue, Wiz is a less expensive alternative. While the range of options isn't as extensive, the app experience is still polished, and, crucially, lets you sync your lights with music without a hub.
LIFX is another hubless solution, offering a range of LED bulbs and strips. One option for music synchronization is via the SmartThings app, but one, rather significant limitation is that this is only available on Samsung Galaxy devices. Everyone else can use a third-party app, such as iLightShow.
There are many choices out there but one range of inexpensive lamps worth considering is from Moonside Design.
The Halo Lamp is from Moonside Design is inexpensive but still has an art-piece feel to it.
I looked at its Lighthouse lamp a few years and it now offers an increasing array of good-looking smart lights. One of its most recent additions is the Halo Lamp. This is essentially an LED donut that appears to be floating inside a diffused box and offers some mesmerizing effects from its 80 individually addressable color zones. You can control it over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, and I was pleased that I could use the app to join it up with the Lighthouses. Choose a sound-responsive pattern in the app and you'll have your soon have light bouncing around the room in time to the music. Party on!
At the high-end, you have Philips Hue. Its products are unquestionably expensive, but there's no doubting the quality of the LED strip and the robustness of the software. However, while some Philips Hue products work over Bluetooth, the functionality is basic, and for music syncing, you'll need to add a hub.
If you don't want the expense of a hub, you could go for Wiz. Owned by Signify, the same parent company that owns Philips Hue, Wiz is a less expensive alternative. While the range of options isn't as extensive, the app experience is still polished, and, crucially, lets you sync your lights with music without a hub.
LIFX is another hubless solution, offering a range of LED bulbs and strips. One option for music synchronization is via the SmartThings app, but one, rather significant limitation is that this is only available on Samsung Galaxy devices. Everyone else can use a third-party app, such as iLightShow.
An alternative range of inexpensive lamps worth considering is from Moonside Design, which offers an increasing array of good-looking smart lights. I looked at its Lighthouse lamp a few years and one of its most recent additions is the Halo Lamp. This is essentially an LED donut that appears to be floating inside a diffused box and offers some mesmerizing effects from its 80 individually addressable color zones. You can control it over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, and I was pleased that I could use the app to join it up with the Lighthouses so that they were all responding in time together to the music in the room, via my iPhone's microphone. Party on!
2. Hub-based solutions
If you want your light synchronization to be a bit more sophisticated and robust, then you'll want to use an external hub. Hubs communicate using dedicated wireless protocols, such as Zigbee or Thread, reducing network congestion. They can also take care of the processing, so you'll get more powerful and accurate music synchronization.
Solutions here include Philips Hue, which requires a Hue Bridge, and can integrate with Spotify's API, analyzing the metadata for more precise reactions. However, if you don't use Spotify, you can use a third-party app on your smartphone or tablet – iLightshow, for instance, which works with the streaming app of your choice. There's also Nanoleaf, which uses a Rhythm Module to sync.
Another way of controlling your music is via HDMI sync hubs. While designed primarily for matching the colors coming from your TV's images, they will also have a mode for music. Philips, Wiz, Govee and Lytmi and brands that offer these.
I looked the Philips Hue Sync in 2022, but newer models, such as the Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box 8K, designed for the latest consoles, support advanced features such as 8K, at 60Hz, or 4K at 120Hz and variable refresh rates. However, note that the Hue Sync boxes only work with stereo music, and not special formats such as Dolby Atmos, which means that in my dedicated home cinema, I had to resort to using the iLightshow app to sync via my iPhone's microphone.
3. Third-party PC-based solutions
If your PC is the source of your music, then there's a raft of software that can control lights. Philips Hue offers a desktop application, which can replicate the control you get on your smartphone, enabling you to create Entertainment areas and Zones, and then synchronize it with whatever music you're playing on your computer — not just from Spotify, like the phone app.
Another option is Razer Chroma, which, while optimized primarily for gaming, will also let you sync compatible lights, including LIFX and Nanoleaf, to music.
If you're feeling 'smart' then you can hook up your LED strips to a microcontroller that you program ... More yourself for ultimate customisation.
4. Go DIY – via microcontrollers.
Got your tech head on? Comfortable with programming? For the ultimate in customization, you can connect addressable LED strips directly to a microcontroller such as the Arduino or ESP32, which then analyzes audio input via a direct jack connection. Not one for the faint-hearted, but if you're the hobbyist approach is your thing, then there are many guides online to could help you set up your LED smart lights exactly as you wish. A world of fun awaits.
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