Stating the obvious here, but light is very important. Aside from being one of the main pillars of the living world, I rely on light to do my job. A camera lens simply does not function without the aid of good light and, coupled with the very real emotional effects of shorter days and longer nights, winter can be a problematic year once you look past the distraction of festivities. Thankfully, technology (and Philips Hue) exists.
We have recently moved into our new house and, while we are blessed with plenty of windows, lighting up the place we call home was one of the first challenges we decided to tackle. Philips Hue provided us with both the indoor and outdoor light systems to get in a more cosy, festive mood; the Philips Hue White & Colour Ambiance Starter Kit as well as the Lily Outdoor Spot Lights. While the lights are the very visible element of magic, I should give real praise to the brains of the operation; the Bridge. Using your home broadband provider, it connects the entire Philips ecosystem together and allows you to control the lighting through both conventional controls, voice commands, and the app.
The interior lights are absolutely brilliant and there are two options for the Bluetooth-compatible bulbs. The Hue White and Colour Bulb is a real showstopper; 16 million colour combinations can be summoned through the excellent Hue App, and it incredibly handy to be able to effectively light a room in any colour. I particularly found it’s Concentrate setting to be great for flooding the room with bright light, and the hues of orange and red make a white-walled room feel really cosy in the evenings. The new Edison Bulb is a feature in itself before you even turn the light on; it is a thing of absolute beauty and almost deserves to be showcased without any lampshade or covering; a perfect Christmas gift for a loved one if interior design is their thing.
Beyond the choice of warmth and colours, connectivity is where the Philips Hue system really comes into its own. If you connect the Hue Bridge up to a voice-controlled system such as Alexa or Google Assistant, you can voice control these lights. You can even control them remotely through the app and programme the lights to come on when nobody is home; great if you are away from the house for long periods of time. If you really want to get into the proverbial nuts and bolts of the Hue system, you can also set up “Recipes” to construct a sequence in the lights that follow certain commands. Great if you have them in your bedroom and want a gentle wakeup on these cold and dark mornings!
Thankfully, Philips Hue have extended their ground-breaking technology to the outdoors too. The Lily Outdoor Spot Lights use the same Bridge to illuminate your garden or patio; each of the three lights connected to either a bracket or a stake that you can fix to a wall or into the ground. I used them to create a dramatic up light under the trees in our garden and the results are incredible. Once again you can control the lights through the Hue App or voice control, and there is enough light available to illuminate even the most open of spaces. It’s a great way to create a dramatic space, and also a very good way to light up the garden for our dog, Pepi, when she needs to pop out there in the evenings. Needless to say, those longer nights are that much of an inconvenience anymore.
Philips Hue really is a new way to look at light. Gone are the days of traditional switches and the two choices of “on” or “off”. Gone are the days of constantly having to filter out that annoying, unwanted, yellow glow from bulbs. Gone are the days of relying on the colour of your walls to create a warm and cosy space. You can shop the Philips Hue collection through the link here, and they have a number of incredible deals on in the run-up to Black Friday and beyond. The 3 for 2 promo is a great way to build up a collection of the products, which is the best way to fully unlock what they Philips Hue system can really do.
Shop the Philips Hue Black Friday Sale HERE.
