Introducing a Streaming Video Service That Syncs With All Your Lights

Hey there,

Kevin from Light DJ here. It’s been a while since my last post but that’s because I’ve been plugging away at something brand new and I’m finally ready to share it with all of you, but some back story first.

Light DJ blew up a bit during COVID when lots of people where bored at home and streaming concerts were on the rise. I watched a few of those while controlling my lights by hand but couldn't help but wish there were a better way to sync them to the video. After 8 years of developing light apps I understood many of the technical challenges in making that happen and have seen various attempts at a solution:

• You can use a Hue Sync box, but then you're limited to HDMI, only Hue products, and only screen mirroring effects.

• You can use a Nanoleaf 4D camera, but then you're limited to Nanoleaf and screen mirroring effects.

• You can use the Hue Sync TV app, but then you're limited to Hue on certain TVs.

• SYFY tried something called SYFY Sync. It was a bit ahead of its time but only worked on certain shows with Hue and has since been decommissioned.

• LIFX users are left out in the cold.

So I sought to create a system that could work with any brand of light and that didn't need any extra hardware. TL;DR after 10 months of research and development I'm finally ready share my creation with the world.

I call it LYTVOX (pronounced "light-vocks") and it's an entire light show authoring pipeline that allows content producers to easily create ambient lighting experiences that sync with their video content, and enables streaming media providers to deliver those experiences to users.

You can see a demo here:

Some of the benefits of our solution include:

• Fully customizable 4K surround lighting video presentations streamed directly to users.

• Creators have full control of the light show authoring process and are not just limited to screen mirroring; they have the ability colorize the entire 3D space frame-by-frame.

• It can support any combination of lighting hardware & any number of lights.

• Adapts to your room based on light placement for the full surround lighting experience.

• tvOS and Google TV apps for accessing content directly from TVs and streaming devices like Apple TV 4K and Chromecast.

• iOS and Android mobile apps for broad compatibility, including Airplay and Google Cast support.

• Light hardware agnostic - we can support any light that can be controlled on the local network at a certain rate (currently Hue, LIFX, and Nanoleaf).

• No additional cameras or boxes needed; runs on devices most users already own.

So how can you help us?

We're currently seeking Early Access beta testers who would like to try our client app and give us feedback. We have over 5 hours of content for you to enjoy and about 30 different types of videos available, including music videos, concerts, anime, ambiences, and more. Beta access is completely free. To access the beta you must have an iOS/tvOS or Android device and supported smart lighting:

• Hue (v2 bridge required)

• Nanoleaf (all panel types)

• LIFX (all devices)

If this sounds like something you're interested in, head over to our website and submit your email address for early access: www.lytvox.com

If you have any thoughts or ideas about what you'd like to see with this service, drop a comment.

What about Light DJ?

Don’t worry - Light DJ is here to stay! And as a bonus, a lot of the work I did preparing LYTVOX for production will flow down the all Light DJ apps for iOS and Android. Some notable improvements include:

• All entertainment effects work with LIFX lights

• Hue Gradient Strip / Entertainment v2 support

• All light brands can be now be mixed freely using entertainment effects

  • (Legacy Hue lights are still limited)

• Nanoleaf panels can be controlled as a positionable light for spatial effects

and more, coming to you via an app update in the not so distant future so stay tuned!

Android updates, Nanoleaf improvements, iOS Promos and more in the latest update

Hey there, Kevin from Light DJ HQ here with another round of app updates!

View fullsize

Nanoleaf Lines & Other Improvements

In case you missed the last post, Light DJ now supports more types of Nanoleaf lights than ever before, including Nanoleaf Lines and Nanoleaf Elements Wood Look Hexagons. The latest releases added a number of backend improvements that will improve sync and responsiveness for all users, especially for those controlling multiple Nanoleaf controllers simultaneously.

Android Cloud Support

The Android version now fully supports and syncs with the Light DJ Network cloud service. This means that all of your patterns, playlists, and color palettes are fully backed up to the cloud and useable across the universe of iOS and Android devices. Cross-platform access continues to be available for all subscribers and full purchase users through your Light DJ Network account.

View fullsize

Android Command Items & Automations

New command items are now available for your playlists. These instruct the app to perform some simple commands when they're triggered during playback. They can tell the app to change brightness or tempo, switch to a different playlist, or apply a color palette. Brightness and tempo commands can include automations that will slowly increase and decrease the value over time or in a wave pattern. Brightness and tempo automations can also be started manually through the SceneMaker Options page.

iOS Community Sharing Features

On iOS, the community content sharing feature has been removed. My original plan was for users to upload their custom content to a community library so that other users could download it for their own use. It seemed that many users didn't understand this feature and it ended up being a dumping ground of sorts with a lot of duplicate and poorly named content, so as of today this section will feature all the official content available in the app. For iPad users, this is particularly useful for downloading different sheet sizes other than your native device. In a future update I'd like to add select community content from approved creators - email me if you have something you'd like to share!

iOS Promotional Offers

If you previously subscribed to the app but cancelled for some reason, check the latest update to find your limited-time, personal promotional offer. These are unique for every user and change periodically so if you've been thinking about re-subscribing look for your offer in the app and you could save up to 50%. 

Sunsetting Bonus Effects

Finally, after much consideration and after creating almost 5 years worth of bonus effects for the app, I've decided to finally sunset the development of new effects with the final 2 bonus effects being unlocked April 2023. While it was a rewarding challenge to create over 100 unique configurable effects for the app it's also been limiting with respect to the expansion of Light DJ and my business as a whole. For example I'd love to make updates to the Visualizer and to the Light DJ Studio app (as well as port it to Android). I've also got a top-secret project I'm working on that should add a few more effects to Light DJ's library once it's complete. Light DJ will continue to receive updates as new lighting hardware becomes available as well as periodic updates based on new effects and controllers from other products I create.

As always, if you have any suggestions or feedback on the app feel free to reach out at kevin@nrthrnlights.com.

Happy Lighting!

Kevin

Happy New Year from Light DJ!

Greetings and Happy Holidays from Light DJ HQ. 2021 included a number of updates to help make the app accessible to more users. 2021 was also my first full year of fatherhood and I am so grateful to the community of users that continue to support this project so that I can work from home and see the little ones grow each and every day. This year I took the opportunity to optimize and improve a few key areas of the app.

First and foremost, the in-app documentation needed an big update. Previous versions used captioned images that were rendered obsolete each time I'd change the app. In March I converted all of these to mini-tutorials, which you can view by tapping the '?' button wherever you see it.

These changes helped drive my next big challenge: preparing the app for localization/translations. This was a large task that took nearly 2 months to complete as the app includes more than 900 strings that needed to be properly organized, formatted, and documented for the translators, and updated in the code. The result is full German and Spanish translations (with more to come in the future)!

November's big v9 update included a lot of small changes I've been wanting to include for years but was never able to fit into a build. First is the introduction of command items that you can add to your sheets and playlists to easily set tempo, brightness, and palette. There's also tempo & brightness automators that you can use to create transitions and loops. The iPad version includes a new "Set" button to instantly apply a color to a single light or entertainment area as well as an icon view mode if you prefer a more text-minimal view. There's also a number of backend improvements for reduced CPU usage and improved performance.

Nanoleaf Lines LED Light Bars, The First Ever Modular Lighting Beam with Backlit Illumination

I continue to monitor the latest lighting hardware trends and am updating the app where possible. The latest update includes support for these amazing Nanoleaf Lines backlit LED light bars. I get excited any time Nanoleaf releases a new product but these really show off Light DJ's effects in a whole new way. I can't say enough good things about these lights; this is the most innovative lighting product I've seen in a while and that's saying a lot since Nanoleaf's lineup continues to impress with each new release.

I hope everyone has a safe and Happy New Year! May your 2022 bring you great joy and prosperity!

-Kevin

Mid-year update, plus exciting news

Greetings! Kevin from Light DJ HQ here to share an update on what’s been happening with the app this year so far, and what’s on the horizon.

Light DJ: The Next Generation

First and foremost, let’s talk about what’s new in Light DJ v8.0 and how we got here.

When I first started making light apps back in 2014, my very first app was called HouseParty and it let users create simple tempo-based strobing patterns. At the time, only LIFX lights were fast enough support this effect (it would quickly crash Hue bridges), so when the first official “Light DJ” app was released, my focus was on creating built-in effects where I could have better control over the rate that the lights change.

By mid-2016 the app had grown enough that I decided it was time to re-integrate the effect builder into the app. This time it had bulb-level control of the lights so that users could create custom effects that could run on both LIFX & Hue without crashing the bridge. Though it’s received various updates the past few years to support Hue Entertainment and Nanoleaf, it’s otherwise played a minor role. It’s a complex tool and usually only the most adventurous of users will try their hand at making one. I hope to change that today with the introduction of the Community Content update - now users can share their custom creations with other Light DJ users around the world.

Since the beginning of the year, I’ve been reworking a lot of code on the back end to integrate custom effects, sheets, and playlists with the Light DJ Network cloud services platform. The content backup feature was released earlier this year so that you can switch devices without losing your config.

Now with v8.0 you can:

• Easily manage & share your local custom effects, sheets, and playlists through the new Content Manager,

• Browse community content and download it into your config

• Preview & play community content right from the Content Browser

• Assign and Generate icons for your sheets & playlists

If you've created a custom effect or sick playlist, I invite you to share it with the community to help grow the network of global light show content.

Also in v8.0, iPad users can now download different effect sheets that correspond to other iPad screens. To maintain a consistent user experience, each iPad has a different native sheet cell count based on its screen size and until now these haven't been cross-compatible. With v8.0, all effect sheets sizes are supported by every iPad. To use a different sized effect sheet, download a template from the sheets section in the Content Browser. I plan to offer fully configurable sheet sizing as a mini-update in a future version.

If you haven’t already joined the beta, head over the Beta page and sign up for the link for your version. Sorry Android users, this feature is iOS only at this time.

State of the App

While I had great intentions for some cool integrations this year, for some features it was not meant to be. LIFX Tiles were discontinued by the manufacturer, and it remains to be seen what will happen to the rest of the LIFX-Z line of products so I’m holding off integrating with it for now. The MacOS version didn’t have the library support I thought it did so I had planned to postpone it, but now with Apple Silicon coming soon-ish it doesn’t make sense to recode it at this time. Studio updates were also postponed as a result of the content updates and a number of breaking issues that needed fixing on the Android app. Porting the content changes to Android was supposed to be next on the list, however…

(+2)

Starting last year my wife and I began pursuing in-vitro fertilization (IVF) to help grow our family. In January we transferred two embryos and, gratefully, both attached. In early August my wife gave birth to twin babies, Mira and Miles, and both they and mom are healthy. As they’ve been spending their days in the NICU growing bigger and stronger, I’ve been feverishly coding and testing the latest update to make sure everything works great for everyone from the start, however once they are home I will take a bit of a break for some family time. Rest assured, the app will continue to grow and I will continue to support my users as I have over the past 5 years. A few points:

-Monthly bonus effects will continue as scheduled. I spent the early part of this year creating these for months ahead so that they’re all ready for you enjoy.

-If something in the app breaks due to OS changes, firmware updates, or other breaking bugs, it will have the highest priority. I will act quickly to get the app in working order ASAP. Shoot me an email if something’s not working for you.

-Emails will not be as immediate for the first few months as I focus on the babies. I will still try to read and answer to emails daily.

-I’ll continue to develop new features as time allows. I’ve been compiling a list of user requests and other features and my goal is to release these as mini-updates throughout the year. Even though these are smaller features, they will make a noticeable improvement the overall quality and usability of the app.

Thanks for reading this long-winded blog post. I can't wait to see what kind of content you guys can create. As always, if you have any suggestions for improvement send me an email or comment here. Happy sharing!

Happy New Year from Light DJ!

Hey all, Kevin from Light DJ here. I hope everyone has a fun & safe New Years Eve and wish you all the best for 2020!

This year was another blockbuster year for the app with many significant updates that will help set the course for the future of the app. Major updates included:

• SceneMaker refresh, including custom playlist support and other advanced options

• iPad UI & performance improvements

• Nanoleaf support for square Canvas tiles

• Custom configurable color palettes

• iCloud sharing for playlists, sheets, & custom effects

• And of course, 2 bonus effects each month!

2019 also introduced the Light DJ Network beta which will play a significant role in the future of the app. The currently this allows users to share subscriptions between iOS & Android.

Other plans for 2020 include:

• MacOS app using iPad UI

• Light DJ Studio updates including recording editor & Android version w/ Spotify

• Community sharing of custom effects, playlists, & sheets via Light DJ Network.

• A new controller for making strobes (🤞)

• LIFX Tiles/Beam/Z support? (Apologies to the folks waiting for this one. I had to keep pushing this out for other priorities. The Tiles recently went deep discount and are currently sold out everywhere so it may be nearing a product refresh. I’m waiting and see what happens, but intend to retrofit these with the current Nanoleaf effects.)

• And of course, 2 bonus effects each month!

Thank you to all of my users. I’m grateful for your support over the years. The app turns 5 years old next month and I couldn’t have done it without you. I still can’t believe I’m able to continue to grow it with new effects and other fun things for you to show off your lights with. As always, if you have suggestions or feedback email me at kevin@nrthrnlights.com and I will reply.

I wish you all a Happy New Year. Best of luck in 2020!

-Kevin