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!

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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.

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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!

Introducing the Light DJ Network, a platform for syncing purchases & effects

Hey everyone!

It may be summer, but that doesn’t stop me from creating new & cool things for you guys to play with, after all… fall is around the corner and I’ve got some big updates planned for later this year. One of the most popular user requests I’ve been receiving is to be able to share your subscriptions between all your iOS & Android devices. This isn’t an easy task considering how differently each platform deals with purchases and requires servers to manage the data on the backend. Thankfully in this age of plentiful cloud data services I was able to find a friend in Firebase. This still took me way longer than I expected to develop this, but with the new platform you’ll be able sync effects, sheets, and purchases, and anything else that comes up in the future. ;)

Currently the Light DJ Network is in beta and will only sync purchases so that you can share your subscription between iOS & Android. Effects and other content will start to be integrated with the service through end of the year, and into 2020. Many concepts like custom effects & sheets don’t exist on Android yet so they’ll be need to be developed before I can integrate them with the cloud service. This will be an ongoing project for me for years to come, so if there’s something you’d like to see, or if you have any other feedback, send me an email at kevin@nrthrnlights.com and let me know! If you’d like to sign-up for the beta, you can find the info here.

Also, a note on pricing (affecting new Android subscribers): Currently the Android Light DJ subscription is priced less than the iOS version. There’s a few reasons for this, like having fewer extras, getting updates 2nd, market factors, etc. My plan going forward is to provide universal access to all platforms, so when the cloud services network releases later this year Android pricing will raise to match existing iOS pricing for universal access. I also plan to offer an Android-only option while I build up the new features required to get the app up to parity with iOS. I always grandfather new features to existing users though, so if you subscribe today (or have been subscribed) you’ll get universal access before the rates go up later this year. New & current full Pro & Deluxe version purchasers get this access as well. I have no plans to change full version or iOS pricing at this time, but I’ll soon begin to offer subscriptions through this web site at a small discount from the universal App Store & Google Play price. If you have a preferred OS you should use that as the native subscription since you’ll be required to sync-up after each renewal (web subscriptions won’t have this issue).

New Pricing Starts July 2. Upgrade today and never pay again

When I started developing my Light DJ app over 3 years ago, I never would have guessed that it would end up where it is today as one of the top Philips Hue apps on the market. One thing that hasn't changed since the start though is my continued desire to keep making new features. Users email me every day with cool new feature ideas and most of those eventually make it into the app. This has become a barrier to growth, however, since charging a 1-time fee does not bring in enough revenue to be able to dedicate all of my time working on it.

As a result I've decided to change the app to a subscription-based pricing model. This will allow me to continue to put food on the table and start a family while I continue to create new features and work with more types of lights in the future. There's a ton that I'd like to do, too much to list everything here, but this is just a sample: SceneMaker playlists, Visualizer 2.0, Android tablet UI, AppleTV & Windows versions, camera-to-light support, multi-zone support for LIFX Tiles, Beams, and Z Strips, custom color themes, redesigned effect maker, improved UI flow between controllers, and much much more. These suggestions all came from fans like you who write to me and tell me what you'd love your lights to do. 

When you bought this app you entrusted me to give you a great light show. I believe in fair and honest work and getting what you paid for so it's only fair that if you own the fully unlocked app(either Light DJ Pro or Light DJ Deluxe, or purchased all 3 controllers from the Light DJ app) you'll continue to get new hardware and feature updates as they are released as a thank you for being a loyal Light DJ user. You'll get all of the benefits of a subscription user without having to pay. Pretty cool, eh?

If you own any part of the app before July 2 you'll never have to pay again or lose features. Your purchases will continue to work forever.

If you only own 1 or 2 controllers, they will still work after the switchover however you'd need to subscribe to the new service to fully unlock future features of the app (inc. new controllers, UIs, & new hardware support.) If you purchase the remaining controllers before July 2 you'll get upgraded to Pro/Deluxe and get the free subscription benefits as well.

Switching to this new model wasn't an easy decision, but ultimately it's what's needed to keep bringing you new and exciting updates to the app. When I make these big changes my top concern is making sure that existing Light DJ users are taken care and will not lose any features or have to make any additional purchases as a result of this change. You helped get this app off the ground and I want to reward you by bringing you the best light show app in the world!

If you have any questions about this change, or anything else feel free to write me at kevin@nrthrnlights.com

Cheers,

Kevin