Philips Hue Is Working on a Camera Solution for Hue Sync

Philips Hue isn’t doing a very good job of keeping its new products under wraps this year either—products that are expected to be unveiled in early September at IFA in Berlin. Following the new Festavia string lights and outdoor wall lights, today I can show you a new camera for Hue Sync. It will likely be called “Screen Sync” and was briefly visible during a multi-hour online presentation.

The new Hue gadget attaches to the top edge of a TV or monitor and uses a camera to capture the screen’s content. This content is analyzed, and the data is processed to send light signals to Hue lights in the set-up entertainment area. This extends the colors of the TV image to the Hue lighting.

In addition to the Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box and the Philips Hue Sync TV app for supported Samsung and LG TVs, the Screen Sync camera would be the third option for synchronizing the TV picture. This camera technology has a key advantage as well as a key disadvantage. Unlike the Sync Box, users aren’t reliant on external HDMI sources but can also “tap into” the TV’s internal signals. Visually, a camera mounted on top of the TV isn’t exactly a thing of beauty, of course.

Competitors have been offering sync cameras for some time now

The idea of a camera on top of the TV is certainly not new. Other manufacturers have already chosen this relatively simple approach in the past, including Nanoleaf and Govee. Govee’s top model is the Govee TV Backlight 3 Pro with a triple HDR camera, which you can get—including light strips—for around 200 euros.

According to the first images, the Philips Hue TV camera will feature only a single lens. Typically, such a camera is equipped with fisheye technology to capture the entire screen area. I’m already curious to see how well this will work in practice.