Release under the Philips Hue brandSignify’s new Festavia string lights allow people to add an extra pop to their home this coming holiday season.
Consisting of 250 smart LEDs along a 20m long cord, these color-changing lights offer great flexibility and we don’t just mean decorating your home. You control the Festavia lamps via the Philips Hue app, so you don’t have to crawl under a Christmas tree to turn them off. The app also allows users to dim or brighten the lights, change their color, and even set a lighting schedule. And Linear Style can be activated to add smooth gradient effect to the LEDs, according to Signify (opens in new tab).
New modes and support
At launch, Festavia comes with two new lighting modes: Sparkle and Scattered. The first, as you can probably guess, makes each LED sparkle for “an extra festive look”. The scattered mode scatters five random colors along the light string. Candle and fireplace, modes found on older products, return to create a radiant, glowing effect reminiscent of analog light sources they try to emulate.
A company representative told us that Festavia is compatible with Bluetooth and the Zigbee wireless network standard so it can “work in harmony with other Hue lights in the room”. Although for a Zigbee connection you need the Philip Hue Bridge (opens in new tab), a smart lighting hub that controls third-party devices in your home. For example, you can turn off the lights in the living room while keeping the Festavia cord on.
Speaking of standards, the same rep also told us that Festavia works with several smart home platforms like Google Home, Samsung SmartThings and, most importantly, Matter. The latter is especially noteworthy because it’s the product of many tech companies coming together to create a smart home standard. Matter offers more interoperability between smart home devices and better security.
Music fans can sync the lights to their favorite songs via SmartThings or Spotify. When plugged in, the LEDs will flash and light next to the music track.
These high-tech lights are significantly more expensive than your typical Christmas lights. Festavia will launch on November 15 in the US for $160 and in many European countries (including the UK, Spain and Germany) for $160.
Smart lighting
While these lights are pretty cool, we can’t help but feel like they’re a little bland compared to something like Razer’s RGB Christmas lights.
Razer partners with smart lighting brand Twinkly to integrate Chroma RGB technology into the latter’s products. The result is a string of lights that can showcase a “huge variety of customizable sequences and designs.” The lights can mimic an American flag waving in the wind, fireworks exploding and snowfall. They are also cheaper, at $125 for 250 LEDs.
In addition to one long string, there are many different types of smart bulbs. You have lamps, hexagonal panels and rods. If you are interested in brightening up your home, do so check out our latest guide to smart bulbs.
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