The new Philips Hue Sync app for macOS and Windows 10 is available today, and it's ambitiously being touted as a way to create "surround sound for your eyes."
It's akin to the Ambilight and AmBX ambient light technology Philips has used on TVs and gaming monitors in the past. Except the idea here to to use existing Hue lights.
That makes Philips Hue Sync a lot more affordable (the app is free) if you've already bought into or are buying into the Hue series of smart lights. No need to buy a specialized Ambilight television in 2018.
Testing and requirements
We were given a brief demo of the Philips Hue Sync app before launch and able to see how it perfectly synchronized to the scattered sounds of D Cappella.
The Disney A Cappella Group has beats emitting from speakers all over the place in their music video that features a multitude of shifting colors. A Hue light strip and a pair of Hue Go lights extended these colors to the surrounding wall of the demo room and burst in time with all of the beats.
Hue Sync is also built to be suitable for games, both on a television and a computer monitor. Philips and app developer Signify note that lights mimic the explosions on screen, which sounds fit for the red barrel-laden games like Call of Duty Black Ops 4.
There's no mobile version of the Philips Hue Sync app yet, according to the company, but we could foresee a time in which this free app makes its way to a mobile platform. It doesn't take up much in the way of system resources on a computer.
For now, all of the the synchronization works using a computer or laptop running Windows 10 or macOS (Sierra or higher). And there are multiple ways to stream it from a computer to a television: HDMI, Chromecast, AirPlay and Miracast.
