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Music Assistant

Hue Lights Sync Preview image

Section titled “Hue Lights Sync ”

Music Assistant can sync Philips Hue lights to music in real time using the Hue Entertainment API. Each entertainment area on a paired Hue bridge appears as a Music Assistant light player and reacts to whatever is playing when joined to a Sendspin player or group.

CAUTION

This plugin is marked experimental. It has been tested on Hue Bridge V2 and Hue Bridge Pro, but functionality may change and bugs may occur.

Features

Section titled “Features”
  • Sync Philips Hue lights to playing music with low latency using the Hue Entertainment API
  • Four selectable visualization modes: Smooth, Ambient, Flashing and Energetic
  • Beat-synced colour cycling driven by the Sendspin visualizer role, falling back to peak and onset detection when beat data isn’t available
  • Auto-discovery of Hue bridges on the local network via mDNS
  • Multiple bridges supported — add the plugin once per bridge
  • Each entertainment area on a bridge is exposed as its own MA light player

Configuration

Section titled “Configuration”
  • The Sendspin plugin must be installed and at least one Sendspin player or group available — Hue light players can only be joined to Sendspin players
  • Create an Entertainment Area in the Philips Hue app (SETTINGS >> ENTERTAINMENT AREAS) before adding the plugin
  • In Music Assistant, go to MA SETTINGS >> PLUGINS >> ADD A PLUGIN >> HUE LIGHTS SYNC
  • Enter the IP address of the Hue bridge, or let mDNS auto-discover it
  • Press the physical link button on the Hue bridge, then click Pair in the MA UI
  • Click SAVE to complete configuration — each entertainment area on the bridge will appear as a Light player
  • Join a Hue light player to any active Sendspin player or group — the lights will start reacting to the music

Settings

Section titled “Settings”
  • Brightness. Overall light brightness (0–100). Default 100.
  • Mode. Selects the visualization style:
    • Smooth (default) — gentle spectrum-driven brightness with a slowly drifting palette that cycles colour on the beat.
    • Ambient — colour cycling on the beat with saturation reacting to the bass, no brightness modulation. Best for relaxed listening.
    • Flashing — strong brightness pulse on every beat, stronger on downbeats.
    • Energetic — large brightness swings on the beat plus fast palette and hue rotation.
  • Light latency (ms). Milliseconds to render light updates ahead of the audio, to offset the Hue bridge and network delay (0–3000). Default 20. Increase if the lights lag the music, decrease if they run ahead of it.

CAUTION

The Flashing and Energetic modes produce rapid flashing. Avoid them if you or anyone present is sensitive to flashing lights.

Known Issues / Notes

Section titled “Known Issues / Notes”
  • Hue light players are virtual LIGHT players that use the Sendspin visualizer stream — they can only be joined to Sendspin players or groups
  • Beat effects use the track’s beat analysis from the Smart Fades provider when available, otherwise the lights fall back to peak and onset detection. Beats may be unavailable when the analysis hasn’t been computed yet, or on lower-powered devices that can’t compute beats in time
  • Entertainment areas are discovered when the plugin (re)loads — adding a new entertainment area in the Hue app requires reloading the plugin before it will appear as an MA player
  • The Hue bridge only allows one entertainment area to stream at a time, so only one Hue light player per bridge can be active at any given moment