The Hue "Play" floor lamp creates a colorful ambiance around the TV
4/8/2026
Translation: machine translated
Pictures: Debora Pape
It resembles Hue's "Signe" floor lamp, but carves out its own niche: The "Play" stands between room-filling lighting and TV visualization.
Among this year's new products from Philips Hue is the floor lamp from the "Play" series. It is marketed as the ideal light for home cinema, gaming rooms, or music corners. In such entertainment areas, it is designed to enhance the ambiance with synchronized lighting effects.
I'm interested. For years, my living room had a Philips Ambilight TV that illuminated the wall around it with the colors of the screen content. When I replaced it with a Samsung TV last year, I initially sorely missed the lighting. The "Play" light can also be synchronized with the TV – with the difference that it can be placed freely in the room.
For the test, Hue provided me with two "Play" floor lamps on loan.
The Hue "Play" lights create indirect ambient lighting through so-called wall washing, coloring walls in vibrant hues. Behind the white plastic cover are RGBWWIC LEDs divided into segments. This allows the light to display multiple colors simultaneously and create smooth transitions.
When synchronizing with the TV, the Hue Bridge transmits the colors at the edge of the screen to the segments of the lamp, creating an Ambilight effect on the wall. The floor lamp is about 122 centimeters high. Two of them are ideal for placing to the left and right of my 65-inch TV.
Unlike the similar "Signe" floor lamp made of aluminum, the plastic "Play" lamp doesn't look like much. With its maximum brightness of 925 lumens at 4000 Kelvin, it is not intended as a main light source for room illumination. The "Signe" reaches up to 2550 lumens. However, the "Play" is significantly cheaper – and, due to a higher segment density, also better suited for precise display.
The base has a diameter of nine centimeters and is quite heavy, so the lamp doesn't tip over with every draft. However, if my eight-kilo cat brushes past it, it quickly wobbles. The manufacturer thus opts against a wide, stable base plate and for a smaller footprint with higher susceptibility to tipping. I find this understandable, as home cinema areas are often cluttered enough anyway.
Setting up synchronization
Before synchronization can work, I need to integrate the lamps into the Hue network and link other apps. Setting up the lamps in the Hue app is quick. I tap the plus symbol under Settings > Devices, and Hue immediately finds the lamps. I give both a suitable name and assign them to a room.
Then the lamps are basically ready for operation: I can assign scenes and routines to them in the Hue app and also integrate them into other smart home systems, such as Home Assistant.
But I want the lamps to be controlled by the TV. For this, I need an entertainment zone, which I set up in the Hue app. Entertainment areas include up to ten compatible lights that Hue can synchronize with a video or music source. Compatible lights include Gradient and most "Color & Ambiance" lights from Hue.
The software adjusts the lighting to the lamp positions in the room. For this to work, when setting up the zone, I place the lamps in a virtual room approximately where they are in reality.
There are two methods for TV synchronization:
- the Hue Play HDMI Sync Box
- the Hue Sync App for the TV
The HDMI Sync Box is quite expensive at around 250 Euros/Swiss Francs and visualizes exclusively HDMI-connected sources. It doesn't work with apps installed on the TV like Netflix, Apple TV, or YouTube. The Hue Sync App requires a one-time purchase of around 130 Euros/Swiss Francs or a paid subscription of around three Euros/Swiss Francs per month. Unfortunately, it is only available on newer Samsung and LG TVs. Luckily, my Samsung TV is compatible, so I subscribe to a monthly plan for the test.
The Hue Sync App offers three synchronization modes: Video, Game, and Music. They differ in the details of color reproduction. For each mode, the brightness and intensity of the effect can also be set.
When turned on, the TV starts the mode that was active when it was turned off. If I want to change it, I have to select the app on the TV interface and wait a few seconds while it loads. This prevents me from switching modes more often.
By the way: The Hue Sync App for installation on the computer is free. Only for TV sync does Hue charge a hefty price to justify the cost of the HDMI Sync Box.
Video and Game Synchronization: beautiful light impression
With synchronization activated and medium intensity, I start a Netflix series. The Ambilight effect is initially a matter of getting used to, because there is now a lot of light and movement on the previously calm wall. In the first few minutes, I can hardly concentrate on the plot. But after a short time, I get used to the effect again and appreciate the lighting that seems to extend from the TV into the room.
However, you shouldn't imagine the effect with the "Play" lights to be as detailed and precise as with an Ambilight TV. The vertical transmission of color information to the light bar is not accurate enough for that, and the area above the TV remains largely dark. So it's more of a coordinated color impression than an extension of the action onto the wall.
It's not entirely clear to me exactly which image areas the software analyzes for color reproduction. In video mode, I have the impression that the software does not dim or turn off the lighting in black border areas. Instead, it transmits colors from areas further in the center of the image. I don't find this bad – the lighting still looks harmonious.
The "Play" lights do a good job within their capabilities. Synchronization occurs without noticeable delay. I find this impressive because not only are the colors at the edge of the screen analyzed in real-time, but the determined color information is also transmitted to the Bridge and from there to the lamps.
I didn't notice a significant difference between video and game mode. Both feel harmonious. I tried game mode with "Mario Kart World". In the game, the color transitions feel soft and pleasant. Only when looking at the captured photos do I see that the colors and position of the lighting don't always perfectly match. During the game, I didn't notice this because I was focused on the gameplay and the colors change quickly.
Music synchronization: sometimes tactless
The lamps do not have a microphone. So, for music synchronization, they don't react to the sound in the room, as Govee products do, for example. Instead, the Hue Sync app directly analyzes the digital audio stream. This means the lights don't react to other noises in the room, such as conversations.
The disadvantage is that for music sync, I'm dependent on app compatibility. With the TV, this is given with the Hue Sync app: every sound the TV emits is transmitted to the light. However, with music videos, it's irritating that the light is guided by the sound, not the picture. So the lighting shows different colors than the screen. But that's in the nature of music mode.
The synchronization feels like it happens in real-time. With calm tracks like those from Carbon Based Lifeforms, the accuracy can be judged well. Both lamps display different visualizations in time with the music, reminiscent of colorful flashes of color. The flashes are stronger or paler depending on the prominence of the tones and occupy larger or smaller areas on the "Play" light bar. Fortunately, each lamp can simultaneously display several nuances in the music.
This actually looks very nice, but it doesn't work equally well with all pieces of music. Every now and then, one or even several beats are painfully missing. Then the wall remains dark, even though the music would have demanded flashes.
With fast tracks like "Great Feast Underground" by Wind Rose, it doesn't matter anyway: missing beats are no longer noticeable, and overall, the software seems unable to keep up with the visualization. Everything flashes and blinks, and I can hardly recognize a rhythm anymore. I prefer the gentle synchronization with slow tracks.
If I prefer to use my smartphone as a source for music sync, it's not possible directly via the Hue app. It requires other apps or services for this. Currently, only Spotify is available as a compatible audio streaming service. This doesn't help me as a Tidal user.
So I try it with Samsung's smart home app "Smart Things". This requires linking it to my Hue account. After that, the lights immediately start flashing to the beat of my music, but with a noticeable delay. This doesn't surprise me, after all, the signal reaches the lamps via even more detours than with TV sync. So the TV Sync app is better suited for music visualization.
Overall, the music visualization isn't worth the effort of switching sync modes for me. It's too prone to errors or chaotic.
In a nutshell
Good compromise in terms of price and functionality
The "Play" floor lamp is designed as a light for the entertainment area: it should glow beautifully and not, like the designer lamp "Signe", also look beautiful. And that's exactly what it does.
The plastic processing allows for a comparatively low price for Hue. Nevertheless, Hue does not skimp on the inner workings. The Ambilight effect during TV synchronization is naturally not as detailed as with Ambilight TVs or LED strips for retrofitting the TV back. However, the light can be freely positioned and it also creates a beautiful environment independently of the TV events.
When synchronizing music, the "Play" has potential for improvement, even if the visualization looks beautiful, especially with slow songs. Missing beats are then unfortunately very noticeable.
However, I am annoyed that I have to pay extra for TV synchronization via app. It is free on the computer. And for the Hue devices themselves, I already have to dig deep into my pockets.
Pro
- versatile: beautiful ambience even without synchronization
- strong colors and smooth transitions
- harmonious video and game synchronization
- space-saving stand
- relatively inexpensive Hue entry price
Contra
- Music mode has room for improvement
- simple plastic look
- prone to tipping over with pets or children
- Sync app on TV subject to charge
Header image: Debora Pape
Feels just as comfortable in front of a gaming PC as she does in a hammock in the garden. Likes the Roman Empire, container ships and science fiction books. Focuses mostly on unearthing news stories about IT and smart products.
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