A great TV alone can go a long way to create an immersive home theater, but one of the best ways to expand that is with additional lighting. Often, though, that can cost an arm and a leg, but Linkind’s Smart TV backlight and AiDot bulbs can make that significantly more affordable while not sacrificing on quality.
Smart lighting is nothing new at this point, and you can roughly expect the same core features across any smart light bulb. Changing colors, presets, and more. But AiDot has built a very clever system to help deal with this.
Every good home theater starts with the TV
At the core is the Linkind ET6 Smart TV Backlight. Similar to the Philips Hue Sync Box, this device plugs into an HDMI device and can match a lightstrip mounted to the back of your TV to the content being played on screen. I used this with the Google TV Streamer and my Vizio TV, and it all worked like a charm, with accurate lighting effects behind the TV that are way more immersive compared to typical, static bias lighting.
It also tends to be out other low-cost options for TV light sync. For one, there’s no need for a camera to be mounted to capture the colors on screen, and everything is optimized behind the scenes. Using “LumiSync,” The Smart TV Backlight can automatically focus in on the content itself, acknowledging when things are fast-paced or slow, as well as recognizing letterboxing – black bars around the content – and leaving those out of the lighting, instead just pulling from whatever the edge of the content is.
The best part is that the system costs just $98, less than a third of the Philips Hue equivalent, and that’s before you factor in the extra $100+ for the lightstrip on Philips, and it arguably works just as well.
Setup is also a breeze for the system. Aside from simply plugging in the HDMI device of your choosing to the sync box, you’ll also plug in two light strips. These are mounted to the TV starting from the bottom right corner and wrap around the back with the help of four corner pieces. Once you’re satisfied with the fit, you can lock it in with included mounting accessories, and then follow the in-app instructions to adjust the lighting effects before finally cutting off the excess strip. In total, setup took less than 30 minutes from start to finish.
Everything is then controlled via the AiDot app, where you can adjust the sync intensity, brightness, and more.
The next level: Bulbs and ‘Immersive Lighting’
What takes this to the next level is further integration with other AiDot accessories. The Linkind Matter A19 bulbs serve dual purpose, with the ability to easily pair to something like the Google Home app without downloading anything new, but also the ability to pair to the AiDot app for further functionality.
One of those functions includes “Immersive Lighting,” which can use the signal from the Smart TV Backlight to adjust the lighting on the light bulbs, as well as the Linkind EN6 Neon Rope Light, to match what you’re watching on TV. If you set up all of these devices in the same room, you can really create an immersive home theater.
How AiDot’s lighting works with Google Home
The whole suite also works with the Google Home app.
The adding products to the AiDot app and then pairing that account with the Google Home app, these lights can join any other smart lighting products you may have in your home, and be controlled through the app as well as by voice. You can also link the lights to Google Home automations, really opening up the possibilities.
Where to buy AiDot’s smart lighting
There are a number of ways to build an immersive home theater, but the AiDot suite of products takes out a lot of the guesswork while also being exceptionally affordable. An entire setup including the Smart TV Backlight, four smart light bulbs, and the EN6 Neon Rope Light costs well under $300, and under $175 around Black Friday too.
You can learn more about the AiDot suite at the links below and on the AiDot website.
- Linkind ET6 smart TV Backlight with Sync Box
- Linkind EN6 Neon Rope Light
- Linkind Matter Smart RGBTW A19 Bulb
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