Lighting That Adjusts as You Watch TV? It's Happening. The SyFy channel has teamed up with Philips Hue light bulbs to offer TV watchers a more immersive experience that involves changing the color and brightness of the lights in their living rooms.
By Carly Okyle
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
When 12 Monkeys premiers as a television show on the SyFy network on Jan. 16, viewers will notice some key differences from the film: the screen will be smaller, the story will be drawn out over months and neither Brad Pitt nor Bruce Willis -- the stars of the original 1995 flick -- will be involved. But the most interesting change is that viewers have the option of syncing the lights in their living rooms to the action on screen .
Related: Talking Lamp Posts Are Just the Beginning in Verison's Vision of a Smart City
The SyFy channel has teamed up with Philips Hue light bulbs to create lighting schemes that correspond to the show. Through the Syfy Sync mobile app, available for Apple products, each of the 13 episodes will have a "light track" triggered by cues in the soundtrack of the show. Viewers with the Philips Hue smart bulbs and the app will see their lights dim, brighten, or change color at specific times, according to TechDigest.
The two companies have tried this combination before with Sharknado 2. More shows are expected to have light tracks in the future.
Related: What Customers Want -- and Don't Want -- From the Internet of Things (Infographic)