Philips is ready for the great outdoors as it announces the Hue outdoor range, with wall-mounted luminaires, spot lighting and pillar posts aimed to extend Hue functionality to gardens, terraces and balconies.

The Hue outdoor range spans both white and colour ambiance ranges, allowing users to create the "perfect outdoor ambiance" via companion app or voice. A Home & Away feature switches the lights on automatically once the homeowner returns home using smartphone location awareness, and scheduling functionality is also included.

When it comes to the actual lights, one unique spotlight is the Hue Lily-- a lamp designed to illuminate flower beds or potted plants. Meanwhile the Hue Calla is ideal for path lighting, as well as enhancing outdoor spaces. All lights have a colour temperature range of 2200-6500 Kelvin and feature 16 million colours.

Crestron will showcase its new solutions for the residential and commercial markets at the trade fair for lighting and building technology, Light + Building 2018 in Frankfurt, Germany on 18-23 March.

Visitors to the Crestron’s stand will be able to experience technology that not only simplifies everyday life but enhances it too, including a preview of its new line of Horizon keypads and handheld remotes.

Addressing the themes of tomorrow, the new Horizon keypads are available in highly configurable single-gang models that combine up to four across, with designer aesthetics, superior button feel, four different button styles, programmable multicolour backlighting and interchangeable custom top and bottom trim pieces, with Cresnet wired communications. The beautiful new keypads provide Crestron residential dealers, as well as interior designers and architects with incredible flexibility in both control and design. The new Crestron keypads deliver an advanced custom control solution, as part of a complete Crestron smart home.

CES 2018 sees Philips announce an update with a number of new features of the Hue companion iOS and Android app, together with the Hue Sync macOS and Windows 10 lighting control application.

Set to launch in Q2 2018, Hue app version 3.0 brings a UI redesign inspired by comments and feedback from current Hue users. Philips says 3.0 will "enhance" existing features, improve daily use through instant access to last used scenes and simple light group controls, and ensure seamless setup and integration of both Hue accessories and 3rd party devices.

Meanwhile Hue Sync is an MacOS and Windows 10 application allowing users to create scripts to sync Hue lighting with any game, movie or music played on the computer. Philips dubs such functionality "Hue Entertainment," and it includes partnerships with other companies, with the first being gaming accessory maker Razer.

Smart lighting maker Lifx announced an upgraded version of the Lifx Z light strip kit-- one complete with native HomeKit support, with no need for a bridge device to add connectivity.

Lifx lighting strips do not need a hub device, since they connect directly to wifi. They also support Alexa and Google Assistant, are dimmable and support up to 16 million colours. Customers can divide the strips into 8 separate controllable zones for additional configurability, as well as pair them with other Lifx lighting systems such as the Tile panel or Beam rails.

Lighting vendor Ledvance announces a pair of additions to the HomeKit-enabled Sylvania range-- the Soft White A19 bulb and the Indoor Flex Strip Full Colour.

The Soft White bulb s a less expensive version of the Smart Multicolor A19, a smart bulb announced back in January 2017. However, as the name suggests, the Soft White cannot change colour. It is dimmable, rated at 800 lumens and works with any lamp compatible with A19 bulbs.

Lighting company LIFX announces a wifi-connected means for customers to add coloured accent lighting to their homes-- Beam Kit, a thin light rail one can control via companion app.

Customers can arrange the Beam strips in a variety of different shapes to provide "cutting edge illumination" for home accent lighting. The package contains 6 individual Beams, together with 1 corner connector piece and a power pack. In turn, each Beam is 10cm long and features 10 blending light zones for a range of colours.