There is currently nothing on the market that enables HomeKit control of DMX fixtures. If each Live Dashboard item offered an “Expose to HomeKit” checkbox in its configuration, then Photon could become the only game in town.
Usage scenario: For initial setup, the user registers Photon with HomeKit as a bridge device. With that done, any Live Dashboard items exposed to HomeKit automatically appear in the Apple Home as simple switches. When a switch is operated in HomeKit, Photon responds as if the respective Live Dashboard item had been tapped. If/when the Photon app is not running, the HomeKit accessories simply appear as offline or “no response.”
With the addition of HomeKit code, Photon could also be enabled to control HomeKit fixtures. Luminair offers this functionality, but it does not allow HomeKit control of Luminair fixtures/sequences.
Implementing it like MIDI exposure with a simple “Expose to HomeKit” checkbox sounds technically feasible and user-friendly, and having Photon register as a HomeKit bridge (with Live Dashboard items appearing as switches in Apple Home) handles offline states elegantly too.
This is genuinely exciting, so we’ll discuss it internally as a priority feature request. Out of curiosity, what’s tour use case / usage in your real-world setup?
In our church’s 350-seat auditorium, we’re using Photon on a dedicated iPad to control the DMX lighting, alongside a Midas M32 digital mixer. The Photon iPad is usually controlled by the same person who runs the projection system (lyrics etc.). The “Expose to HomeKit” feature would give us two primary benefits: One, we could trigger HomeKit automations based on DMX changes; for example, roller blinds, non-DMX smart lights, etc. Two, we could trigger DMX scenes/sequences from HomeKit, which would give us multi-device DMX lighting control similar to what we already do with the Midas board.
The multi-device functionality could alternatively be achieved by adding some sort of networking capability to Photon, in which one iPad would be designated as the primary controller of the DMX interface and the other iPads would request changes through the primary. But all of that would be handled for you with HomeKit integration, plus you get all the additional HK functionality.
From a support standpoint, another nice benefit of this method of HomeKit integration is that end users can use the state of those exposed Photon switches to trigger HomeKit automations, but it’s HomeKit managing HomeKit devices rather than Photon trying to manage HomeKit devices. Photon doesn’t have to be concerned about HomeKit response times, monitoring the state of other HomeKit devices, etc.
As a first step into HomeKit interoperability, you might consider adding a button action (that we could add to a Live Dashboard button) that would trigger an existing HomeKit automation or scene. You can’t guarantee the timing of the execution, so it wouldn’t necessarily be useful for sequencing, but it could be very useful for automatically adjusting non-DMX house lighting, smart blinds, etc.
Hey, well noted! That’s a good idea and we definitely see the value in it. Triggering an existing HomeKit scene or automation from a dashboard button makes a lot of sense for non-DMX stuff like house lights or smart blinds. Added to our roadmap but not priorized yet. We have to study the complexity.
Thanks