I am using a variety of lights of different brands. In this section, I will go through some of my favourite brands and why they work well with ConnectedRoom.
Govee has amazing products that work very well with ConnectedRoom. They tend to be affordable and are often discounted. They support fancy effects that can be triggered when the score changes. Here are some of my favourite Govee products.
LIFX is another affordable brand that works great with ConnectedRoom. I am using one of their RGB strip under my TV on the TV stand. It has multi-zone supports and good color accuracy.
If you are looking for more standard light bulbs, I would highly recommend Philips Hue bulbs. They can be expensive, but their features are unmatched when it comes to light bulbs. They last very long too compared to other competing brands that are cheaper. I am using the same Philips light bulbs from when I moved into my first apartment, so it's been 8 years and counting.
For Philips Hue to work with ConnectedRoom, you need to have a Philips Hue bridge. They are the only lights requiring additional purchase for ConnectedRoom, but they will blow you away.
If you are looking to get started with ConnectedRoom without too big of a commitment, I would suggest a Kasa Smart light bulb. They are inexpensive and just works. I was super impressed with the responsiveness of these lights when I tried one for the first time. They do tend to be a little bit inaccurate when it comes to red. If your team has red colors, I would suggest a more expensive Philips Hue bulb.
For the screens, it's really up to you. As long as they are 1080p or more and have an HDMI port, they really don't have to be anything special. You can go as big as you want, or as small as you want.
The screens I used are discontinued Samsung 24in TN panels. They are very outdated and they still provide a good experience. Anything recent will do. That is about how you want your scoreboards to be.
If you want to make your scoreboards portrait on the side of your TV, the rule would be to buy screens half the size of your TV so they don't go above the top of your TV.
On each screens, I am using an Intel Compute Stick (1 per screen), but you can buy a better mini-pc from Amazon and display two scoreboards per mini-pc.
If for some reason, you would like to dedicate one PC per screen, I would go with an Intel Compute Stick. What is cool with these is that your screen can be distant from everything, or distant from each other, because they are independent and require very little cabling.
To display screens in portrait on the side of my TV, I used Monitor Stands from VIVO. I like the ones that are tall enough to go above the TV. If you want to add a third or fourth screen, you would buy the arm only and add it to the existing pole.
In this section, I'll show you how I have done the Goal Light. I am using a combination of a police light and a smart plug.
The light I am using to create my goal light is a novelty police light I found on Amazon. But be careful, I had to return this product twice before getting one that works and isn't cracked. Buy at your own risk. There is even a notice on Amazon stating: this product is frequently returned.
I didn't find any other alternative because it was the only one powering from AC power. It is required to plug it on a smart plug to be able to control it with ConnectedRoom.
In my setup, the goal light is plugged into a Govee Smart Plug. I configured it to turn on for 20 seconds when the score changes and then turn off.
We support Sonoff physical buttons through our Ewelink integration. You can configure 3 type of pressing: my team, away team, home team. You will also need a Sonoff Bridge for it to work.
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