Groups

Groups keep your lamps organised - by room, for example. Every account has a default group, where new lamps arrive - you can rename it under Group, but not delete it. New group makes more, and a lamp moves to another group under its Edit.

The buttons at the top of a group's card switch things for the whole group, and light up while they are on: the cloud for Cloud Sync, the radio waves for Local Sync, the music note for Audio reactive (see Sound), the link for Ableton Link - with the session's tempo beside it while its lamps are on Link - and the die for Sync Random Seed. Point at one to see its name and what it does. A dashed edge means the group's lamps disagree - some have it on, some off. A pale button cannot be switched right now; pointing at it says why.

Cloud sync

Switch on Cloud Sync for a group and its lamps act as one: a change made to any of them - in the panel or on the lamp's own page - reaches all the others through the cloud, wherever they are. The group then gets its own controls: on and off, brightness and Effects & colour for the whole group.

A change made in the panel - an effect, a colour, a preset, switching on or off - goes to every lamp of the group at the same moment. Its brightness and on and off, and whether its lamps play to sound or to Ableton Link, go to the whole group too, wherever they are switched.

A lamp that switches on or comes back online takes what the group shows - its look and its brightness - not what it would start with by itself. A lamp that drops off the network, or goes off as its battery runs out, never switches the rest of the group off.

Playlists in a group

A playlist started in the panel - or on one of the lamps' own pages - plays on every lamp of the group together. The cloud gives them all the same start, and from then on each lamp steps through the playlist on its own timer, so they change together without waiting for the cloud:

• A lamp that loses its connection keeps playing; it is not left on one preset.
• A lamp that joins the group or comes back online falls in on the step the others are on.
• With Shuffle, every lamp plays the same order.
• The lamp's own page and the panel show the playlist as the one playing.

It runs until its end - then every lamp goes on with what the playlist plays Then - or until you change something. Brightness and switching off and on leave it running.

Lamps play it together when they have the same playlist with the same presets, as in a group that keeps its presets synced. A lamp without it, or with older firmware, is shown each step by the cloud instead.

Sync Random Seed

Many effects are random - sparkles, fireworks, flickering candles. With Sync Random Seed on - the dice, lit by default - every lamp in a synced group runs its effects on the same clock, so even the random effects show exactly the same picture on every lamp. Switch it off to let every lamp run its effect at a moment of its own; colours, effect and palette still follow the group.

The effects run on without a break to stay in step: none of them goes dark, jumps or starts over every few minutes. A lamp that joins the group or comes back online falls in with the others straight away - for effects that build up over time, like fire and the other particle effects, at their next turn, a few minutes on, with a smooth crossfade you will hardly see.

Lights of different kinds

A group can mix Ice Lights, stripes, crystals, cubes and panels. They follow each other part for part: a light's first part follows the first part of the light a change came from, its second part the second, and so on - starting over where a light has more parts. An Ice Light follows the first part. A part's own on and off and brightness only go between lights built the same.

A part of a light can also keep its own look, or follow a shared sync of its own - see Parts of lights.

Random Cycle for the whole group

The palette Random Cycle makes up new colours every so often. In a synced group, the cloud makes them for all lamps at once, so they change colour together. While a synced group plays Random Cycle, its Effects & colour panel shows the options: how the colours are chosen, how many there are in each palette (one to six), and how often they change.

Keeping presets the same

Keep presets synced… gives every lamp in the group the same presets. You choose which lamp's presets to start from; from then on, a preset saved, changed or deleted on one lamp changes on all of them, and a lamp moved into the group takes the group's presets instead of its own.

The lamps' own palettes - Custom 0, Custom 1 and so on, see Palettes in the cloud - are kept the same with the presets, so a preset that plays one plays the same colours on every lamp. They come from the same lamp as the presets, and a palette added, changed or deleted on one lamp changes on all of them. Before switching on, the panel lists what each lamp gets and loses - palettes as well as presets.

In a group of different kinds of lights, each light gets the presets converted for it - an Ice Light the main part of each, a light with parts the preset's parts in turn - and the panel lists how many are converted before you switch on.

A group that already kept its presets synced before palettes did gathers them instead: every palette any of its lamps has goes to all of them, and none is deleted unless you delete it on a lamp. Switch preset sync off and on again to start from one lamp's palettes instead.