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R-Flow app

Smart Lighting

Turn every smart light in the room into a beat-synced rig — Hue, LIFX, Govee, Nanoleaf.

R-Flow — Smart Lighting
Smart Lighting inside R-Flow

What it does

Smart Lighting turns consumer smart bulbs into a beat-reactive light show that runs alongside your visuals. Connect Philips Hue, LIFX, Govee, and Nanoleaf gear — all at the same time — pick your lights, choose from 35 built-in effect presets, and hit Start Beat Sync. The beat can come from your DJ gear automatically, from a manual BPM you type or tap in, or from live audio analysis of any audio input on your PC.

Key features

Why it earns its place in your booth

1

Four brands, one engine

Connect Philips Hue (bridge auto-discovery), LIFX (one-click LAN discovery), Govee (cloud API key), and Nanoleaf (network discovery) simultaneously, and drive them all from a single set of controls. Saved connections reconnect automatically the next time you launch the app.

2

35 beat-synced effect presets

Twenty core effects — flashes, strobes, chases, waves, pulses, rainbow sweeps, Random Party and more — plus fifteen dedicated Christmas presets like Xmas Chase Red/Green, Xmas Twinkle Red/White, and Xmas Fireplace.

3

Three BPM sources

Auto mode looks for BPM from your connected DJ gear and offers to switch to Manual whenever no tempo is available, Manual mode takes a typed BPM (20-300) with quick buttons for 100/120/128/140, and Audio Input mode listens to any audio device on your PC and detects the beat live, with an on-screen BPM readout and beat pulse indicator.

4

Shuffle mode

Let the app rotate through effects for you — every N beats (quick buttons for 2/4/8/16/32) or every N seconds. Checkboxes next to each preset list control whether the regular pool, the Christmas pool, or both are in rotation.

5

Live performance controls

BLACKOUT and FREEZE toggle buttons, TAP TEMPO, beat division (1/1 to 1/8), downbeat sync, reverse direction, color lock, random color, and nine one-tap Quick Color buttons for instant room-wide color changes.

6

Gradient segment control

Gradient-capable lights show up in the picker with their individual segments, so chase and wave effects can travel across a single light strip, not just between fixtures.

7

Deep effect shaping

Sliders for brightness, effect speed (0.25x-4x), flash duration, strobe rate, fade time, saturation, off brightness, attack time, and color temperature let you tune the look from subtle pulse to full-on strobe.

8

Light groups

Save any selection of lights as a named group, recall it from a dropdown, and it persists between sessions — handy for different rooms or venues.

Documentation

How to use Smart Lighting

  1. Connect your light brand(s)

    In the Brand Setup section, connect whichever brands you own. Philips Hue: click Discover to find your bridge (or type its IP into the Bridge IP field), then click Connect — on first connection you'll be prompted to press the physical button on the Hue bridge, then click Connect again. LIFX: click Discover & Connect and your LAN lights are found automatically. Govee: paste your API key into the API Key field and click Connect. Nanoleaf: click Discover (takes about 10 seconds), pick your device from the dropdown, and click Connect — first-time pairing requires holding the power button on the Nanoleaf device for 5-7 seconds.

    Smart Lighting — Connect your light brand(s)

  2. Pick your lights

    Click Select Lights to open a picker showing every light from every connected brand. Gradient lights list their individual segments too. Check what you want (or use Select All), then click Apply. The label next to the button confirms how many lights are selected.

    Smart Lighting — Pick your lights

  3. Verify with Test Flash

    Click Test Flash to fire a quick full-brightness flash on the selected lights and confirm everything responds.

    Smart Lighting — Verify with Test Flash

  4. Save a group (optional)

    Click Save as Group and name the current selection. Recall it any time from the Groups dropdown, or remove it with Delete Group. Groups are saved with your settings.

    Smart Lighting — Save a group (optional)

  5. Choose a BPM source

    In the BPM Source section pick Auto (DJ Gear) to follow the tempo from your connected DJ equipment, Manual to type a BPM (or hit a quick button like 128), or Audio Input to detect the beat live — select an audio device from the dropdown, hit Refresh to rescan if needed, and adjust the Sensitivity slider until the beat indicator pulses reliably.

  6. Pick an effect

    In Effects & Presets, choose from the Effect dropdown (Flash White, Chase Rainbow, Strobe Fast, Wave Ocean, Random Party and more) or the Christmas dropdown for holiday looks. Enable Beat Sync and Color Cycle are on by default; set Brightness and Effect Speed to taste.

    Smart Lighting — Pick an effect

  7. Start the show

    Click Start Beat Sync. The button turns into Stop Beat Sync while running. If you haven't selected lights, it automatically grabs every light from every connected brand. If Auto mode can't find a BPM, the app tells you and switches to Manual so you're never stuck.

  8. Perform live

    While sync runs, tap Quick Colors for instant color slams, toggle Shuffle to auto-rotate effects, ride the speed buttons (1/2x to 4x), switch Beat Division, and use BLACKOUT or FREEZE for dramatic moments. TAP TEMPO lets you beat-match by hand at any time (except in Audio Input mode, where taps are ignored).

    Smart Lighting — Perform live
Reference

Settings

BrightnessBase brightness of the effect (50-254). Flash peaks automatically ride 50 points above it, capped at full.
Effect Speed0.25x to 4x multiplier against the beat — 1.0x fires exactly on the beat; quick buttons for 1/2x, 1x, 2x, 4x.
Flash DurationSlider from 50-500 ms. The current built-in effects time their flashes from the beat length, so this mostly future-proofs custom effects.
Strobe RateStrobe pulses per beat, 1-16.
Fade TimeTransition time between states, 0-1000 ms.
SaturationColor intensity from 0 (white) to 254 (full color).
Off BrightnessHow dim the inactive lights in a chase go (0-100), so the room never has to hit pitch black mid-chase.
Attack TimeRamp-up slider, 0-500 ms — reserved for upcoming effects; the current presets switch at full snap.
Color TempCool-to-warm white slider (roughly 6500K to 2000K) — reserved for upcoming effects; today's white-based presets send pure white.
Beat DivisionTrigger on every beat (1/1), or stretch to every 2nd, 4th, or 8th beat for half-time and slower feels.
Sync to DownbeatFires the effect only on the first beat of each 4-beat bar.
Shuffle EveryAuto-rotate interval for Shuffle mode — a beat count (2/4/8/16/32 quick buttons) or a time in seconds.
SensitivityAudio Input mode's beat-detection sensitivity — raise it for quiet sources, lower it for hot signals.
Reverse Direction / Color Lock / Random ColorFlip the travel direction of chases and waves, freeze the current color while the pattern keeps moving, or pull a random color on each change.

Pro tips

💡 Set Shuffle Every to 16 or 32 beats so effect changes land on musical phrases instead of feeling random — and use the checkboxes beside the two preset dropdowns to choose whether Shuffle pulls from the regular pool, the Christmas pool, or both.
💡 Turn on Sync to Downbeat with chase and wave effects so the pattern advances only on the 1 of every bar.
💡 Own a gradient light strip? In the Select Lights picker, tick its individual segments instead of the whole strip — chases and waves will then travel along the strip itself.
💡 Raise Off Brightness a touch (it defaults to 20) if you don't want chase effects dropping the room to black between hits; drop it to 0 for maximum contrast.
💡 Save one group per room or venue setup, then switch entire lighting zones from the Groups dropdown mid-set.
💡 Ride Quick Speed live: 1/2x for breakdowns, 4x plus a strobe preset for the drop.
💡 Color Lock is great for brand-color events — the rhythm keeps going but the palette stays put.
💡 Blackout, then release, is the cheapest big moment in lighting — the BLACKOUT button is a toggle, so it doubles as a manual flash if you work it by hand.

Good to know

⚠️ First-time Philips Hue connection requires physically pressing the button on the Hue bridge within about 30 seconds — if it fails, press the button and click Connect again.
⚠️ First-time Nanoleaf pairing requires holding the power button on the device for 5-7 seconds while connecting, and discovery itself takes around 10 seconds.
⚠️ Govee runs through Govee's cloud service, so it needs internet access and its own API key — it is not local-network control like the other three brands.
⚠️ In Audio Input mode, if no beats are detected for 3 seconds the effects pause automatically (the readout shows Paused) and resume when the music comes back — expected behavior, not a crash.
⚠️ TAP TEMPO is ignored while Audio Input is the BPM source; it only applies in Manual mode (and tapping switches you to Manual).
⚠️ In Auto (DJ Gear) mode with no gear detected, starting sync pops a notice and falls back to Manual BPM — you'll need to type or tap the tempo yourself.
⚠️ Consumer smart bulbs are controlled over Wi-Fi/network APIs, so exact timing depends on your network — a congested venue Wi-Fi will make effects feel less tight.
⚠️ Brightness and saturation sliders use the native 0-254 scale of the lighting protocol rather than percentages.

Requirements

Windows PC running R-FlowAt least one supported smart-light brand: Philips Hue (with a Hue Bridge), LIFX, Govee, or NanoleafHue, LIFX, and Nanoleaf lights must be on the same local network as your PCGovee control needs an internet connection plus a free Govee developer API keyAudio Input BPM mode needs an audio input device (mic, line-in, or interface) carrying the musicAuto (DJ Gear) BPM mode needs DJ equipment connected through R-Flow's DJ sync features

Plays well with

Philips Hue Bridge — local network control with one-click bridge discovery and link-button pairingLIFX — direct local-network (LAN) control with automatic discovery, no account neededGovee — official Govee cloud API (requires a free developer API key from developer.govee.com)Nanoleaf — local network control with automatic device discovery and on-device pairingDJ gear BPM feed — the live BPM readout follows tempo from DJ equipment connected in the DJ Sync appLive audio input — real-time beat/BPM detection from any audio input device on your PC