Philips AmbiScape brings on-screen TV colours to your smart lights
Using Matter, AmbiScape builds on Ambilight and connects to smart bulbs from Ikea, Nanoleaf, Wiz and Philips Hue
Philips Ambilight remains a unique technology available on TVs, lighting up walls behind the TV to match the picture on the screen. Over 35 million Ambilight TVs have now been sold.
The company announced a new generation of the Ambilight tech last year, called AmbiScape that extends the TV lighting to selected asmart lights. AmbiScape boasts some crucial changes to extend the experience beyond the TV. And it’s now been launched using 2026 Philips TVs and a selection of higher-end 2025 TVs.
Now, the eagle-eyed among you might think – didn’t Ambilight work with Philips Hue previously? And you’d be right of course. The simple fact is that the lighting and TV parts of Philips have been licensed to other companies for some time and, well, they just seemed to stop cooperating. It seems bizarre, but stranger things have happened in the world of tech.
However, the TV division (run by a company called TP Vision) has sensibly decided to extend Ambilight and use an open standard to do so, meaning that not only Philips Hue lights will be able to work with the system, but lighting from other providers such as Nanoleaf, Wiz and Ikea (the bulbs don’t have to be from the same brand).
This uses the Matter smart home control system, which is becoming more widely supported on new smart home products. Thread and Wi-Fi are used to communicate with the lights.
Latency is said to be less than half a second and you connect the bulbs via a QR code on screen. AmbiScape will also be a feature within the Philips Smart TV App.
Another interesting stat from Philips is that the company’s research suggests that it builds a strong loyalty to its brand, with 80% of customers saying their next TV must have Ambilight, which was originally launched over 20 years ago by Philips as a technology to reduce eye strain.
AmbiScape can control up to four smart bulbs as part of the system but we’d expect that ability to grow as time goes on. More brand should also follow. The catch is you’ll need a 2026 TV from the 8000 Series and above, but presumably the tech will be baked into all new launches from Philips in future. Some selected high-end 2025 TVs had a limited tial previously.
AmbiScape can be activated via a particular key on the remote control or via the Ambilight menu in the TV.
“We have been receiving a lot of feedback from Philips Ambilight TV customers that they would like an easy way to extend the immersive effect of the Ambilight system further into their room” explains Philips’ Anette van Dijk.
“The AmbiScape feature provides that but also allows the consumer the freedom to choose from a wider selection of compatible smart bulb brands. It is proof of how we continue to improve Ambilight to ensure the system remains the true distinctive feature in the premium TV market, and even after 20 years, continues to grow in popularity”.
Dan Grabham
Editor-in-Chief 
