After the world turned upside down and inside out at the blink of an eye (thanks, global pandemic), a lot of us realised how important it is to make sure our homes are our sanctuaries.  

Because our homes have become more than just a place to eat, sleep and get dressed for work. Now, more than ever, we have to make our space work for us in a way that makes downtime actually relaxing. We all know too well that if our space doesn’t help us unwind, we’ll go crazy within their four walls.  

And the best way to ensure our space can unravel all of that crazy at the end of the day, is by making sure we’re getting the most out of me time and social time.  

Regardless of whether you’re entertaining yourself or guests, an often overlooked feature of creating the perfect space to hang out is lighting.  

Lights can transform your home into a world of fun. Create the perfect movie night in your living room, immerse your crew into your multi-player video game, or throw an incredible birthday party. Read on to find out how lighting can seriously improve your downtime.  

 

Bias lighting for upgrading screen time 

 

When you sit down to watch a movie or play a game at the end of a long day, does your space hurt or help your ability to relax? If you haven’t thought about your lighting, chances are your space isn’t actually doing you any favours. 

Sounds dramatic, we know. But the ugly truth is sitting down to watch a screen in your dark room has the ability to strain your eyes causing headaches and fatigue, keep you up past your natural bedtime, and ultimately impair the visual quality of your viewing experience.  

 

What is TV bias lighting? 

 

Fortunately, there’s an easy fix to this issue. A super underrated way to significantly improve a movie night or gaming experience is through bias lighting.  

Bias lighting is gaming LED light or TV LED light that projects below or behind your screen or monitor to illuminate more surface area around your screen. Which looks sick, yes. But using bias lighting behind your entertainment unit or screen is more than just an upgrade for your interior design.  

 

How bias lighting improves visuals in our games and movies  

 

Because our eyes take in our entire field of vision, not just the surface area of the tiny screen in front of us, the darkness around our screens impact what we perceive. So when you’re watching a movie or playing your game in a dark room, your eyes will reduce the perceived contrast of lights and darks on your screen by accounting for darker surrounding shades.  

You can see this in action in the diagram below. In this image, the first (top) bar in the middle of a gradient background is actually the same shade across the width. However, we perceive it as transitioning from lighter to darker on its ends because of the lightness and darkness behind it.  

The second bar in the diagram is the exact same bar, just on one single colour background. This acts as a baseline for understanding the optical illusion of the top bar that we just described.   

 

Bias lighting, however, gives our eyes a reference point of lightness in the background of our screens. And by giving our eyes a reference point of lightness behind our screens, we can enhance the perceived contrast of colours and shades in our movies and games and get the most out of our favourite entertainment.  

 

How bias lighting reduces eye strain from screens  

Our eyes dilate and constrict when we see lightness or darkness. In a show or a game, the transitions from light to dark are rapid and constant due to moving frames. That’s a lot of adjusting for our eyes to do in a very short amount of time. And it’s what leads to our eyes feeling strained, fatigued and dry from watching entertainment on screens for too long.  

Again, bias lighting saves the day by giving our eyes a reference point of lightness behind the ever-changing shades on our screens. This can reduce the strain put on our eyes as they won’t need to dilate or constrict as much when adjusting to changing frames, which can make your viewing experience a lot easier.  

Now that we know what bias lighting can do, how do we know which lights to use?  

 

LED strip lighting behind the TV is going to provide the best experience in terms of aesthetic, cost effectiveness, and range of shading and colours. 

LIFX Lightstrips were created with the intention of delivering high quality, ambient TV light either behind or underneath your entertainment units or monitors. They’re also perfect as gaming lights around your desk setup or in your gaming room. With their easy-apply adhesive, WiFi connectivity, light tv schedule, app control, and huge range of colours and shades, you can enhance your space at your convenience.  

  

Colours and shading for full immersion and aesthetics  

An incredible amount of work goes into the lighting and tone choices in our favourite games and movies. From chiaroscuro lighting for dark and dramatic ambiance, to high key lighting for comedy and light-hearted moments – the use of light in entertainment has a dramatically intentional impact on your experience.  

 

By adding smart lights to your setup, you can highlight and intensify the lighting experience that the artists of your movie or game intended. In addition to LIFX Lightstrips, any LIFX Colour or White to Warm light can be set to a Scene that’s reactive to your entertainment.  

Again, LED lighting is going to be the most environmentally friendly, cost effective, and aesthetically pleasing. However, with features like Effects, LIFX lights give you the ability to also project additional lighting animations that make you screen feel larger than it is. And with colours to match the genre of the moment, you can create the sense that you’re actually inside the narrative.  

These features, which are only possible with LED smart lighting like LIFX, create an immersive experience that can completely transform your home theatre or game room.  

 

Creating the right vibe for entertaining guests 

 

We all know home entertainment isn’t limited to screens. Having guests over to your house is back on the menu since 2020, and most of us appreciate that fact more than ever. So using the right lighting to create the perfect party environment is crucial to ensuring the night is as good as you and your guests hope it’ll be.  

To create ambiance with fun home lighting, place LIFX Lightstrips under kitchen counters, living room couches and around the edges of floors and ceilings. When your guests arrive, set your lighting to a warm 4000K amber at 85% brightness.  

The warm colour temperature will aid in creating the feeling of a relaxing social mood, which is always helpful at the start of a night when small talk and introductions can make things feel a bit more tense.  

Once the party gets going, and your guests are having a good time, switch to animated, vibrant colours that move across your walls or under your furniture. Sync these colours to the music you’re playing to really turn it up a notch.  

Finally, once the night has ended, use LIFX Cleans to wipe out bacteria on the surfaces and objects in your home. You can preschedule a Clean Cycle to the time when you know everyone will be gone and you’ll be off to bed. That way you don’t have to remember to do it through the tired haze after a couple glasses of wine (or five). In the morning, your space will be disinfected and ready for the next party.