Philips’ light bulbs will bring ‘Sharknado’ into your living room

Finally there’s a reason to invest in smart light bulbs. Syfy and Philips have announced that Sharknado 2: The Second One viewers will be treated to a custom light show designed to sync up with the film when it premieres on July 30th. It’s all made possible with Syfy’s “Sync” second-screen app, which listens for audio cues from the film and then sends lighting commands to the Philips Hue system. Beginning at 7PM, any Philips smart bulbs in your living room will change color “to reflect the increasingly stormy weather conditions, chainsaw-induced shark carnage, and more.” (Don’t worry, the “light track” will repeat during Syfy’s 9PM encore presentation.)

But here’s the best part: you don’t even need to wait to experience this perfect union between technology and awful made-for-TV disaster movies. The two companies have already programmed an ambient light track for the original Sharknado, which is available right now on any number of video-on-demand services and Blu-ray / DVD. This is the demo material you’ve no doubt been waiting for, and Syfy is promising the experience will “take a further bite out of the audience’s imagination” — pun most definitely intended.