Theatrium

Theatrium turns an Apple TV you already own into an always-on display for your home, and a music visualiser worth leaving on.

THE DASHBOARD Lights, climate, cameras, sensors, scenes, energy, weather, who’s home. All on one screen, sized to read from the sofa.

There are four designs. Estate is quiet and typographic. Glass is dense and legible. Bento is jewel green and leads with energy. Boardroom is a meeting-room and markets board for an office wall (with a dark/light switch).

Colours warm and cool with the time of day, and the screen dims on its own when the room goes quiet.

THREE WAYS IN • Home Assistant. Everything you have already set up, plus history graphs, presence and system metrics. • Apple Home. Lights, climate, locks, covers, sensors and scenes, with no server to run. • Apple TV only. No smart home at all. Weather, rain radar, live webcams, markets, a calendar and the clock.

Setting up asks one question. Theatrium looks for your Home Assistant server on the network and fills in the address for you. If you would rather not type on a TV, scan a code and approve it from your phone instead. There is no access token to create.

THE MUSIC VISUALISER More than twenty scenes, drawn live on the Apple TV instead of replayed from video. Aurora, ocean and kaleidoscope fields. Deep fractals. Hand-built showpieces: a spinning compact disc, a click-wheel iPod, a cassette whose reels turn, a mirrorball throwing light around the room. Some scenes take your album cover and work it directly, flowing it like liquid fabric or drifting it behind crystal facets.

Every play pulls fresh colour out of the artwork and follows the track’s tempo, then reshuffles. The same song does not look the same twice.

The visualiser follows what is playing and how fast. It does not listen to your room. There is no microphone.

Music can come from Apple Music, Spotify, Last.fm, Plex, or any Home Assistant media player.

ROOM LIGHTING Two groups of lights follow what is on screen. Your main or overhead group takes the lead colour, brighter and less saturated so the room stays comfortable to sit in. An accent group takes the contrasting second colour, richer and dimmer.

Nothing pulses, flashes or strobes. The only movement is a slow fade as one visual gives way to the next, timed to the song and not the beat. It behaves like a room changing mood, not a light show.

Pick individual bulbs, an existing group, or any mix of both. You do not have to build groups elsewhere first, which helps in Apple Home, where you cannot group lights at all. If someone flicks a bulb off at the wall it rejoins by itself, and one unreachable bulb will not hold up the others.

You choose how literal the colour is. Vivid takes it straight from the screen at full strength. Natural softens it into tones that suit a living room. Party moves through a four-colour palette with the song. Vivid and brightness are free. Natural and Party need Pro.

Room lighting works through Home Assistant, Apple Home or Hue, whichever already drives your dashboard.

BUILT TO LIVE ON A WALL No account to create. No analytics, no tracking, no ads. Your Home Assistant credentials stay on the device. Weather, radar, webcams and market prices come from the web, so your approximate location is used to find local conditions.

FREE, WITH AN OPTIONAL UNLOCK Theatrium is free. The free tier fills a whole dashboard on any source, includes every music source, and has room lighting working out of the box.

Theatrium Pro is a single purchase with no subscription. It adds every theme, the full visualiser catalogue, the specialist cards, and the Natural and Party lighting modes. New themes, cards and features are planned and will be included free with with your one-time Pro purchase.

Requires an Apple TV 4K. Not affiliated with the Home Assistant project.