LIFX
The world’s first multi-color LED wifi light bulb
( Services )
- Tech & Data
As highly skilled electrical engineers, the founders of LIFX came across a novel idea: a wifi connected bulb.
They then launched one of the most successful Kickstarter campaigns in history.
Even as they received praise for the ingenuity of their hardware, they needed help with their software. They knew that achieving mass adoption depended on a fluid user interface, so they reached out to DEPT®.
Cutting-edge light bulb software in need of an upgrade
Together with LIFX, we focused on enhancing speed, efficiency, and user control over multiple lights. This undertaking demanded a close partnership, developing a multi-year relationship to overhaul and expand their digital ecosystem.
Full stack development that powers LIFX’s wifi bulbs
In an era when the Internet of Things (IoT) was still emerging, unique challenges arose from wirelessly networked devices without physical internet connections. Without a physical connection to the internet, our technical solutions had to be solid and reliable. After looking closely at the competitive landscape and learning how users interact with lighting control systems, our team reworked LIFX’s firmware, cloud infrastructure, and mobile apps for various platforms.
Our technical challenges included making sure the light bulbs were flexible, responsive, and compatible with different WiFi setups. We moved some of the complex logic to the bulbs to minimise the need for frequent changes, and we used a Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) to make testing easier. We also built a strong cloud infrastructure to handle the scaling of bulbs to customers and enable smooth over-the-air updates.
A resilient, future-proof infrastructure
We architected a highly available, globally distributed IoT platform, ensuring seamless 24/7 remote control and real-time responsiveness.
Leveraging AWS IoT Core, Lambda, API Gateway, DynamoDB, S3, CloudFront, and global edge networking via Route 53, we delivered a low-latency, serverless solution capable of handling millions of concurrent device connections across different time zones and network conditions.
Our implementation utilised AWS IoT Core’s MQTT-based messaging for efficient, bi-directional communication between devices and the cloud, ensuring instant control and status updates. DynamoDB’s high-throughput and globally distributed architecture provided low-latency data storage, while CloudFront and S3 enabled fast, reliable firmware updates for device security and feature enhancements.
By designing for fault tolerance, auto-scaling, and real-time event processing, we created a resilient, future-proof infrastructure that supports seamless user experiences and uninterrupted smart home connectivity at scale.
LIFX has become a major player in the smart lighting industry
Our software overhaul significantly improved the performance of LIFX systems. Before we stepped in, it could take 30 minutes to update a single bulb. We got that down to under one minute—and allowed users to update multiple bulbs at once.
With our help, LIFX became one of the first products to participate in the Works with Nest program, Google’s since-retired connected home initiative. After a string of new product releases and further expansion onto other connected home platforms, LIFX was acquired in 2019 by Buddy in a deal valued at $70M AUD.
