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Karaoke Isn’t Just for Singing Anymore — Watching Your Faves in the Philips Hue Super Immersive Room Is Amazing

The ultimate room for fan activities has arrived.

Hi to everyone with a fave so big you’d rent a shared room just to build them a shrine — I’m Hide, tech journalist and part-time house-husband. I’ve been using Philips Hue at home for a while, and now there’s a room at JOYSOUND (a Japanese karaoke chain) that uses it to 120%.

The Philips Hue x JOYSOUND Super Immersive Rooms, one each in Shinagawa and Shibuya
The Philips Hue x JOYSOUND Super Immersive Rooms, one each in Shinagawa and Shibuya
The pinpoint color matching makes it feel like the screen has spread across the whole room.
The pinpoint color matching makes it feel like the screen has spread across the whole room.
Hue is the world’s best-known smart lighting. Once it’s set up, you can control your room’s lights from your phone and set the mood in full color. The Super Immersive Room makes full use of that, letting you experience lighting that’s perfectly synced with what you’re watching.

Karaoke isn’t just a place to sing anymore

There’s a reason this room ended up at a karaoke place like JOYSOUND. Karaoke used to mean somewhere you just go to sing, but lately it’s been changing into “a place to enjoy content, karaoke included.”

JOYSOUND has a service called “Miru Hako,” and these days you can enjoy live concerts in real time, movies, videos of your faves, and soothing animal content. Karaoke demand picks up from evening into the night, but apparently more and more people are using the rooms to enjoy this kind of content during the day.

The appeal of Miru Hako is enjoying everything from classical music to your favorite movies at full volume without worrying about anyone
The appeal of Miru Hako is enjoying everything from classical music to your favorite movies at full volume without worrying about anyone
In a karaoke room, you can enjoy this content at full volume without holding back, and there’s plenty of service like free drinks and food. So it’s perfect for this kind of viewing.

A one-of-a-kind experience with lights and video in sync

Watching content in this Super Immersive Room is such a shock that it’s hard to go back to the normal experience. The room’s lighting changes in perfect sync with the video. It feels like you’ve stepped into the screen.

Everything — the lights behind the TV, on the walls, and on the ceiling — syncs with what’s on screen. It’s nothing but amazing
Everything — the lights behind the TV, on the walls, and on the ceiling — syncs with what’s on screen. It’s nothing but amazing
With concert videos, it feels like you’re standing in the stage lighting yourself, so you can enjoy it as if you’re cheering in person. I can’t think of a better room for watching your favorite artist’s live footage with friends.

After a while you get used to the lighting, and that’s exactly when you should try the switch by the entrance. It instantly toggles between the Philips Hue super-immersive setup and the normal karaoke lighting, so you really get how incredible the effect is.

The switch at the entrance turns the whole system on and off, so you can see again how amazing the lighting is
The switch at the entrance turns the whole system on and off, so you can see again how amazing the lighting is
## High-quality sound at full volume — a karaoke specialty

Another plus is that the original room was a “Sugo-Oto Room” (JOYSOUND’s premium-sound room). Content played through huge speakers you could never set up at home is outstanding — an experience you can only get at JOYSOUND.

You get to enjoy it at full volume through speakers far bigger than anything you could have at home
You get to enjoy it at full volume through speakers far bigger than anything you could have at home
Beyond the lighting, enjoying things at full volume without holding back is hard to pull off at home, even with proper soundproofing. Being able to do that, with food and drinks right at hand, really appealed to me.

The only place in the world you can try it — go experience it

Philips Hue and related products are sold all over the world, but this Hue x JOYSOUND collab room is apparently the world’s first place where you can actually experience it. I bought my own and built this setup at home, but considering it costs over ¥100,000, I think setting it up without trying it first is a pretty big hurdle.

Being able to experience it for the price of a regular karaoke room is a pretty great deal. It’s currently available at the Shibuya South Exit Station Front and Shinagawa Konan Exit locations, so if you’re in the area, I definitely recommend the Super Immersive Room.

You can try it at the two locations above
You can try it at the two locations above
I’ve been saying for a while how great Hue synced with video is, but the catch was that you needed to invest well over ¥100,000 to try it. With this “Super Immersive Room,” anyone can experience it now, and I think it’s a great initiative.
The Shibuya location also has inputs for Blu-ray players and smartphones
The Shibuya location also has inputs for Blu-ray players and smartphones
I visited both locations, and I felt Shibuya suits quieter content like movies and classical music, while Shinagawa suits more active content like concerts and fave videos.

Some locations let you bring your own Blu-rays, so bringing whatever you want to watch is a good idea too. This system is one of the top three things I’m glad I set up at home, so I hope you take this chance to experience it.

This story was originally published (in Japanese) on Yahoo! News Japan Expert.

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