Here's how Thread is reviving Wemo's Stage Scene Controller as a HomeKit essential

In my relentless pursuit of building the perfect HomeKit smart home, I realized that one key is a combination of smart and physical controls. One of the latest additions to my setup for this is the Wemo Stage Scene Controller, which was announced last April but has recently become more reliable thanks to Thread.

I got my hands on the Wemo Stage Scene Controller when it was first released last April, but quickly discovered that it wasn't ready for prime time. In fact, the experience is so buggy and unreliable that I decidednot to cover it in a review for 9to5Mac. It's just not reliable enough to warrant a recommendation.

WeMo begins rolling out thread support to stage scene controllers. For those unfamiliar, Thread is a newer smart home standard that uses mesh networking protocols to connect all of your smart home accessories together. It doesn't require any kind of hub to connect to your router.

In practice, Thread significantly improves the reliability, speed and interoperability of smart home accessories. While many smart home accessories rely on a separate WiFi connection (or worse, Bluetooth) to connect, the Thread does not. Even the latest HomePod mini and Apple TV support Thread connections.

Thread can also be added retroactively to most smart home accessories via software updates, which is exactly what Wemo does. Thankfully, Thread support has now transformed the Wemo Stage Scene Controller from a dud into a must-have smart home accessory.

Hands on: Wemo Stage Controller

The WeMo Stage Controller is designed to work with HomeKit and the Home app on iPhone. In the Home app, you can create different scenes and accessories to manage lights, temperature, color, and more. WeMo Stage Scene Controller integrates with your HomeKit scenes and gives you a new way to manage them with physical controls.

The Wemo Stage Smart Controller features three physical buttons and supports up to nine different HomeKit scenes or accessory combinations. You can assign three HomeKit scenes to each button; one activated with a short press, one activated with a double press, and one activated with a long press. This gives you quite a bit of versatility when it comes to choosing which scene to control.

The physical design of the stage scene controller is also universal. In the box, you'll find a panel that you can mount to something like a wall or table using built-in tape. The actual stage scene controller is then magnetically attached to the panel, or it can be used entirely on its own as a handheld remote.

Wemo stage scene controller is completely battery powered, using easy-to-replace CR2032 batteries. Wemo says the battery should last about a year.

The WeMo Stage Scene Controller only works through HomeKit and the Home app, which means you don’t have to fiddle with the WeMo app at all. You can assign scenes to buttons directly in the Home app. In practice, it's nice not to have to use another application to manage the scene controller, but it does mean that there's no way to force the scene controller to update its firmware. Instead, I basically had to wait a few weeks for the update to be rolled out to me and installed in the background.

#As I said at the beginning of this article, one of the keys to successfully setting up a smart home is that accessories can be controlled in three ways: via iPhone, voice, and physical control. Longtime readers of 9to5Mac will know that I'm a big fan of the Lutron Aurora, which integrates with Philips Hue light bulbs and solves one of the biggest annoyances with Philips Hue smart homes by adding physical control options.

The Wemo Stage Scene Controller is the perfect addition to your HomeKit setup and serves a similar purpose. You can place stage scene controllers in areas that require physical access to control lighting and scenes, such as a guest room or guest bathroom. Additionally, its versatile design and control options make it an attractive option for HomeKit users.

For me, I have placed the Wemo Stage Scene in my office and opted for a relatively simple setup that turns off my lights and accent lighting with the push of a button.

With support for up to nine different controls, it can be a bit complicated to remember which scene, accessory, or combination of accessories is assigned to which button. The good news is that you can opt for a simpler setup, where each button activates a scene or accessory. It's entirely up to you.

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