Daniel J SaitOur installer-focused reviewer Richard Stevenson gets in touch with the Rithum Switch.
Smart homes and AV integration projects are becoming increasingly holistically connected, with clients expecting seamless functionality across lighting, audio, AV, heating, cooling, shading and security. This has always been possible with a big enough budget, but not without the complexity or expense of full-blown control systems and installer programming skills capable of remotely piloting a space shuttle.
Arguably, this creates both a challenge and an opportunity for installers, which the Rithum Switch neatly answers. It’s a powerful and elegantly simple smart touch-panel solution with frankly amazing integration flexibility and a price ticket that positively encourages clients to specify one in every room. It retails at just £249.99. Moreover, Rithum offers installers several levels of order discount on fully loaded (all plugins and integrations) switches, including 10-unit bulk packs.
Rithum is a UK-based company founded in 2020, building its reputation on streamlining user interfaces and simplifying installation. The Rithum Switch is the hero product, with a full-colour touch screen interface designed to replace a traditional light switch or as a stand-alone device. It’s Wi-Fi connected and its integrations and plugins list is 20-odd systems strong. These include hard-core installer ecosystems like Control4, KNX IP, Rako Core, Lutron RA2 and Bluestream, as well as consumer-friendly devices like Hue, Sonos, Heatmiser and BluOS music.
Some of these are free to download (Hue, Sonos, Audio Intercom for example) while others come as a premium add-on such as the BluOS Lite plugin at £19.99, Heatmiser at £19.99 and Shelly Local at £9.99. All of the ‘Pro Product’ plugins for C4, Bluesound Multiroom, Zuma, Bluestream, HDAnywhere, Rako (etc, etc) are only available to registered installers to keep the CI industry firmly in the food chain. As noted on EI online last month, a video streaming plugin with support for video intercom and CCTV is on the way imminently.
Great packing and comprehensible instructions are top of my list for winning a reviewer over, and here Rithum gets a full five gold stars. The box, with its magnetic lid, superb graphics, and neat card inlays, would get a thumbs-up from the late Steve Jobs, and the instructions are off-the-charts good. This is a UK company and end-to-end instructions are in the native language, detailed and easily understandable. Hallelujah.
The product is no less well thought out and well built. It is a neat, square device with a big, full-colour touch screen with multiway screen scrolling. It’s no AMOLED, but punchy enough for a control panel and it is delightfully responsive, answering pokes and swipes without any lag or stuttering. The chassis is Henry Ford-approved black-only, but that works neatly with the black standby screen and dark theme background interface.
GETTING STARTED
Installation is refreshingly straightforward. The Switch is designed to be as close to plug-and-play as possible and fits into a standard 1G backbox or surface pattress. While the unit can be powered from 100–240V AC, it does require a neutral wire at the switch point, which may be a limitation in retrofitting older properties wired with switched-live only.
However, Rithum has gone to lengths to provide thoughtful solutions, including excellent documentation on alternate wiring methods, a 2G mains plug socket adapter plate, and the ability to power the unit via low-voltage DC at 12-30V at just 260mA. This DC power flexibility also opens the door to creative placement options, including bathrooms and pool rooms, or freestanding using Rithum’s own table stand accessory.
As soon as it is powered up, you navigate to the Wi-Fi connectivity menu, connect and wait for it to update its software. I’ll go and make a cuppa then.
Hue and Sonos integration come pre-installed, requiring only a cursory pointing in the correct IP address direction to adopt the Hue lighting and Sonos Amp set up already configured. I picked eight scenes in the Cinema using an array of 26 Hue White and Colour lamps and two Zigbee LED strips. Laid out as 4×2, the text scene names are neat although an icon with a hint of the primary colour back-ported from the Hue scene icons would be nice.
Sonos integration is super pretty, neatly bringing up album art, station icons and image data, volume control and skip/back, source and skip/back play/pause on the same screen. That is a standalone winner for anyone fed up with searching for their phone or smart device to change the volume on their Sonos sound or trying to find mute when the phone or doorbell rings. The screen sensitivity, navigation and legibility are all superb throughout.
Dig a little deeper and you can Group Scenes with colour icons, adding to the usability and aesthetics, with a Macro mode, List Mode and Step Mode, controlling how the scenes are accessed. Individual lamp levels can be controlled at group level or individually, while the device pulls back from the complexity of colour management, leaving that to the Hue app.
For HVAC there is a neat Quick Climate Control page which works with the free Rithum Stat plugin straight out of the box. Configuration is by HTTP via SD to integrate with systems such as IFTTT, C4 and Home Assistant without specific integrations or workarounds. This uses a YAML file loaded onto an SD and imported to the Rithum Switch via a MicroSD card slot on the bottom of the panel. Given enough thought and logic, this should open the possibility of integrating with virtually any systems responding to HTTP requests… which is well beyond my pay grade!
WHAT ARE WE SAYING?
We are saying that Rithum Switches are very flexible, all achieved by integrating with other devices and systems rather than trying to rely on a single core architecture. That makes it a simpler solution to smart home integration, considerably more affordable, and opens up the option of extending Rithum Switches to almost every room in the customer’s home—something they probably hadn’t even realised was possible without a re-mortgage.
On its own, it’s the perfect choice for media rooms where clients want one-touch control of lighting, music and HVAC scenes without needing a rack full of control gear. In master bedrooms, it neatly offers a central point for goodnight scenes and could set lights low, drop the blinds and cue up a playlist. In kitchens and living spaces, it can be powered via low-voltage and mounted to cabinetry or feature walls, enabling subtle but powerful control points exactly where users want them. And in retrofit scenarios, where rewiring is limited, its ability to operate independently of the mains circuit and communicate over Wi-Fi offers a compelling workaround to traditional constraints.
Compared to other smart touchscreen wall controllers on the market, perhaps Gira’s G1 or even entry-level Control4 keypads, the Rithum Switch holds its own with surprising confidence. It may not offer the depth of customisation that a fully bespoke control system provides, but it makes up for it in speed of deployment, ease of integration and sheer versatility. For installers, that could easily mean more units per customer, more opportunities for add-on work, fewer callbacks and happier clients.
The Rithum Switch represents a new class of smart control device that is not trying to replace entire ecosystems, but slot into them gracefully. It brings together a diverse range of smart products and devices into one place that doesn’t involve navigating your phone and multiple apps first. It even does so in a stylish, elegant, easy-to-install and even easier-to-use way. That makes it a powerful addition to the custom installer’s arsenal, whether for a single AV room or complete smart home retrofit, bridging the gap between a full smart home control system and the fragmented world of individual apps and devices.
The Rithum Switch is a rare product that ticks all the boxes, does so with style, elegance and panache, and comes to market as quite likely the most affordable fully-featured touch-screen control panel available to date. Simply brilliant.
