Your BetterSTR TV can control the smart devices in the property: lights, switches, fans, blinds and air conditioning, and it can show Home Assistant cameras. Guests use them from a Smart Home button on the TV or from the phone remote, and you can have them switch on at check-in and off at checkout. Connect them through Home Assistant, or let the TV talk to Shelly devices directly.
Before you start
- The TV needs BetterSTR TV 1.0.204 or newer, and must be on Premium (Smart Home is a Premium feature, free during your trial). Cameras need 1.0.205 or newer. On the free plan your settings are kept but the TV won’t use them until it’s upgraded.
- The TV and your devices (and Home Assistant, if you use it) must be on the same network.
- For the phone and guidebook controls, switch on Phone remote for the TV.
Option 1: Home Assistant
The TV joins Home Assistant as a device, the same way an ESPHome gadget does. Home Assistant gets controls for the TV, and the TV gets the Home Assistant entities you choose.
- In your BetterSTR dashboard go to Devices → Android TV, edit the TV and open Home Automation → Home Assistant.
- Switch on Connect to Home Assistant and click Save device. An encryption key is created for this TV.
- Edit the TV again, open Home Assistant and copy the Encryption key (the eye button shows it, the copy button copies it).
- In Home Assistant, go to Settings → Devices & services. The TV appears under Discovered as an ESPHome device. Click Add and paste the key. It ends in
=, so make sure that's included. - Back in the BetterSTR dashboard, list the entities guests may use under Home Assistant entities this TV can use, one per line, for example
light.lounge,climate.loungeorcamera.front_door. Save. - Important: in Home Assistant, open the TV's device page, click the ESPHome link in Device info, then Configure (the cog), and tick Allow the device to perform Home Assistant actions. Without this the TV can show your devices but can't switch them.
Only the entities you list are ever shown to guests. In Home Assistant the TV also appears with its own controls: power, volume, Home, Guidebook and Back buttons, the app that's open, and the guest status. On paid plans it also shows the current guest's name, which you can use in your own Home Assistant automations.
Option 2: Shelly, without a hub
The TV can control Shelly relays and switches directly over your network, with no Home Assistant and no Shelly cloud account. It works with the current Shelly range: Plus, Pro, Gen3, Gen4 and the Wall Display. Older Gen1 devices are found by the scan but aren't supported yet.
- Edit the TV and open Home Automation → Shelly.
- Switch on Control Shelly devices directly and click Scan for Shelly devices. The TV searches its network, which takes up to a minute.
- For each output guests can use, tick it, give it the name guests will see (for example Deck lights), and choose whether it's a Light, Switch, Fan or Blind / cover. This sets the icon and colour on the TV.
- If you've set a password on the Shelly, enter it under Device password. For a password-protected device, save and then scan again to list its outputs.
- Click Save device.
What guests see
Once at least one device is set up, a Smart Home button appears on the TV home screen beside Guidebook. You can rename it with Home screen button name at the top of the Home Automation card. Guests press OK on a card to switch a light or switch on or off. Air conditioners open a panel where guests set the temperature and choose Cool, Heat, Fan, Dry or Auto, in Celsius or Fahrenheit to match the TV.
Cameras: a Home Assistant camera gets a card with a picture of what it sees, refreshed every few seconds while the Smart Home screen is open. Guests press OK to see it full screen, and Back to return. The picture comes from Home Assistant over the property network, so nothing extra needs setting up in Home Assistant.
Choose cameras carefully
Only add cameras guests are happy to see, such as the front door or driveway. Your listing platform has rules about disclosing cameras to guests, so check those before adding any camera to the TV.
With the phone remote on, guests also get a Smart Home tile on their phone with the same controls, including camera pictures (tap one to see it full screen). Everything happens over the property Wi-Fi, so it only works for people at the property.
Check-in and checkout
Open Home Automation → Check-in & checkout to choose what happens to each device when a guest arrives and leaves: turn a light on at check-in, set the heat pump to Heat, 21°C, and switch everything off at checkout. It runs at the booking's check-in and checkout times even when the TV is in standby. If the network or Home Assistant is down at that moment, the TV sends it as soon as they're back (within six hours).
Add it to your guidebook
In the guidebook editor, open the shortcode menu and choose TV & Smart Home:
{{tv_remote_button}}/{{tv_remote_url}}: open the phone remote.{{smart_home_button}}/{{smart_home_url}}: open the phone remote straight on the Smart Home controls.
They only work on the property Wi-Fi. On a property with no TV set up for them, they show nothing.
Troubleshooting
- Home Assistant says the encryption key is invalid: copy it again with the copy button. The key must include the
=at the end. - The TV doesn't appear under Discovered: check the TV and Home Assistant are on the same network. You can also add it by hand: Add integration → ESPHome, using the TV's IP address and port
6053. - Guests can see devices but nothing switches: tick Allow the device to perform Home Assistant actions in Home Assistant (step 6 above).
- A camera card says “Loading camera…”: the TV fetches camera pictures from Home Assistant on port
8123. If your Home Assistant uses a different port or only HTTPS, cameras won't load yet. Also check the camera works in Home Assistant itself. - A Shelly isn't found: make sure it's on the same network as the TV and is a Plus, Pro, Gen3, Gen4 or Wall Display model.