AV Scenes — Home Assistant Integration

Activity-based AV control for Home Assistant — an open-source alternative to Logitech Harmony and Roomie Remote.

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Overview

AV Scenes lets you control groups of devices (AV receivers, projectors, TVs, lights, outlets, covers) through named activities. Each activity executes a sequence of steps in order, with optional delays between them. When switching activities, devices that are no longer needed are turned off automatically; devices shared between activities stay on and are simply reconfigured.

Everything is configured through the Home Assistant UI — no YAML required.

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Features

Feature	Description
Multi-room	Independent activity management per room
11 step types	Power on/off, source, volume, sound mode, brightness, color temp, position, tilt, delay, any HA action
Smart activity switching	Devices no longer needed in the new activity are turned off automatically
Ordered shutdown	When an activity stops, devices are powered off in reverse start order, respecting the original delay_after values
Flexible delays	Configurable wait time (0–60 s) after each step
Race condition protection	Concurrent calls for the same room are serialized
4 entity platforms	Scene, Switch, Sensor, Select — one virtual HA device per room
Areas integration	Each virtual device links automatically to the matching HA Area
UI configuration	Full setup via the config flow and options flow
Persistence	Configuration survives HA restarts

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Supported Entity Types

Type	Domain	Controllable parameters
AV Receiver, Projector, TV, Media Player	media_player.*	On/off, input source, volume, sound mode
Lights	light.*	On/off, brightness, color temperature, transition
Outlets / Switches	switch.*	On/off
Covers (blinds, shutters)	cover.*	Open/close, position, tilt
Any HA entity	—	Via call_action step

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Installation

HACS (Recommended)

1. Open HACS in Home Assistant
2. Integrations → three dots top right → Custom repositories
3. Add repository:
   • Repository: https://github.com/mkshb/ha_av_scenes
   • Category: Integration
4. Find "AV Scenes" in the list and click Download
5. Restart Home Assistant

Manual

1. Download the latest release from Releases
2. Copy the custom_components/av_scenes folder into your config/custom_components/ directory
3. Restart Home Assistant

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Setup

1. Settings → Devices & Services → + Add Integration
2. Search for AV Scenes and select it
3. Click Configure to open the options flow

Add a Room

1. Choose an existing Home Assistant Area or enter a custom room name
2. Confirm — the room appears in the list immediately and a virtual device is created in the matching Area

Create an Activity

1. Select a room → Manage activities → Add new activity
2. Enter a name (e.g., "Watch Movie")
3. Add steps one by one — the wizard guides you through each step type

Step Types

Step type	Applicable device	Configurable parameters
Turn on device	Any	—
Turn off device	Any	—
Set input source	media_player	Source from the device's source list
Set volume	media_player	Volume 0–100 %
Set sound mode	media_player	Sound mode from the device's mode list
Set brightness / color	light	Brightness 0–100 %, color temperature (Mired), transition time
Set color temperature	light	Color temperature 153–500 Mired
Set position	cover	Position 0–100 %
Set tilt	cover	Tilt 0–100 %
Call action	Any	HA action (domain.action), optional JSON service data
Wait / Delay	—	Fixed delay 1–60 seconds

Every step except Wait / Delay accepts an optional delay_after (0–60 s) that is waited after the step executes.

After creating an activity you can edit, delete, reorder, copy, or rename both steps and activities at any time.

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Entities

For each configured room, AV Scenes creates one virtual HA device (linked to the matching Area) with four entities:

Select — select.<room>_szene

The primary control entity, visible in the HA Area dashboard under Other.

Displayed option	Meaning
Activity name (e.g., "Watch Movie")	That activity is active — select a different one to switch
—	Idle — no activity running; selecting this stops the current activity
⏳ Startet …	Activity is starting (read-only, cannot be selected)
⏹ Stoppt …	Activity is stopping (read-only, cannot be selected)

Selecting an activity name starts it. Selecting — stops the current activity.

Sensor — sensor.<room>_aktivitat

Reports the current activity lifecycle state with step-level progress.

State values: idle · starting · active · stopping

Attributes:

Attribute	Type	Description
activity_name	str | null	Name of the active activity, or null when idle
available_activities	list[str]	All configured activity names for this room
current_step	int	Index of the step currently executing (0 when idle)
total_steps	int	Total number of steps in the active activity
step_progress_pct	int	Execution progress 0–100 %
steps	list	Step summary (nr, type, entity, delay_after) — only present while an activity is active

Switch — switch.<room>_activity

Binary on/off showing whether an activity is running.

• on → an activity is active or transitioning
• off → idle
• turn_off → stops the current activity

Attributes: current_activity, available_activities

Scene — scene.<room>_<activity_name>

One HA scene entity per configured activity. Activating a scene starts the corresponding activity.

action: scene.turn_on
target:
  entity_id: scene.living_room_watch_movie

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Services

# Start an activity
action: av_scenes.start_activity
data:
  room: living_room   # internal room ID
  activity: watch_movie

# Stop the current activity (turns off all devices in reverse order)
action: av_scenes.stop_activity
data:
  room: living_room

# Reload configuration without restarting HA
action: av_scenes.reload

Room ID: lowercase version of the room name, spaces replaced with _. The exact ID is shown in the room list in the options flow.

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Shutdown Sequence

When an activity stops (either manually or because a new activity is starting), devices are powered off in the reverse of the start order. The delay_after value of each device's last step is respected, so dependent devices (e.g., an outlet that powers a TV) are turned off in the correct order with the correct timing.

Example — start order and delays:

#	Device	delay_after
1	Outlet	5 s
2	TV	3 s
3	Apple TV	0 s

Shutdown order:

1. Turn off Apple TV → wait 0 s
2. Turn off TV → wait 3 s
3. Turn off Outlet → wait 0 s

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Example Scenarios

Movie Night

1. Turn on receiver (delay_after: 3 s)
2. Turn on projector (delay_after: 10 s)
3. Turn on Blu-ray player (delay_after: 2 s)
4. Set receiver input to BD/DVD (delay_after: 1 s)
5. Set receiver volume to 65 %
6. Set cover to 0 % (closed)
7. Dim light to 5 % brightness

Smart Activity Switching — Apple TV → Sonos

Running activity "Apple TV" uses: Projector, Receiver, Apple TV New activity "Sonos" uses: Receiver, Sonos

What AV Scenes does automatically:

• Projector is turned off (not needed in Sonos)
• Apple TV is turned off (not needed in Sonos)
• Receiver stays on — input and volume are updated in place
• Sonos is turned on

Result: switch completes in 2–3 seconds instead of 20–30 seconds.

Dependent Devices (Outlet Before TV)

1. Turn on outlet (delay_after: 5 s) — TV now has power
2. Set cover to 60 % (delay_after: 1 s)
3. Dim light to 8 % (delay_after: 1 s)
4. Turn on TV (delay_after: 3 s) — boots correctly
5. Set TV input to HDMI 1 (delay_after: 1 s)
6. Turn on Apple TV

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Lovelace Examples

Area Dashboard

Because all entities belong to a virtual device with suggested_area set to the room name, they appear automatically in the HA Area dashboard. The Select entity shows up under Other and can be used to start, switch, and stop activities directly from the area card.

Entities Card

type: entities
title: Living Room
entities:
  - entity: select.living_room_szene
    name: Activity
  - entity: switch.living_room_activity
    name: Status
  - entity: sensor.living_room_aktivitat
    name: State

Progress Card (Markdown)

type: markdown
content: |
  ## Living Room
  **State:** {{ states('sensor.living_room_aktivitat') }}
  {% set act = state_attr('sensor.living_room_aktivitat', 'activity_name') %}
  {% if act %}
  **Activity:** {{ act }}
  **Progress:** {{ state_attr('sensor.living_room_aktivitat', 'step_progress_pct') }} %
  (step {{ state_attr('sensor.living_room_aktivitat', 'current_step') }}
  of {{ state_attr('sensor.living_room_aktivitat', 'total_steps') }})
  {% endif %}

Automation — Start Activity at a Fixed Time

automation:
  - alias: "Movie night at 8 PM"
    trigger:
      - platform: time
        at: "20:00:00"
    condition:
      - condition: state
        entity_id: binary_sensor.someone_home
        state: "on"
    action:
      - action: av_scenes.start_activity
        data:
          room: living_room
          activity: watch_movie

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Known Limitations

• Input source selection requires the source_list attribute on the media_player entity
• Sound mode selection requires the sound_mode_list attribute on the media_player entity
• Cover tilt control requires the cover.set_cover_tilt_position service to be available

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Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch: git checkout -b feature/my-feature
3. Commit your changes: git commit -m 'Add my feature'
4. Push the branch: git push origin feature/my-feature
5. Open a Pull Request

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License & Support

• License: MIT
• Bugs & feature requests: GitHub Issues
• Changelog: CHANGELOG.md