Apple TV

localDeclared from the vendor's protocol, never probed hereby ALYT

Apple TVs in your rooms: power, volume, open an app, and show a camera on the screen, all on your own network.

What it adds to a house

adds speakers and switches.

How a person connects it

Method: pair. Be in front of the Apple TV: it shows a code when ALYT connects, once for control and once for AirPlay, each asked for in turn.

Field	Kind	Required
Apple TV’s address on your network (`address`)	text	yes

What it can look for

Nothing: it does not look for things on the network.

What stops working when it is disconnected

The Apple TV stops answering and can no longer show a camera.

The descriptor

The same object the console and the phone render from, served for a program at /connectors/apple_tv.json.

{
  "source": "built-in",
  "visibility": "public",
  "listed": true,
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "docsUrl": "https://developers.alyt.com/connectors/apple_tv",
  "kind": "APPLE_TV",
  "name": "Apple TV",
  "icon": "tv",
  "promise": "Apple TVs in your rooms: power, volume, open an app, and show a camera on the screen, all on your own network.",
  "connectivity": "local",
  "brings": [
    "speaker",
    "switch"
  ],
  "connect": {
    "method": "pair",
    "help": "Be in front of the Apple TV: it shows a code when ALYT connects, once for control and once for AirPlay, each asked for in turn.",
    "fields": [
      {
        "key": "address",
        "label": "Apple TV's address on your network",
        "kind": "text",
        "secret": false,
        "required": true,
        "placeholder": "192.168.1.167"
      }
    ]
  },
  "discovery": null,
  "disconnect": {
    "consequence": "The Apple TV stops answering and can no longer show a camera."
  },
  "author": {
    "kind": "alyt",
    "name": "ALYT",
    "url": "https://alyt.com"
  },
  "verification": {
    "level": "declared"
  }
}

The guide

Apple TV connects over the local network and gives a household control of power, volume, app launching, what is playing, and camera viewing on the TV screen. It is a speaker and a switch, and it stays local: the home keeps working when the cloud is down. A DEV key works in a sandbox, while a LIVE key works only for its own connector.

What the connector does

An Apple TV is a room device and a screen for a camera. In a household, it can:

turn on and sleep
change volume
open an app
show a camera stream on the TV
report what is playing

It does not discover devices automatically here, and it does not depend on the cloud.

How to connect

Connection uses pair. The person connecting must stand in front of the Apple TV and use the address on the local network. The connector asks for address, which is required.

During pairing, the Apple TV shows a code on screen. The person enters that code when ALYT asks. For Apple TV, the device shows two codes in turn: one for control and one for AirPlay. Both prompts appear during setup, and both need to be completed.

What it exposes

The connector exposes the device as a room speaker and switch.

As a speaker, the household can use:

volume control
the current playing state
app launching

As a switch, the household can use power-style control:

wake
sleep

It also supports showing a camera on the TV. That is the main camera-view use case for this connector.

What it cannot do

This connector does not advertise discovery in the descriptor, so the address must be provided at connect time. It also has a limited purpose: it is for Apple TV devices on the local network, not for remote access.

Disconnecting has a clear result: the Apple TV stops answering and can no longer show a camera.

What a household should expect

For people in the home, the experience is local and private to the household network. The TV shows the camera stream directly. When used for camera viewing, the TV is the display endpoint, not the source of the camera.

If the TV is asleep, ALYT can wake it. If the TV is unplugged from the network, it cannot be reached until it comes back.

When it fails

Check these first:

the address is correct
the Apple TV is on the same network as ALYT
the person is in front of the TV during pairing
the on-screen code is entered in the right step
both Apple TV pairing prompts are completed, since control and AirPlay are paired separately
the device is awake enough to answer on the network

If disconnecting happens or pairing does not complete, reconnect from the start and confirm the TV is reachable at its network address. If the TV no longer answers, camera viewing also stops until the connection is restored.

Last updated September 4, 2026