I can’t find a clear answer to this question. There’s a statement in the answers that says, " it is at the center of your setup connecting lights, Motion Sensors, and Transformers together", but I have light switches, the outdoor spot-cam, motion sensors now, and they seem to connect together, and I only have the base station. I’m just not clear on what the bridge does that the base does not. At this point I have: controller, co/smoke alarms, keypads, ge smartswitch controlling lights, range extender, door/window sensors, garage door sensor, motion detectors, floodlight camera, wired cameras and front door keypad. Can you tell me what capabilites I’d add by adding the bridge?
Glad you asked @RingLow! The Ring Smart Lighting Bridge is required to communicate between Ring Smart Lighting devices and your home network for operating the Ring app Smart Features associated with them. This help center article about the Bridge, explains in more detail how this works.
To avoid confusion with the Alarm Base Station you mentioned, Ring Smart Lighting devices and Bridge operate independently from your Alarm system and Doorbells/ Cameras, in which the only relation is they utilize your wifi network and Ring app. Thus, the Ring Alarm branded devices do not and cannot use the Smart Lighting Bridge, and the Smart Lighting branded devices do not use the Alarm Base Station. To clarify in terms of Works With Ring smart switches; those listed have been deemed compatible with Alarm, however, these compatible integrations and Ring Smart Lighting are not related. If you are interested in an alike integration, Alexa is always a great option.
Conveniently enough, if Ring Smart Lighting, Doorbells/ Cameras, and Alarm is installed at one location, tons of great smart automation features become available in the Ring app, between compatible devices. I hope this helps! 