Comment by mjg59

I picked up a http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B017CKVG7G a couple of months ago - it's pretty terrible in terms of build quality and range, but it's a simple Bluetooth LE protocol for full RGB control of the lights, and you can run multiple sets off a single machine with a bluetooth 4.0 controller. Rather than using a custom protocol I bridged it to something that emulates enough of a Hue hub for the Amazon Echo to let me control it. I don't know how the economics compare, but there's plenty of avenues to explore here.