AidenL Posted February 22, 2018 Share Posted February 22, 2018 I have a HC 800 and a Russound CAA 66 amp with a Sonos Connect currently, and 5 zones of speakers around the house. We are primarily an Apple household, I'm an Apple Music subscriber, and Id like to use Siri ideally, but I'm seeing on here that Homebridge would be a bit trickier to run with. So, I bought an Echo Dot today and think I'll run with Alexa. Just about to get a 4sight subscription and will have my dealer around next week. Id like some guidance as to whats the best way to set this up. I'm Airplaying to rooms at the moment using Shairbridge., and that's from Apple Music. So, I assume I'd need to switch to Spotify to get best use of music around the house. I can live with that, if its a better solution, and I can see that C4 are embracing Echo integration as its more open than the Apple ecosystem. I've read on here where its recommended to wire a Dot into an amp input? What is that for? Is it so it becomes a source similiar to my Sonos Connect right now? If so, I assume I could only play one instance of music through the whole house, that it wouldn't be possible to have different music in different rooms, unless the Dot was one source, music from my NAS was another, and maybe Tunein as another? Is it possible, if I position Dots in each room / zone, to ask Alexa to play each of those three sources at the same time? If I wire more Dots in as sources into the amp, will it mean I could have more sources , but would that mean Id need multiple Amazon accounts? And how would Spotify Connect fit in with this. Its all quite confusing ! So I would appreciate your advice. Thanks in advance. Russound caa66_man_rev1.pdf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AidenL Posted February 23, 2018 Author Share Posted February 23, 2018 Anyone have any thoughts on this, or am I actually asking silly questions with obvious answers? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sailz Posted February 23, 2018 Share Posted February 23, 2018 There is not an easy solution to this type of integration currently. I have done the following which works...ok I have echo dots's in keys rooms throughout my home. I have a newer control4 project with EA5 etc. I use spotify and the integration for spotify connect with Control4 works well. I use a third party skill called connect control to use the echo to start a spotify song or playlist and then "transfer" that song to a spotify connect source. I have a spotify connect source for all zones in my project with the audio sensing turned on. What this allows me to do is ask "Alexa play 70's smash hits playlist" then say "alexa transfer to device "x"" the "x" device are the different spotify connect drivers within control4. One for kitchen, bedroom etc. Using that automatically turns on the audio in that zone to a specific volume level. The tricky thing is you cannot say transfer to "kitchen" as the third party skill numbers the devices (They change occasionally which is a pain). So you say transfer to device "3" and you know that is the kitchen for example. Also because of the spotify connect sources are driver based they often drop off, the only way to reactivate is go into the spotify app on your phone and select the devices again, this will then allow the connect control skill to find them. I am looking into getting the EPIC driver to make adding additional zones to sources, or changing the volume, but I still believe the limitation is the stunted spotify connect integration with the echo's. I am hoping spotify adds this feature to their native integration, but I am not holding my breath. Your other option as you have described is to connect a dummy echo dot into you audio matrix. This would allow you to say "alexa play 70's smash hits on "control4 echo"" with audio sensing it would then automatically use your control4 connected echo to a specific zone. Again this is not perfect as potentially you need a lot of echo dots for various zones, or look at the EPIC driver for further features. In addition the echo dot does not have a digital out, so you would be limited to a 3.5mm aux cable which may degrade sound quality. The google home products have an optical out, but are not as well integrated with Control4. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AidenL Posted February 25, 2018 Author Share Posted February 25, 2018 On 23/2/2018 at 8:27 PM, Sailz said: There is not an easy solution to this type of integration currently. I have done the following which works...ok I have echo dots's in keys rooms throughout my home. I have a newer control4 project with EA5 etc. I use spotify and the integration for spotify connect with Control4 works well. I use a third party skill called connect control to use the echo to start a spotify song or playlist and then "transfer" that song to a spotify connect source. I have a spotify connect source for all zones in my project with the audio sensing turned on. What this allows me to do is ask "Alexa play 70's smash hits playlist" then say "alexa transfer to device "x"" the "x" device are the different spotify connect drivers within control4. One for kitchen, bedroom etc. Using that automatically turns on the audio in that zone to a specific volume level. The tricky thing is you cannot say transfer to "kitchen" as the third party skill numbers the devices (They change occasionally which is a pain). So you say transfer to device "3" and you know that is the kitchen for example. Also because of the spotify connect sources are driver based they often drop off, the only way to reactivate is go into the spotify app on your phone and select the devices again, this will then allow the connect control skill to find them. I am looking into getting the EPIC driver to make adding additional zones to sources, or changing the volume, but I still believe the limitation is the stunted spotify connect integration with the echo's. I am hoping spotify adds this feature to their native integration, but I am not holding my breath. Your other option as you have described is to connect a dummy echo dot into you audio matrix. This would allow you to say "alexa play 70's smash hits on "control4 echo"" with audio sensing it would then automatically use your control4 connected echo to a specific zone. Again this is not perfect as potentially you need a lot of echo dots for various zones, or look at the EPIC driver for further features. In addition the echo dot does not have a digital out, so you would be limited to a 3.5mm aux cable which may degrade sound quality. The google home products have an optical out, but are not as well integrated with Control4. Thanks for that. I guess its overcomplicating things, and that nearly always leads to trouble ! I suppose the new native Spotify Connect would be simplest, if I can drag myself away from Apple Music. The setup you have seems complicated, though as you say, it does work, but I wish it could be simpler. I thought HA was supposed to make life simpler ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msgreenf Posted February 25, 2018 Share Posted February 25, 2018 Thanks for that. I guess its overcomplicating things, and that nearly always leads to trouble ! I suppose the new native Spotify Connect would be simplest, if I can drag myself away from Apple Music. The setup you have seems complicated, though as you say, it does work, but I wish it could be simpler. I thought HA was supposed to make life simpler !Considering Apple doesn't like to play with most other people that doesn't make things simpler Sent from my BBB100-1 using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AidenL Posted February 25, 2018 Author Share Posted February 25, 2018 2 minutes ago, msgreenf said: Considering Apple doesn't like to play with most other people that doesn't make things simpler Sent from my BBB100-1 using Tapatalk I agree, thats why Im thinking of going back to Spotify, if its easier to use on C4. And I guess it is with the Connect integration. Regarding Alexa controlling my Watch TV, Watch Bluray etc, will all that happen automatically when my dealer installs the Voice Scene driver? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msgreenf Posted February 25, 2018 Share Posted February 25, 2018 I agree, thats why Im thinking of going back to Spotify, if its easier to use on C4. And I guess it is with the Connect integration. Regarding Alexa controlling my Watch TV, Watch Bluray etc, will all that happen automatically when my dealer installs the Voice Scene driver? Nope it will not be automatic. You'll have to make boys scenes and program them individuallySent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AidenL Posted February 25, 2018 Author Share Posted February 25, 2018 9 minutes ago, msgreenf said: Nope it will not be automatic. You'll have to make boys scenes and program them individually Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk Voice scenes I presume? Job for my dealer then? So every watch or listen function in each room, would need a new scene created? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Home Theater Advisors Posted February 25, 2018 Share Posted February 25, 2018 Voice scenes I presume? Job for my dealer then? So every watch or listen function in each room, would need a new scene created? Correct. If you have composer HE, your dealer can add the voice scenes driver and you can create and program as many voice scenes as you’d like on your own Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AidenL Posted February 25, 2018 Author Share Posted February 25, 2018 41 minutes ago, Home Theater Advisors said: Correct. If you have composer HE, your dealer can add the voice scenes driver and you can create and program as many voice scenes as you’d like on your own Thank you. Is it easy to do that? Im pretty newbie at Composer usage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevestobo Posted February 25, 2018 Share Posted February 25, 2018 I have one echo dot in my rack called house echo, I then have a scene for each room as in kitchen echo, bedroom echo etc, I then tell any of my other echos dotted about the house that I want to start playing music, I just need to say turn on kitchen echo or bedroom echo etc, which turns the zone on and uses the house echo as it’s audio source, I then tell the echo to play whatever music I want (Spotify and Amazon music) on house echo, it works great but you do have to use 2 voice commands. But it means I only have to have one echo in the rack and only have 2 commands to remember. Hope this makes sense Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AidenL Posted February 25, 2018 Author Share Posted February 25, 2018 2 minutes ago, Stevestobo said: I have one echo dot in my rack called house echo, I then have a scene for each room as in kitchen echo, bedroom echo etc, I then tell any of my other echos dotted about the house that I want to start playing music, I just need to say turn on kitchen echo or bedroom echo etc, which turns the zone on and uses the house echo as it’s audio source, I then tell the echo to play whatever music I want (Spotify and Amazon music) on house echo, it works great but you do have to use 2 voice commands. But it means I only have to have one echo in the rack and only have 2 commands to remember. Hope this makes sense That sounds like a good solution actually. Thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevestobo Posted February 26, 2018 Share Posted February 26, 2018 And the best part is the Echo Dot icon on the T3’s Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Home Theater Advisors Posted February 26, 2018 Share Posted February 26, 2018 Thank you. Is it easy to do that? Im pretty newbie at Composer usage.If you are comfortable with Control4 ‘programming’, it is Very easy. In the properties of the driver, you create and name a new voice scene. The you go to the programming tab and add whatever programming you want that voice command to trigger (ie, shades, macros, tv, music, etc) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shivam Paw Posted February 26, 2018 Share Posted February 26, 2018 18 hours ago, AidenL said: Thank you. Is it easy to do that? Im pretty newbie at Composer usage. Very easy to do, don’t worry about that part Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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