Voice Pod

[TexasBill]

I think it has a great coolness factor, but the only way I could see myself using this is if I lived in my house alone.

Maybe it's inherent shyness, but I'd feel kind of stupid talking to the VoicePod with other people around.

But that's just me.

RyanE

They never had shyness issues on Star Trek talking to the computer. Why should you?

[TexasBill]

A single voicepod is intended for a single room as far as some of it's default commands are concerned (such as selecting channels.

Beyond that see it as an immense keypad with lots of commands in that you can program what those commands do much like keypad buttons' date=' custom buttons etc etc.

There's much more to it too, such as text to speech, both computervoice and sentence building and more still...

As for Mics, they are not REQUIRED and you would still do ONE mic for ONE voicepod - it's not intended to have several connected to it.

This is OPTIONAL for large rooms or setups where you do not want the unit seen. Wiring would be done using coax or cat cable preferably.

The other i/o connections are again optional - one is for firmware updates, one is the mic, the other is for stereo out should you want to send it's feedback to say a C4 amp or matrix - to have it announce what it's doing through there instead OR to use it's myriad tts and sentence building options through there (ranging from built-in weather reports and forecasts to have it announce that upon "lockdown" what security measures have been set in action and confirmed. (examples - announce when locks are closed, security systems armed, police panic raised etc...)

Yes there are dealers who test-drove it

Perhaps I'll elaborate a bit more when I have a moment - and/or fire away with questions.[/quote']

Awesome... now more questions. I have a open floor plan 16x50 main fl, a lofted second floor 16-30 and a lower level 16x50... am I to assume that I need 4 of these things? i don't want to see them nor do i want to carry them around.

could two voice pod talk to the system at the same time? ie I'm in the bedroom and someone is in the gym...

I am really excited about this thing!

My understanding is that if two voice pods "hear" your voice the one that receives your voice the clearest/closest takes over and ignores the other one.

I have one on order. If and when I get it, I will post how well it works.

[Cyknight]

Amount of pods depends on number of locations you want to control "fully".

On top of that the unit itself is limited to about 500sq feet, less if open space (although I've tested in larger areas and still worked).

External mics of course improve this.

In the end it all depends on the acoustics and possible obstructions - in your case luvness, three and two with external (better) mics may do the trick as far as range goes - but it's a little hard to judge based on text alone.

And yes in case of multiples the units get set to "work" together to use the best reception one.

Two people talking to two at the VERY same time isn't really an issue as long as the two are separated enough - ie both cannot hear both people clearly.

Essentially each voicepod has it's own driver and works as it's own "remote" - intercommunication as such is not there other than to prevent multiple units to try and do what one person states.

[d.jakes]

I'll have one tomorrow. I'll post after I get it up and working

[ILoveC4]

I wonder...is this something that could be mounted behind a TV? I'm trying to think of a good place to put it without wires hanging around everywhere (and having it hidden).

[Cyknight]

Putting it behind a TV would block reception on the mic - but there are nice near invisible ceiling/wall mount mics out there than can be hooked up to it.

[luvness]

Putting it behind a TV would block reception on the mic - but there are nice near invisible ceiling/wall mount mics out there than can be hooked up to it.

How are folks retro fitting these? You have to run cable from the voice pod to your control so that you can incorporate your speakers for audio. what is the max number of mics that can be connected to one voice pod? im thinking bout having 2 mics one upstairs the hub on the main floor and one on the lower level.

Lastly, does this thing have voice recognition? will it take commands from guest? I have some concerns about the alarm system shutting off if an intruder where to come in and say "VP disarm alarm"

Sorry if my questions sound silly, but I have literary just started thinking about how I want my system to work after having and playing with it for 6 months. I did my first program yesterday, response to triggers.... I cant wait until I really get better at doing this rather than having to call a dealer everything I have an idea. c4 is a really cool product :cool:.

Question for the dealers... it is poor etiquette to use a different dealer for programming? I have seen a few guys on here talk about some really cool stuff and would like to work with them is this a nono while keeping your installer on?

[Cyknight]

1) They are ZigBee (Also WiFi later to come) with built in mics and speaker so retro is certainly possible.

2) One VoicePod is one mic - external or internal. Again they are intended for a per room/area/zone piece - they have lots of commands that can be used to control thing outside of the area they are in, but some defaults such as naming channels to turn TV on or room off etc - this is tied to the ONE room.

3) It has both basic speech recognition AND voice recognition option. Up tp 30 "custom commands" based on voice can be learned and programmed to. But voice is not 100% in that someone with a similar timbre and "accent" can speak the same command and it still triggers.

4) From a security perspective. for starters security options are off by default but they CAN be activated. DISARMING security through the unit is NOT recommended any more than it is through say a single button press.

5) Should you truly want a disarm using voice/commands I would suggest you a) don't use the term disarm do a multi-step setting using two or more commands, say for instance VP --- "disengage alarm" then VP --- "confirm disarm" then VP --- "affirmative"

[luvness]

thanks Cyknight

[Cyknight]

Oh as a funky side note - on the multistep commands for disarm, you could actually have the voicepod talk back to you to ask for the next step (built in phrase building and/or TTS). Sort of cool actually - set that up as a test last night.

[d.jakes]

Cyknight - I have one and ofcourse a ton of programming questions..... have you been able to post of their forums? It wont allow me to post. But they are pretty slick....

[Cyknight]

I don't think the forums are open to end-users at least as of yet. As a beta tester, yes I can.

I'll be happy to answer what I can, or pass it on - just create a thread.

[d.jakes]

I work for a dealer so I have access to the forums, but for some reason it will not let me post..... First question... Sirius XM, how have you integrated that? any idea how to make it work with a sonos piece?

[d.jakes]

Oh as a funky side note - on the multistep commands for disarm, you could actually have the voicepod talk back to you to ask for the next step (built in phrase building and/or TTS). Sort of cool actually - set that up as a test last night.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Vae Victis

How did you do this? I got it to ask for a yes or no response to whatever you are asking it to do, but how do you get it to act on that yes/no response?

[Cyknight]

XM works no different than TV - when you "say" the channel it sends numbers - so through programming you do a "select source" option if that source isn't on yet, from there IF that source accepts discrete channel selection through numbers it gets done.

If it doesn't you'd have to program the appropriate way to do so, which is a fair bit of work.

As for the "confirmation", you program the voicepod on the first and second command to trigger a session etc, then I used a custom command for each step.

[d.jakes]

Can you email me a copy of the programming you use? I can't get it to do anything after it hears the yes or no conformation......

I.E.

1. ask voicepod to secure house

2. Voicepod responds with "are you sure you want to arm stay"

3. Voicepod waits for yes/no response

4. Respond yes or no

This is we're I get stuck. I can't get it to act on the yes/no response

[Cyknight]

It'll have to wait until late weekend but sure.

[d.jakes]

Thanks

[d.jakes]

Cyknight - Were you gonna post the programming or email it to me.....

Thanks

[Cyknight]

Sorry, had family pass away so been a little distracted. I'll get it out there asap.

[d.jakes]

Oh - hey, my respects......I'm sorry

[Cyknight]

No worries.

What I did for the security was this.

3 Custom commands.

*Disarm security (1)

*Proceed (2)

*Affirmative (3)

1 Variable

*Disarm sequence (number)

1 Timer

*Disarm cancel (2 minutes)

When Voicepod Custom - Command 1

Variable Disarm Sequence +1

Reset Timer Disarm Cancel

Speak Sentence xxx,xxx,xxx

Delay 500 ms

Start Session

---Not sure what exact words I used to build, let alone the numbers for them.

---What this does is that after I use " Disarm Security", it asks me if I want to proceed, and starts a new session (VoicePod set to use custom menu as initial menu)

---At this point I say "Proceed"

When Voicepod Custom - Command 2

Variable Disarm Sequence +1

Speak Sentence xxx,xxx,xxx

Delay 500 ms

Start Session

---Same as above but I say "Affirmative"

When Voicepod Custom - Command 3

Variable Disarm Sequence +1

Speak Sentence xxx,xxx,xxx

Delay 500 ms

IF variable Disarm Sequence = 3

....Here I program my alarm disarm, in my case using a trick for disarming a Concord 4 variable without coding I will NOT share (sorry but here no means no), or you send disarm and the code with 250ms delays in between every digit.

---So the sentence here just tells me - now disarming system and if the total number on the variable is correct it disarms.

On timer expiry program the variable to set to 0

Again, I do want to point out that I do NOT recommend disarming security through any form of programming - ESPECIALLY not using the normal disarm and code implementation as it essentially makes the code readable for anyone able to connect to the system with Composer (HE and Pro).

But this same sort of thing could be done for other functions as well that you would want to confirm in some way to prevent accidental triggering.

Note that I used custom commands in my scenario but any default command could be used for this, or using HouseLogix bespoke service these triggers could be set in a customized main menu.

[me23]

I decided to ask question in this thread instead of the Xbox thread. If you want to centralize voice pod in an equip room, can you use cat6 with the external mic accessory?

[Cyknight]

I wouldn't recommend it. While cat6 is easy enough to use for common analogue audio it would likely cause some issues with sensitivity here. On top of that, placement is key here and unless that Cat6 is in a sweet-spot...

Also, consider WHY you want it centralized - Voicepod is essentially a per room unit (at least for the more detailed things) and the main use for moving it to a rack is to use a more hidden mic.

If you want the announcements over the speakers, turn things around and use the Cat to send audio back.

[me23]

OK that makes sense. Thanks. By the way, what's the price of one?