Jump to content
C4 Forums | Control4

Setting up voice announcements


Recommended Posts

No that agent has been around for a loooong time that way.

 

That said, I missed you are using Sonos, and that adds some oddities. As we rarely use Sonos SPEAKERS and also have announcements I'll have to look at the details before I can comment further on some of the how and whats.

Thank you.  I figured out the main piece of the puzzle.  I can now get the siren.wav to play.   I found another post regarding Sonos and announcements.  Fire/Medic had a suggestion for somebody, though a few years back seems to still work:

 

"If you're using a .wav file add it to your announcements as normal but do not add any rooms.  You can also use mp3 or other supported sonos formats but you have to manually add those to the /media/announcements folder of your controller. 

 

I believe you have to manually type in the full name of the audio file, i.e. doorbell.mp3, and the volume level."

 

I think this is the route my initial integrator set it up, though I don't see those media/announcements folders for my controllers on my network anymore to manually add it if I had .mp3's, as was the case in the past.  That said, since I'm using .wav's, I can add them through the Agent.   So now, my programming looks like this:

 

->Set Variables->Kitchen Volume to the value of the Kitchen->Current_Volume

->Play announcement file siren.wav at volume 60 on Kitchen->Kitchen Sonos

->Delay 10 Seconds

->Set Kitchen->Current_Volume to the value of Variables->Kitchen Volume

 

All seems to work fine now.  Only issue is if Sonos is playing a song, the siren.wav plays, then Sonos will come back, but either plays a different song, or sometimes won't come back online (seems like a reconnection issue).  Not sure if there's a variable to pause the state of current song (similarly to what I'm doing with volume), then resume play after the delay?   If not, not a big deal, it'll be rare that we're listening to Sonos when such an announcement would go off.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites


https://www.houselogix.com/shop/advanced-announcements-driver 

 

check this out as well. 

 

sonos does add some interesting components to this. If i remember right offically only sonos speakers are supported. Im trying a few things out with a snapshot driver, for a door bell playing random files. Ive seen the same symptoms that if we are listening to a sonos source it will come back on to a different song or not play. This has been more with pandora and i think the way pandora works is part of the issue. As i trouble shoot this i will let you know how it goes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

https://www.houselogix.com/shop/advanced-announcements-driver 

 

check this out as well. 

 

sonos does add some interesting components to this. If i remember right offically only sonos speakers are supported. Im trying a few things out with a snapshot driver, for a door bell playing random files. Ive seen the same symptoms that if we are listening to a sonos source it will come back on to a different song or not play. This has been more with pandora and i think the way pandora works is part of the issue. As i trouble shoot this i will let you know how it goes.

Thank you.  I was looking at that a few months back.   I might have to check it out and play around with it myself, some pretty cool features.

 

I can confirm that it's within Pandora when it comes back to a different song, as that's what I listen to mostly and what I was using when testing it out.   I did also try it out with TuneIn for Sonos (not the C4 version), and it did a similar thing where it stopped for a while after the announcement, but ultimately came back.  With Pandora, it would come right back, just at the start of different song (as if I hit skip or started Pandora off fresh), but on occasion, it wouldn't come back at all, or briefly and then shut off after about 10 seconds.  With TuneIn, it would come back, but was taking about 20-25 seconds for it to reconnect sometimes to the TuneIn station after the announcement played.  I'll mess around with Spotify, Sirius and Amazon as I have them setup with Sonos too, to see how they respond. 

 

What I'm curious about with Pandora is that I can hit Pause, for however long I want, then play and it'll come back to the same song in the same spot.  I would think that there could be a way to pause it in the programming before the announcement, then resume it after the announcement goes off, but maybe not because it's switching off Pandora to play a local file, then going back to Pandora.   I'm just not sure what programming to try for a pause then resume in between the announcement to test that out.

 

I'm trying it out on the Play3 in my kitchen, and it also works fine in my home office on the Play5.   I also have 4 Sonos Connects on the receivers in different rooms of my house, but haven't tried it out on those and from what I was told in the past I don't think it'll work with those. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think this is going to be a limitation of Pandora. Playing the announcement technically ends the stream and starts a new one. Other music services since they are track based they will continue where they left off. Pandora will see this as a quit and restart of the stream and will start a new song. you should be able to manually do this yourself for testing. In the sonos app select and play Pandora. Then select and play the announcement, then go back to Pandora. It should react the same.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...

Evening to all!

 

Was looking for a bit of help on this topic.   I created a wav file.  I then created an announcement with that wave file selected and chose the speakers to play it on.   As seen here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/37871678@N00/23136687331/in/dateposted-public/

 

Here it is in the programming when the door is opened with her code....

https://www.flickr.com/photos/37871678@N00/22706676737/in/dateposted-public/

 

Even when I just execute the announcement, nothing happens.   Where am I going wrong?

 

As always, I greatly appreciate the communities help in automating!   

Thanks,

 

Joe

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Are you getting the notifications?

If you are - please list what you have for amplification - a common issue with announcements is simply that they are done playing before the amplifier goes on.

If not - I'll have to know what lock model/brand you have - because the issue will be at the trigger or 'user is xxxxx"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

delay won't help as it would simply delay when the audio is sent - my guess is you have the POWER amp version, not the matrix amp. And it's set to sensing most likely. This would require a number of setup changes to work right - though you could put a loop in the terminals on the back (and set trigger to on) alternatively or to test.

 

There IS one other possibility - namely that the wav file isn't the correct type. (bitrate etc)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

perfect, thx!

 

So I played music thru airplay on my phone and opened the door with her code.....10 sec later (the delay i added) and the volume jumps to 100 (where i had set the wav to play).   The wav did not play however.   Does this sound like what you are thinking with the wrong wav type?

 

does it need to be bitrate or simple?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sorry got side-tracked:

 

Link to known working doorbell wav file:

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/fqg6gfx9mvclqj3/5%20Bells%20C4%20edit.wav?dl=0

 

Proper settings:

 

11025Hz, mono with 32-bit float.

 

One program that can easily edit your existing files (and is free!) is Audacity don't worry too much about the float, there are dropdown menues to change the Hz and stereo/mono settings, then you just export as wav file again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The only thing I have running is music thru my phone via bluetooth or airplay...thru the music bridge.   Might need to check to see if I have cables running from where they need to run to....?    Is there a 'how to' on setting those up you could me too?  

 

I appreciate you guys aiding in my enjoyment of my home!  thx!

 

Joe

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ah that would possibly explain a thing or two. It sounds like there is no current connectionf from any C4 controller to your C4 amplifier. Without that, announcement's wouldn't do a thing.

Check whatever C4 controllers you have *HCxx) and see if there are stereo audio cables running from ti to the Control4 amplifier (or ask your dealer) - even if there are, the question remains if they are there in programming.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.