Amazon Echo Integration w/C4 Amp

[CFUG]

Complete beginner with Alexa so be kind.  What is the general scheme meaning how are components arranged in order to call-up music in a particular zone from just one Echo/Echo Dot?  Using a C4 amp and just one dot located in a kitchen, how would I instruct music to play in another zone other than the kitchen?  All I understand at that the moment is that a Dot can be used as a source for a C4 amp input.  How would that connection be made if Echo is some distance away from amp and how would I instruct the amp to route that input to multiple zones?  Multiple Dots?  Epic Driver??

[zaphod]

There are probably multiple ways but you could use a 3.5mm to RCA jack to go from an Echo to the RCA inputs of your amp at your "rack".  You then use the groups capability but in this instance the group that you want to playback to would be at your amp/matrix.  Then it becomes like any C4 audio playback and you could add on other zones, etc.  You could probably also use analog splitters to feed multiple zones, or use C4 to do that.

https://www.theverge.com/2017/8/29/16219978/amazon-echo-multi-room-music-playback-how-to

[CFUG]

So, I connect a Dot to spare input on the C4 amp.  I'm sensing that interconnect cable is going to be a coax or a CAT5, long run back to my rack from where I place the Dot.  Is there not a way to get one Dot to accept the voice command and somehow link that Dot to another local Dot placed a few feet from the amp?

[zaphod]

You will be using two Echo Dots - one for playback at your amp and one (or one in every room) to accept your voice commands.  So you won't need a long cable at all as one Dot will bet located at your rack/amp (but I don't know that the Echo Dot was made for mounting in a rack) .  In the Kitchen you will say something like "Alexa, play the album Darkness on the Edge of Town in the rack" and that will start the playback.  Then you will just have to use C4 to select the right inputs for your kitchen which may take a second command to Alexa that kicks off a C4 command.

 

[CFUG]

msgreenf reply (year ago)

No. The driver is just a no control driver to enable an input on an amp/controller.

Only the dot you are talking to can reply/play.  

So if you want to have a dot physically in the kitchen, you have to have some way to get the audio output to an amp

 Is this old info?  Still sounds like the Echo being talked to has no ability to talk to other Echo units.  I also read that running a long-ass cable out of a Dot to the C4 amp doesn't really work well either.  After finding that 2016 thread where OP wonders what the point of using Echo for multi-zone music is, I'm in the same boat.

[msgreenf]

You are trying to put a square peg in a round hole

Sent from my BBB100-1 using Tapatalk

[CFUG]

4 hours ago, zaphod said:

There are probably multiple ways but you could use a 3.5mm to RCA jack to go from an Echo to the RCA inputs of your amp at your "rack".  You then use the groups capability but in this instance the group that you want to playback to would be at your amp/matrix.  Then it becomes like any C4 audio playback and you could add on other zones, etc.  You could probably also use analog splitters to feed multiple zones, or use C4 to do that.

https://www.theverge.com/2017/8/29/16219978/amazon-echo-multi-room-music-playback-how-to

I guess I should have looked at your link.  So, it would appear that Dot V2 might allow more than one zone to simultaneously play the same material.  This would help in areas not served by the C4 amp but are served by an AVR.  More importantly, this should allow the Dot placed next to the C4 amp to feed-out whatever was commanded to play at the listening Dot.  Does all this sound about right?

[CFUG]

3 minutes ago, msgreenf said:

You are trying to put a square peg in a round hole

Sent from my BBB100-1 using Tapatalk
 

Not at all.  I've read a few threads now where folks want the same thing.  I'm not running 50' of cable from my kitchen to the rack in a basement.  I do see where Dots can and will play the same material requested at one Dot at other Dots.

[msgreenf]

Not at all.  I've read a few threads now where folks want the same thing.  I'm not running 50' of cable from my kitchen to the rack in a basement.  I do see where Dots can and will play the same material requested at one Dot at other Dots.

They do that now. But didn't a year ago. But feeding that back to c4 is meh. Not worth the hassle and poor audio quality. If you want voice controlled audio get a Sonos or heos and have good quality

Sent from my BBB100-1 using Tapatalk

[CFUG]

I see.  Well, I probably will agree with you.  This could be why I've waited this long to try Echo.  Thanks for your reply.

[JerryR]

I haven't started this integration personally yet, but I have been messing with the Echo's in my house.  One attached to the C4 Amp and then as many as you'd like throughout the house to feed commands (aka audio output) to the amp.  This is pretty simple and straight forward.  Here is my general question.  Anyone have an idea how to get the amp to automatically start playing audio simply by Alexa voice commands?  Any thoughts or ideas on that?

[rea]

And if you have a C4 matrix amp/audio matrix, it's not hard to program audio commands to play native C4 audio with high audio quality. Just use the voice scene driver. If you only have one Dot, it's likely your zone(s) you would be thinking about controlling are limited and this would be pretty easy and would save you any wiring if you already have wired speakers. 

[JerryR]

2 minutes ago, rea said:

And if you have a C4 matrix amp/audio matrix, it's not hard to program audio commands to play native C4 audio with high audio quality. Just use the voice scene driver. If you only have one Dot, it's likely your zone(s) you would be thinking about controlling are limited and this would be pretty easy and would save you any wiring if you already have wired speakers. 

Have any programming tips to incorporate this?

[Cyknight]

Create a Voice Scene called 'Relax'

When voice scene relax is called

select smooth jazz on pandora in the living room

 

 

[JerryR]

This type of programming is an easy thing to do.  What I'm going after is being able to command Alexa to in essence turn on speakers in a room.  Then whatever you command her to play she plays through the  C4 Amp and the speakers in the room.  Then be able to add zones by voice command.  

So for example, be able to say "Alexa play best of Rolling Stones on main floor" and have her start playing the Stones on all rooms on main floor of house.  Then you can say; "Alexa stop.  Alexa play Zach Brown Band" and she'll start playing different music on those same zones.  Then I'd need a way to end / turn off those zones when done listening to music. 

Any thoughts on how to accomplish this?

 

[rea]

Unfortunately when using the voice scene driver, it's best to always think of it as just an audible button. Having it act on Control4 devices like you're mentioning would really require you to have a Dot tied into the Amp like some have discussed above with the mentioned difficulty in getting the device to the amp and the loss of audio quality. 

One, possibly important, question is what music service are you planning on using for this plan? I don't think I saw that mentioned above and Amazon Music isn't natively supported through C4. 

[sonic30101]

19 minutes ago, JerryR said:

This type of programming is an easy thing to do.  What I'm going after is being able to command Alexa to in essence turn on speakers in a room.  Then whatever you command her to play she plays through the  C4 Amp and the speakers in the room.  Then be able to add zones by voice command.  

So for example, be able to say "Alexa play best of Rolling Stones on main floor" and have her start playing the Stones on all rooms on main floor of house.  Then you can say; "Alexa stop.  Alexa play Zach Brown Band" and she'll start playing different music on those same zones.  Then I'd need a way to end / turn off those zones when done listening to music. 

Any thoughts on how to accomplish this?

 

Get an Alexa dot and plug it into your c4 amp. Make a group with the echo you already have. Make a 5 minute timer. Program when the input of the amp senses signal, select the dot as the source in the desired rooms and stop the timer. When there is no signal to start the 5 minute timer. When the timer expires if the rooms in question have the dot selected turn them off. 

[JerryR]

24 minutes ago, rea said:

Unfortunately when using the voice scene driver, it's best to always think of it as just an audible button. Having it act on Control4 devices like you're mentioning would really require you to have a Dot tied into the Amp like some have discussed above with the mentioned difficulty in getting the device to the amp and the loss of audio quality. 

One, possibly important, question is what music service are you planning on using for this plan? I don't think I saw that mentioned above and Amazon Music isn't natively supported through C4. 

There shouldn't be any issues tying the Dot into the Amp.  With multi-room music control now available with Alexa you can have a dot on your rack and control that from any other echo.  Just name it something like Control4 and say "Alexa, play music on Control4."  At that point that dot will start the output of playing music into the Amp.  That's the simple part.

It's about programming the voice commands to then have Control4 start playing in various audio zones.  That's the tricky part of the programming. 

[JerryR]

13 minutes ago, sonic30101 said:

Get an Alexa dot and plug it into your c4 amp. Make a group with the echo you already have. Make a 5 minute timer. Program when the input of the amp senses signal, select the dot as the source in the desired rooms and stop the timer. When there is no signal to start the 5 minute timer. When the timer expires if the rooms in question have the dot selected turn them off. 

This is a great idea.  I'll give it a whirl and see how it works.  I havne't programmed to select something based on input signal.  So that could be a bit of some fun trial and error, but this is a great idea for auto on and auto off.  I do see how an issue would be that you have to choose one room to do that automatically, what if you want to be more specific in rooms to turn on?

[sonic30101]

could use experience or custom buttons to change the default auto on from just room x or all main floor rooms. Can reset it daily with scheduler. and also have a voice scene to turn all rooms to the dot. Alternatively could add dots for specific rooms/areas and connect them in addition to the amp or add an audio matrix as well if additional inputs are needed. I have an audio matrix, an 8 zone amp and 3 avrs so dedicating 1 for kitchen/family, 1 for outdoor, and 1 for my master bath arent a big deal. I use google homes and chromecast audios but achieving this with echos and dots are the same really. I have 1 google home in the kitchen and the master bath which can be grouped to corresponding chromecast audios connected to the ceiling speakers

[turls]

On 12/12/2017 at 3:06 PM, sonic30101 said:

Get an Alexa dot and plug it into your c4 amp. Make a group with the echo you already have. Make a 5 minute timer. Program when the input of the amp senses signal, select the dot as the source in the desired rooms and stop the timer. When there is no signal to start the 5 minute timer. When the timer expires if the rooms in question have the dot selected turn them off. 

I know this is an old thread, but I don't use timers.  I check and see if a room is in use, and if it isn't, I automatically select the Echo Dot hooked into the audio matrix as the source for the room.  I do a check to make sure each room that I previously turned on still has the Echo Dot as a source when it stops sensing audio.  If it is, I turn that room off.

This accomplishes not disrupting a room that already has another source playing, and also will not turn off any rooms that have switched to another source since the Echo Dot started playing.