swheel27 Posted January 30, 2019 Share Posted January 30, 2019 I'm not super techie when it comes to A/V systems, so go easy on me... Thanks to the recent drivers/integration, I can now play Amazon Music (Prime, playlists, my music, etc.) over my C4 system if I use the app on my phone. I can also ask Alexa/Echo to do a few things with my C4 system. What I really want to figure out is to string it all together so I can say to my Echo/Alexa: "Alexa, play songs by The Beatles from my Amazon music using Control4 in the Gameroom." Ideally in fewer words than that, but you get the idea. I have four C4 speaker zones. I want to be able to ask Alexa to play specific Amazon music on a specific C4 zone. Any way to do that yet? We're still just listening to our Amazon music over our Echo device instead of over the C4 system most of the time because it's so much easier to do it that way. But it's a bummer for the system to be going to waste... Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sonic30101 Posted January 30, 2019 Share Posted January 30, 2019 Not natively yet, the best way is the hardwire an echo into the control4 system as the target device from the echos out in the room. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thegreatheed Posted January 30, 2019 Share Posted January 30, 2019 The Alexa smart home API reserves music calls for its own devices. In other words, you can listen to music on your Echo because that's the way Amazon designed it to work. They want to push their devices. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swheel27 Posted January 30, 2019 Author Share Posted January 30, 2019 Sonic30101, if I put an Echo dot in the media closet, do you know if there's a way to use the Echo in my living room to talk to that other Echo so that it will work? Sounds contrived, but it would be great if it did... And if that works, would hardwiring the Echo-to-C4 make it so that I would need to tell C4 to use that input instead of some other input (like the TV that's also hooked up to it)? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pounce Posted January 30, 2019 Share Posted January 30, 2019 HEOS can do this kind of thing. Maybe this: https://usa.denon.com/us/heos/heos-superlink Edit: https://www.accessories4less.com/make-a-store/item/denheossuperlink/heos-heos-superlink-multi-room/multi-zone-preamp/1.html refurb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msgreenf Posted January 30, 2019 Share Posted January 30, 2019 Sonic30101, if I put an Echo dot in the media closet, do you know if there's a way to use the Echo in my living room to talk to that other Echo so that it will work? Sounds contrived, but it would be great if it did... And if that works, would hardwiring the Echo-to-C4 make it so that I would need to tell C4 to use that input instead of some other input (like the TV that's also hooked up to it)?Yes but you can automate all of it with scenes. Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wattsup Posted January 31, 2019 Share Posted January 31, 2019 If you put a Dot in the rack connected to the c4 audio matrix input you can group that device within the Alexa app with another Dot/Echo and chose which speaker is used to output the response. Mine is set up this way and works great! Mitch (msgreen) did the remote programming for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msgreenf Posted January 31, 2019 Share Posted January 31, 2019 6 hours ago, Wattsup said: If you put a Dot in the rack connected to the c4 audio matrix input you can group that device within the Alexa app with another Dot/Echo and chose which speaker is used to output the response. Mine is set up this way and works great! Mitch (msgreen) did the remote programming for me. yup! This is the best way to do it today and I am happy to help anyone else set it up! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C4S Posted January 31, 2019 Share Posted January 31, 2019 Would this allow for selecting different zones each time, or would it always be the same zones selected? We have 8 zones and echos throughout the house. Could we put an echo in the rack, control it from any other echo, and also select which zone - all through voice control? Thanks. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msgreenf Posted January 31, 2019 Share Posted January 31, 2019 You would define voice scenes for each zone you want Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pounce Posted January 31, 2019 Share Posted January 31, 2019 The HEOS preamp above would permit 4 concurrent distinct streams and control from any location. @msgreenf if a person wanted 4 concurrent streams into a matrix controllable from any Alexa can that be done with your approach? I'm guessing 4 echo's in the rack. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msgreenf Posted January 31, 2019 Share Posted January 31, 2019 Yup. Exactly. Really now you could buy the echo input instead of dots Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pounce Posted January 31, 2019 Share Posted January 31, 2019 Or maybe just use the Alexa app on a phone or tablet? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eggzlot Posted January 31, 2019 Share Posted January 31, 2019 how does the voice scene work? "Alexa, play voice scene kitchen" and the dot or input in the rack would play a predefined audio stream? Curious how native you can get with the voice command if Alexa reserves the play music for their own services as mentioned above Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lippavisual Posted January 31, 2019 Share Posted January 31, 2019 Alexa, select Music Dot in Kitchen (This makes C4 switch to the dot in the rack called Music), Then say Alexa, play Amazon music on the Music Dot Naming can be obviously changed. swheel27 and Time2Jet 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drmark12pa Posted January 31, 2019 Share Posted January 31, 2019 I have a dot connected into an EA3 so I can stream Sirius XM directly from the internet app as well as any Youtube videos and such linked by my phone Bluetooth if I want to. Recently, Alexa did add the ability to ask any dot/echo in the house to play something on a group. The only crappy thing about this is that it requires 2 devices specified as a group to make this work. If you only have 1 device you can't designate a group to a device and tell any echo/dot in the house to say, "Play Beatles channel on Sirius XM". It would be nice if any dot/echo could respond by playing what you ask it to on a specified dot/echo in the house. As it stands now, I would need at least dot/echo somewhere "hidden" in the house or lowest volume to make this work it would seem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eggzlot Posted January 31, 2019 Share Posted January 31, 2019 4 minutes ago, lippavisual said: Alexa, select Music Dot in Kitchen (This makes C4 switch to the dot in the rack called Music), Then say Alexa, play Amazon music on the Music Dot Naming can be obviously changed. ah so two lines of command, not awful. swheel27 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lippavisual Posted January 31, 2019 Share Posted January 31, 2019 Or if you have a C4 matrix with audio sensing, you can program some other ways for less voice commands. But I find this approach to be the easiest. msgreenf 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lippavisual Posted January 31, 2019 Share Posted January 31, 2019 Eggz, how has everything worked out at home? All good with VS stuff? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drmark12pa Posted January 31, 2019 Share Posted January 31, 2019 Reading this thread, now I'm confused where in programming Voice Scenes are and how they work for making Control4 switch audio sources via Alexa. I've used the Epic driver and program commands (ie "Alexa, turn on Master Bedroom TV" which selects my Directv in bedroom") to select a source for a room but I can't find anything in Composer for Voice Scenes? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eggzlot Posted January 31, 2019 Share Posted January 31, 2019 28 minutes ago, lippavisual said: Eggz, how has everything worked out at home? All good with VS stuff? ill PM you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lippavisual Posted January 31, 2019 Share Posted January 31, 2019 32 minutes ago, drmark12pa said: Reading this thread, now I'm confused where in programming Voice Scenes are and how they work for making Control4 switch audio sources via Alexa. I've used the Epic driver and program commands (ie "Alexa, turn on Master Bedroom TV" which selects my Directv in bedroom") to select a source for a room but I can't find anything in Composer for Voice Scenes? Voice Scenes is only used with the C4/Alexa direct (free) integration, not the Epic ($$) one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swheel27 Posted January 31, 2019 Author Share Posted January 31, 2019 I really appreciate everyone's insights on this. I admit I'm still a little lost, but I feel like there's hope for what I'm trying to accomplish, and I might be able to figure it all out... THANKS!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drmark12pa Posted January 31, 2019 Share Posted January 31, 2019 1 hour ago, lippavisual said: Voice Scenes is only used with the C4/Alexa direct (free) integration, not the Epic ($$) one. I do have the native C4 Alexa app as well which I was using at first. Can you use the word set with the native app? I thought it was off/on only? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wappinghigh Posted January 31, 2019 Share Posted January 31, 2019 On 1/31/2019 at 3:44 AM, swheel27 said: I'm not super techie when it comes to A/V systems, so go easy on me... Thanks to the recent drivers/integration, I can now play Amazon Music (Prime, playlists, my music, etc.) over my C4 system if I use the app on my phone. I can also ask Alexa/Echo to do a few things with my C4 system. What I really want to figure out is to string it all together so I can say to my Echo/Alexa: "Alexa, play songs by The Beatles from my Amazon music using Control4 in the Gameroom." Ideally in fewer words than that, but you get the idea. I have four C4 speaker zones. I want to be able to ask Alexa to play specific Amazon music on a specific C4 zone. Any way to do that yet? We're still just listening to our Amazon music over our Echo device instead of over the C4 system most of the time because it's so much easier to do it that way. But it's a bummer for the system to be going to waste... Thanks! Just remove C4 out of the music control chain. Use Sonos sources as Spotify connect endpoints and switch to Spotify. Set that as your primary streaming source in the Alexa app. Then load all the relevant skills in the app and you are good to go...What you want to do works beautifully without Control4 in the music control chain. .... Heos sources are not quite as good as Sonos for this task because their skill set isn’t as good. Sonos to their credit on this one have moved with the times and are adapting to Amazon way quicker than Control4 seem to be on this - though C4 seems to be trying. That’s because Sonos primary task has always been music distribution I guess. Not HA. Amazon will in the end eat C4’s lunch. That’s because they are becoming the 100 pound gorilla in the HA space and they are DIY. It’s been said they have 4,000 coders working right now on Alexa, AI and HA. How many do C4 have? And probably as many 3rd party coders now writing Amazon skill sets which can be placed right into folks Alexa simply using their app. Music, control of things like lights, and Nest Tstats and a couple of locks. What next? TV's and other a/v gear seems a certainty. Anything that has IP control is fair game. All by the end user DIY without anyone else’s help. What’s more, You can buy Alexa gear online for well under a hundred bucks and it arrives in the post pretty much the next day. All by yourself. A couple of us around here years ago, pleaded with the dealers to try get C4 to adapt to the times and *do something * about what we saw as this impending situation and open up the dealer only model and improve the coder situation - try help them save their own careers and try help save our beloved C4 platforms - and here we are in 2019 and it’s happening now right in front of our very own eyes, just as we thought it would. But then the online bullying came and the name calling. So I left a while ago. But what do I know? I’m just a Russian troll....I think I’ll leave again before it starts once more. Cheers and take care all. IMO!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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