IN CEILING ECHO DOT QUESTION

[rf9000]

All,

I have devised a way to put Echo Dot 3s in ceiling and they are concealed. I went a bit overboard and have 14 of the them placed throughout the home. Question though, what will happen when two of the Echo Dots are within close proximity of each other and a command is given that two of the Echos can hear. Will they sort of "echo" each other and both do the same thing individually? Or are they sophisticated enough where they can determine which Echo is closest and that will be the only one that responds? 

[Wattsup]

I have two dots that both respond to the wake word because they are close - one in the kitchen (open plan) the other in the living. The nearest one will respond. Best example is if I have a kitchen timer running when it alarms I can cancel in the living without any issue.

[zaphod]

They are sophisticated enough to tell.  I have three Echos in my office, a Dot connected to a matrix amp as an audio source, a Spot so that I can see things on the screen - like from my Ring camera, and a Gen1 Echo so that I can use the Epic driver.

[rf9000]

7 minutes ago, zaphod said:

They are sophisticated enough to tell.  I have three Echos in my office, a Dot connected to a matrix amp as an audio source, a Spot so that I can see things on the screen - like from my Ring camera, and a Gen1 Echo so that I can use the Epic driver.

Interesting and that is good. I wish I could have each Dot be a source into the matrix and play audio on my whole home audio system but I have been informed that there really is no good way to do this without limitations.

[rf9000]

2 minutes ago, rf9000 said:

Interesting and that is good. I wish I could have each Dot be a source into the matrix and play audio on my whole home audio system but I have been informed that there really is no good way to do this without limitations.

What I meant is sometihng like saying "Alexa, play Vanilla Ice (haha) in the kitchen", and it would play to the whole home audio kitchen zone. Seems as simple as it gets, but told its really complicated, or it can be done but there will be delay, no art cover info on screens,, etc. 

[zaphod]

If you had a separate Echo Dot for each possible zone at your matrix then you could make it worth with one command by using an audio trigger but you would not get the cover info, etc. C4 would just know that the Echo Dot was the active audio source.

[Neo1738]

Yeah wife and I each have one on vanity (w clock) and when in the bathroom you will see both light up but only 1 will respond. Sometimes it will even ask "was this the device you were talking to" to see if it did well. 

[rf9000]

7 hours ago, zaphod said:

If you had a separate Echo Dot for each possible zone at your matrix then you could make it worth with one command by using an audio trigger but you would not get the cover info, etc. C4 would just know that the Echo Dot was the active audio source.

So if kitchen was zone 1. The Echo in there would be connected via 3.5mm out to the audio matrix as lets say audio source 1. So when asking that echo to play music, it would send the signal to the matrix and matrix would auto sense incoming audio on source 1. Then by programming, the matrix would know that any audio received on source 1 indicates that audio needs to be played on Zone 1 and would then play that source in the kitchen? Would there be any issues with this? Like would if then we wanted to, via touch screens, add more zones to the already playing Zone 1? Can this be done? Or what would this show on the touchscreens? Can it be named so on touchscreens it just shows the source as "ECHO" or something like that? And if we wanted to change the source, we could juts easily select a different source on the touchscreen/iphone, etc.? Is there any delay in auto sensing? Does it work really well and no noticeable delay?

[zaphod]

You have it pretty much right.  I think that name that would show in any Navigator, such as a TS or phone app, is user definable.  So it could be "Kitchen Echo Dot".  Then you can just add other zones using the TS or whatever.  Using the trigger is no different than the way you would use it normally, all it does is automatically take an action when it senses audio on zone 1 (or whichever zone).  The other downside is that you need double echo dots, if you want to use this to play music in eight rooms and you want to issue a command from every room then you need 16 Echo units. And you are taking up eight inputs on your matrix. 

You might even be able to use a voice command to run a macro to add other zones. Or you could use a keypad so that when you press button 1 on a keypad it also sets living room and dining room to source "Echo Dot Kitchen" 

There isn't much of a delay, at least not for me with the older C4 matrix amps. The main downside is that you don't get visual feedback on what is playing on the TS.

[turls]

On 2/28/2021 at 4:41 PM, rf9000 said:

All,

I have devised a way to put Echo Dot 3s in ceiling and they are concealed. I went a bit overboard and have 14 of the them placed throughout the home. Question though, what will happen when two of the Echo Dots are within close proximity of each other and a command is given that two of the Echos can hear. Will they sort of "echo" each other and both do the same thing individually? Or are they sophisticated enough where they can determine which Echo is closest and that will be the only one that responds? 

Didn't have to reinvent the wheel:

https://www.residentialsystems.com/blogs/joe-whitaker-proves-valet-voice-control-in-dallas-model-home