Jayaredoubleu

What is the status of this? I am pretty afraid of upgrading if announcements don't work on HE

I cannot get the UniFi LTE failover to work for the life of me. Had 4 different people look at it. Its extremely unreliable. Works sometimes and completely freezes the whole system (requiring reboot) others. Also the LTE failover takes about 30 seconds to switch over, which is quite slow. Right now I am just using a Luxel Epic 5 router with the failover. Works great, but I am unable to be notified when a failover occurs (Which is why I wanted Ubiquiti).

Thanks for all the input guys! Most of the advice is around ways to making the solution less expensive. For argument sake - pretend money isn't an option. I am looking for the "IDEAL ARCHITECTURE" The questions I have are around how certain architectures work. For example: Plex - What value does that provide for music? Doesn't C4 automatically pull files if on a NAS and display in navigator? What would Plex do better/different? Roon - This one caught my attention, but honestly I don't really know how it works or its value. Is it a competitor to plex or is it different? My understanding is that it allows multiple music sources to all be combined together, live, on-the fly. So I can mix and match streaming with my hard-drive all in one playlist. If so....thats awesome. But again, I don't know how that works with C4.

@ejn1 My goal is to use my existing high res library, as well as streaming services. I use the C4 interface, connected to an autonomic MMS-5A right now, and between my high-res music stored on its hard drive, and streaming services - I am good to go. The only room completely disconnected is the one with the integrated amp, which doesn't have any source player (as I just have optical to computer). @zaphod mostly apple lossless files actually, but basically the same thing as FLAC.

Curious to pick everyone's brain: What is the best way to have utilize my Control 4 system (most likely through T3/T4) to play hi-res music on a Mcintosh Integrated Amp? The type of amp doesn't really matter, its just that McIntosh is a "dumb" amp, there is no network connectivity. Currently my computer is just wired with optical out directly to my amp with no connection to Control 4 at all. It works, but not the way I want. My thoughts: Use a Roon Nucleus with some sort of Roon Ready Wireless DAC (e.g. Cambridge audio or something). If I went that route - what is the best way to set this up? Can you even use C4 navigator to play the music or do I have to use Roon App? I am not sure how C4 integration works with Roon, and how Roon then works with the hardware. Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

Just checking to see if there is any update on this. What is the path to report this to Control4?

@msgreenf 2 reasons: 1) Pandora with C4 requires auto-start, which is a bad user experience. and 2) Pandora with C4 only works with Free accounts, it limits one instance with "Plus" and doesn't even allow the "Premium" plan to work. I have spent hours with C4, and my we have concluded it is not possible with Pandora Plus or Premium to have multiple streams running simultaneously without setting up different Pandora Plus accounts. So, Autonomic has better integration (they don't have auto-play and they work with Pandora Plus - allowing me to stream 5 times with one account). Autonomic just doesn't function with "sessions" so I can't add rooms to other rooms with Autonomic. @eggzlot I am quite curious to learn more about your logic here. This is interesting. I don't know if it will work with Pandora, but I like the idea. Can I chat with you more about this offline?

@Cyknight Following up on the "silence". Your answer implies that a simple delay would fix the problem. But a delay doesn't fix the problem - that is the issue. If I set a 2000ms delay, the exact same choppy sound occurs as if I set a 0ms delay, which implies that it is not "time" in getting everything set up. I have to insert a silence because the beginning of audio files through announcements are choppy, regardless of delay. Related to Pandora. I appreciate your attempt to try and solve it. But simply put, after spending hours with C4 (Level 3 techs) and autonomic design engineers. It can't be done (according to them). There are two limitations: 1) Pandora Premium and 2)Autonomics driver doesn't allow for Digital Media to recognized a session already in progress. So my question isn't "How do I program this to make it work", my question is "What other hardware can I buy that will do what I want?" Jeff

@Cyknight So if I understand you correctly. If I had a different brand matrix and different brand amp (and used something like CA-10 instead of EA-5), then I would still have the same requirement for audio silence at beginning of announcements? I'm just failing to understand where the problem exactly is? Related to Pandora. I spent hours on the phone with C4. My request is not possible through EA-5 or through Autonomic with Pandora. So my question is: What hardware will allow this capability? My goal: Have "Preset 1" Button on every keypad in every room would all start the same instance of a specific Pandora station (e.g. Lets say "Top Hits" for example sake). So If I hit Preset 1 in Kitchen and then go hit Preset 1 in Family Room I want it to play the same instance of Pandora. Right now, this set up won't (and Can't according to C4) happen with Pandora Premium, but can with Pandora Free. So if I am listening to music in my office and my wife hits a button on the porch, it stops my song and starts a new instance of the station. Autonomic MMS-5a actually starts a brand new instance but doesn't override the old one (as it starts a new player each time). So never work, but both act differently.

@msgreenf 1) I have tried single driver and multiple drivers. I can't figure out how to have a keypad start a Pandora station (with a Premium account only) in one room and then have another Pandora instance start in another room off of one account. What happens with Premium is that it starts a new instance. Pandora Free allows multiple instances being run. C4 limitation (according to C4). My question is. Is there other hardware that works better? 2) What about suggestions for 500ms silence for announcements? Do you have better hardware suggestion that eliminates or fixes it? 3)Im aware of Pandora and Amazon limitations in EA-5. That isn't my question. My question is: What hardware can I buy that allows for what I want? @eggzlot 1) This isn't a 500ms delay, its a required 500ms "silence" to be added to audio file itself. If I have 0ms delay OR 2000ms delay, I get the same choppy start of audio file being played. I need to add silence at beginning. Control4 has admitted this issue. My question to the group is does anyone have a set-up that DOESNT require this?

I am looking to pick the brains of this forum to see what suggestions people may have for a couple things. I currently have EA-5, Triad 8-Zone Amp, Triad 24x24 Matrix Switch, and Autonomic MMS-5A. Problems I can't figure out or fix: 1) EA-5 doesn't allow for more than one Pandora stream from premium account (yet it does for free accounts). So I can't have more than zone stream from my account. Pandora also has auto-start, which I hate. 2) EA-5 or MMS-5A don't let you join a room with Pandora Playing. (EA-5 starts a new instance of Pandora when adding room as opposed to joining room, and MMS-5A doesn't have that integration) 3) EA-5 or MMS-5A don't allow for direct preset control of Amazon Music Stations. I can select stations through navigator, not program them to keypads 4) Announcements require me to add a 500ms silence in-front of all audio files to play correctly (not sure what hardware/software causes this problem) Questions for the Group: 1) Is there a better hardware configuration I can buy that integrates with Pandora premium and Amazon? 2) Is there a better hardware configuration that would eliminate the need for 500ms Silence to added to audio files? the Yamaha YA-XDA-QS5400RK Quad Streamer seems interest, but I am not sure if it solves any of my problems

@Dueport I don't know for sure, but I don't think this would work well (plus it would be ungodly expensive). I would need to buy 8 Sonos Ports to go into my matrix switcher to go into my distribution amplifier. (I still need the matrix and distribution amp for all my other audio needs, not just music). Could this play music in each zone the way you described? I might think so? But here are problems: 1) I don't think it would show up on navigators or be fully controlled by C4 2) The zone would stay on after you said "alexa stop playing music" 3) The system would get quite confused if you initiated music outside of alexa (e.g. keypads, C4 app, etc.), and then asked alexa to play music in an attempt to override it Overall I understand there are "work arounds", none of which are perfect, but they get me most of the way there. Back to my original question: WHY is this so difficult? My whole goal is to decide if I should wait for a fix or if I should invest $1000s to do a work around because it will never be fixed. Is this an alexa issue or a C4 issue? I just was looking to understand if it will ever be fixed? or it is impossible? From the little I know, it seems like it is a C4 issue and they just haven't made their system capable of being set up as an end point for alexa. Am I wrong?

I haven't made any investment or switch yet because (as far as I know) I cant get the system to work the way I want. My goal: Same functionality as how Alexa works with Sonos. I walk into any room and say "Alexa, Play Top Hits on Pandora" and it plays on the local Sonos device. My Understanding: I would have to say "Alexa, turn on Kitchen." and then "Alexa, play top hits on Pandora". When I am done, I would have to say "Alexa stop music" and then "Alexa turn off Kitchen" Am I wrong? Can Josh.AI do what I am looking for instead of Alexa?

I see lots of discussion on the forum around work arounds to use Alexa with C4 for multiple rooms since you can't set up C4 as an Alexa End Point. Here are my questions: 1) Does anyone know the reason WHY we can't use C4 as an Alexa End Point? Is it a hardware limitation? Is this a restriction of Amazon? C4 just hasn't gotten around to it? Should I wait for it or find another solution? 2) Does anyone know if any other voice control platforms out there (Google/Josh.AI/Etc.) - that allows for end point controls or is known to be in the words? My ultimately goal is to be able to say "Hey [insert platform name], play XXXXXX on pandora" 3) Hypothetically, if I switched out my Triad Multi-room amplifier with a bunch of Sonos Amps, but kept my Triad Matrix Switch. Would this fix the Alexa End Point Issue? (meaning I can set up each amp as an Alexa End Point). What functionality would I lose if I do this? Could I still do C4 music though system? Could I do announcements, etc? I'm not sure how the matrix would play with Sonos Amps to switch to line-in? Any insight would be great!

Thank you! Please let them know I am happy to talk to them about this in more detail. What is the best path for me to follow-up?