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Text to Speech Driver (Web Interface, Control4 App, Voice Messages & More)


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Hiya

I've just finished creating a Text to Speech driver with all sorts of support for how you can get your messages announced!

Setup is super simple. Follow the documentation and I've timed it at under 2 minutes!

The ways you can use the driver are through programming text (and variables) to be spoken out; through it's built in web interface (which allows you to choose a custom port [for port forwarding]), through the Listen menu where you just need to enter the text you wish to be announced!

  • Media service integration
  • Voice messages (PA system)
  • Multi room support
  • Web interface
  • Use variables in programming
  • Google Cloud & VoiceRSS Text to Speech Engines
  • Modify speed & language for TTS Engines
  • %date% and %time% values manipulated
  • Last message variable

 

Driver Download: https://drivercentral.io/platforms/control4-drivers/text-to-speech-driver/

I hope you like it! :)

Driver Images

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image.png.0c1c1df6ee5997040cd5ffe3f781d09f.png

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The driver will hopefully soon be going onto DriverCentral for sale. The updated driver will have Google Cloud Text to Speech built in as well as various other changes and a few bug fixes. If you have already downloaded the free version then you can go ahead and use it but as stated earlier - support is limited for it.

The decision to sell the driver was made as it means we can put more work into future drivers.

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1 minute ago, ILoveC4 said:

So the driver ISN’T available any more? Everything you said in your first post sounds great. I excitedly tried to download it hit the link seems to be dead. 

 

DH

It isn't at the moment but hopefully pretty soon you'll be able to get it on DriverCentral.

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21 hours ago, South Africa C4 user said:

I’d be really excited to see @Shivam Paw starting to write paid for drivers... he has released a few really cool freebies over the last few weeks and if he starts concentrating on this and selling them then I think we could see some exciting new drivers!

Agreed. I just think DriverCentral is a terrible platform and unfortunately, if that’s the only way to buy them I won’t be buying any. It’s a shame. Same with Alans stuff - several I’d love to buy but (unless I’m missing something) that platform just does not work for me. 

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5 hours ago, ILoveC4 said:

Agreed. I just think DriverCentral is a terrible platform and unfortunately, if that’s the only way to buy them I won’t be buying any. It’s a shame. Same with Alans stuff - several I’d love to buy but (unless I’m missing something) that platform just does not work for me. 

We use a cloud platform but its design, along with the drivers,  ensures that connectivity to the Internet and the platform itself are not required for a driver to operate which I believe to be essential with any online platform unless of course the driver itself is an Internet centric driver.

What issues do you have with the DriverCentral platform? 

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1 hour ago, david@berto.co.uk said:

We use a cloud platform but its design, along with the drivers,  ensures that connectivity to the Internet and the platform itself are not required for a driver to operate which I believe to be essential with any online platform unless of course the driver itself is an Internet centric driver.

What issues do you have with the DriverCentral platform? 

My biggest issues are that they won't let ME buy drivers, and that my "DriverCentral" driver appears to be tied to one particular DriverCentral dealer, that I'm then forced to work with on anything I want from DriverCentral. I've got someone that has helped me with the one DriverCentral driver I have (which I was forced in to by Alan Chow leaving Houselogix and going over there) but I don't like it being dependent on any one specific person.

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1 minute ago, ILoveC4 said:

My biggest issues are that they won't let ME buy drivers, and that my "DriverCentral" driver appears to be tied to one particular DriverCentral dealer, that I'm then forced to work with on anything I want from DriverCentral. I've got someone that has helped me with the one DriverCentral driver I have (which I was forced in to by Alan Chow leaving Houselogix and going over there) but I don't like it being dependent on any one specific person.

To add to this I don’t like not having access to or control over the licenses I’ve paid for.  The licenses should be associated with the project owner not the dealer.  I should be able to login into the drivercentral site and see what my dealer sees when it comes to my licenses.

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4 minutes ago, jfh said:

To add to this I don’t like not having access to or control over the licenses I’ve paid for.  The licenses should be associated with the project owner not the dealer.  I should be able to login into the drivercentral site and see what my dealer sees when it comes to my licenses.

Yeah, it's a pretty terrible system.

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What I think that they fail to realize, is that whether they like it or not, a massive percentage of the folks that would buy these drivers are the people that want to manage and administer it themselves. Now, I realize Control4 has a dealer model and that's fine - but despite that dealer model these people still exist and leverage Control4. I feel like everyone who is publishing drivers to DriverCentral, and supporting DriverCentral in only allowing Control4 dealers to buy drivers or have an account with them, is missing out on a sizable amount of revenue. There's a number of drivers that I'd love to buy, but take the energy to develop my own solution despite it being more work because I can do it without involving someone else. 

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1 minute ago, Shivam Paw said:

Let's not turn this into one of those please...

The driver will be available on BlackWire Designs.

DONE! I'm off my soapbox.

To make sure I understand - this driver would allow me to pull up the C4 app, type in text and choose which rooms I want it read to, and have it will audible deliver that message over the speakers? If so, I'm super pumped!

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Just now, ILoveC4 said:

DONE! I'm off my soapbox.

To make sure I understand - this driver would allow me to pull up the C4 app, type in text and choose which rooms I want it read to, and have it will audible deliver that message over the speakers? If so, I'm super pumped!

Close. You can't choose which rooms you want it delivered to but you can have multiple instances of the driver for different rooms.

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1 minute ago, Shivam Paw said:

Close. You can't choose which rooms you want it delivered to but you can have multiple instances of the driver for different rooms.

Gotcha. So the driver sits in a room, and what you type in there gets announced in that room. That's cool. 

What I'd really love is to be able to do this ad-hoc stuff, along with programmed things that can be at a button press and play over lots of rooms (like announcements now, but without the hassle of creating the audio file and attaching it to an announcement). This may be able to be achieved already...I haven't spent much time pursuing it but have been getting ready to start.

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Just now, ILoveC4 said:

Gotcha. So the driver sits in a room, and what you type in there gets announced in that room. That's cool. 

What I'd really love is to be able to do this ad-hoc stuff, along with programmed things that can be at a button press and play over lots of rooms (like announcements now, but without the hassle of creating the audio file and attaching it to an announcement). This may be able to be achieved already...I haven't spent much time pursuing it but have been getting ready to start.

It's possible with this driver :)

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I must say this is pretty cool. Up until now, I’ve used a combination of IFTTT and a voice to speech driver to achieve the same thing by sending an email with a specific heading to my gmail address which is then picked up by IFTTT and sent to C4 and then converted to speech by another driver... This was tedious to set up and can be fairly slow to respond, so I love the idea of this new driver!

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The driver is now released on BlackWire Designs!

https://www.blackwiredesigns.com/store/control4-text-to-speech/

This Text to Speech driver lets you send announcements around your Control4 system with a few taps!

You can use our built in web interface to type your own message, use our Control4 “Listen” service to
type in a message right from your Control4 app, or use Composer programming to execute announcements
when you want!

  • Media service integration
  • Web interface
  • Use variables in programming
  • Google Cloud & VoiceRSS Text to Speech Engines
  • Modify speed & language for TTS Engines
  • %date% and %time% values manipulated
  • Last message variable

I hope you like it :) 

Please note this is a separate driver to the early "freebie". You shouldn't update the existing one if you are using it; instead you should add this as a new driver.

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32 minutes ago, Shivam Paw said:

The driver is now released on BlackWire Designs!

https://www.blackwiredesigns.com/store/control4-text-to-speech/

This Text to Speech driver lets you send announcements around your Control4 system with a few taps!

You can use our built in web interface to type your own message, use our Control4 “Listen” service to
type in a message right from your Control4 app, or use Composer programming to execute announcements
when you want!

  • Media service integration
  • Web interface
  • Use variables in programming
  • Google Cloud & VoiceRSS Text to Speech Engines
  • Modify speed & language for TTS Engines
  • %date% and %time% values manipulated
  • Last message variable

I hope you like it :) 

Please note this is a separate driver to the early "freebie". You shouldn't update the existing one if you are using it; instead you should add this as a new driver.

Terrific!  What is the suggested price for the driver?

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