Best Alexa Interface Options

[ILoveC4]

35 minutes ago, rf9000 said:

Thanks. Yeah, usually basements are done here too. We still have to pour 4' of foundation for every home hear because of the frost. So most just pour another 4-5' and have a full basement. We decided to eliminate a basement this time for many reasons but still had to the pour the 4' foundation because of frost. So we decided to pour it six feet instead, then set our 2' floor joists inside the concrete walls flush with the top. This way we have 4' of space left underneath for a crawlspace and on top we have no steps. We will be concreting the floor of the whole crawlspace too so it ends up being a huge storage area!

That’s awesome. I wish I had that below my basement! Would be fun to see some pictures of you’re home. We’re doing 4 way this week so drywall is about to go in and exterior going up. 

[rf9000]

1 hour ago, ILoveC4 said:

That’s awesome. I wish I had that below my basement! Would be fun to see some pictures of you’re home. We’re doing 4 way this week so drywall is about to go in and exterior going up. 

Yessir. Will do

[anon2828]

I'd like to chime in here.

I've accomplished to some degree what you are attempting to do.  Your real goal is to have Alexa "hear" you anywhere and then also be able to "listen" to her response.

You can accomplish this by putting Echo Dots (the best current solution) everywhere you noted.  The response will be localized to that Echo dot (not heard throughout the house).

The other way to accomplish what you are talking about (some have suggested here) is to also put an Echo Dot in your rack and plug the audio output into your audio matrix.  I named mine Control4 Echo Dot.  Thus, I can say anywhere in the house, "Alexa play the station Top Pop on the Control4 Echo Dot" and also make any changes to currently playing music.  The only little hiccup to this solution is that in Control4 you have to have first selected the room (or rooms) and the source as the Echo Dot sitting in your rack so you can thus listen to it through your in ceiling speakers.

Specifically for the above noted music solution, I've suggested to Control4 that they allow voice control of the native Amazon Music source.  Then you'd no longer have to deal with an Echo Dot mounted in the rack for music purposes.

For everything else (automation, smart home) you'd still need the Echo Dots everywhere.

 

[mjbasford]

On 7/9/2019 at 11:20 AM, rf9000 said:

Quick question, is Cat6E still the best cable to run?

Cat6E is not a real cable.  Cat6A is.  But to your question, seeing as most devices can o ly handle gigabit currently, Cat6/6A is fine for futureproofing.  The benefits of 7plus might take your lifetime to come to fruition, outside of very high end stuff.

[casperspooks]

Run the cable. You can't do it later

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+100
Makes zero sense to be penny wise, pound foolish.

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