Easy voice control for the family? Amazon music.

[SpeckledEgg]

Hi,
Has anyone got the magic random looking for, please?
My wife wants to be able to “play music”. Not an unreasonable request.

Setup:
Sony STR-1080D amp.
WiiM pro
Echo Fire TV Cube
Panasonic TV

Voice control via Fire Tv Cube to watch tv is used a lot. And basically works. (Though the TV regularly decides to default back to TV speakers rather than Sony amp…)

But it would be helpful if we could also play music without turning the tv on. (Which Fire TV Cube likes to do if it’s playing music)

I tend to use my phone to control music when in this room. But this doesn’t suit others.

Is there a way of making the Wiim behave like a regular Echo, voice control, just playing music, but triggering the amp to turn on and auto select the input? Like an echo but way better sound?

Basically, I’m trying to stop my wife forcing the purchase of another music player in the living room…

Thank you!

 

[Wiimer]

Hi,
Has anyone got the magic random looking for, please?
My wife wants to be able to “play music”. Not an unreasonable request.

Setup:
Sony STR-1080D amp.
WiiM pro
Echo Fire TV Cube
Panasonic TV

Voice control via Fire Tv Cube to watch tv is used a lot. And basically works. (Though the TV regularly decides to default back to TV speakers rather than Sony amp…)

But it would be helpful if we could also play music without turning the tv on. (Which Fire TV Cube likes to do if it’s playing music)

I tend to use my phone to control music when in this room. But this doesn’t suit others.

Is there a way of making the Wiim behave like a regular Echo, voice control, just playing music, but triggering the amp to turn on and auto select the input? Like an echo but way better sound?

Basically, I’m trying to stop my wife forcing the purchase of another music player in the living room…

Thank you!

Hi

Please set up the WiiM as the ECHO's speaker for music. Then you can play music from the WiiM simply by talking to the Echo.

You can also use an IR controller, such as a Switchbot, to control the receiver remotely via Alexa; I believe you can use an Alexa routine to do everything automatically.

 

[SpeckledEgg]

Okay, thank you. Would this be in the Alexa app, adding them both to a group, then selecting the WiiM? I’ve now done this and it is a step in the right direction!
I chose “let Alexa choose”, and the voice command confirmation came out of the Fire TV cube, then when it started playing music, it powered up the WiiM. Ideal.

I say a step… is there a way to make the WiiM trigger the Sony amp and auto select the input? I have to turn on the amp manually and select the input. (Fire TV can do it automatically, though the amplifier often sets itself to muting!)

 

[Burnside]

Your amp doesn’t appear to have an Alexa skill to allow it to be controlled by a voice command.

While you could use an Alexa compatible IR transmitter as suggested by @Wiimer and set the WiiM as the fire tv cube’s default speaker, you couldn’t automatically get your amp to switch to the correct input when you ask music to be played. It would need to be a two step process - ask Alexa to turn on the amp to the correct input, followed by a request to play music. Given that setting up the IR transmitter and interfacing with Alexa can prove challenging, it might be simpler just manually turning on the amp…

 

[SpeckledEgg]

Great, thank you. Whilst it would be preferable to have it seamless, if it’s just not possible, it’s not possible!

I’ll experiment with setting up an Alexa routine to turn the amp on and select the relevant input (I do have another home automation thing that can control the amp that can link it into Alexa, a Broadlink)

The Fire TV Cube manages it okay - is that because it’s over HDMI? WiiM is connected via optical input.

 

[Burnside]

Great, thank you. Whilst it would be preferable to have it seamless, if it’s just not possible, it’s not possible!

I’ll experiment with setting up an Alexa routine to turn the amp on and select the relevant input (I do have another home automation thing that can control the amp that can link it into Alexa, a Broadlink)

The Fire TV Cube manages it okay - is that because it’s over HDMI? WiiM is connected via optical input.

Yeah, a broadlink rm pro or similar can do that and you can use a routine to simplify its use. The fire tv cube could be doing it using hdmi cec, or maybe using IR if you set your amp up under the fire tv equipment control settings - if the latter, it’s sort of repeating what the broadlink is doing so you might be able to use an Alexa command to switch input without using the broadlink. Anyway, sounds like you’ve got the components for a semi automatic solution

 

[SpeckledEgg]

Okay, broadly speaking I've had success With one extra step "Alexa, listen to music in the living room", before asking for the music one wants, it's doing what we need.

So thank you @Burnside and @Wiimer for your help and suggestions - it put me on the path to a win. And without buying anything new, which is itself a win!

For reference, in case anyone else finds it helpful, (and in case I have to reset everything and need to refer to it myself in the future ) the steps were:

In Alexa app, go to Fire TV Cube, go to Speaker, make it part of a speaker group with the WiiM, then choose "Let Alexa Choose" as the speaker (as opposed to Use my Preferred Speaker, or built in speaker). This seems to have done the ideal thing of confirmations/Alexa talkback comes from the Cube built in speaker, even when the amp is off, but music plays through the WiiM/amp.

Then, to switch the amp on and select the right input for WiiM:

Set up a routine in Alexa app: When you say "Alexa, listen to music in the living room", Alexa will: Amplifier power on, Wait 5 seconds, Amplifier input: PC.
(The list of inputs in Alexa routing creation was limited to USB, PC, and d.v.d., goodness knows why, and the amp doesn't have a PC input. But I tried it and it fortunately works to select the SA-CD/CD input!)

I think I got lucky on the input selection, but it is, for now, job done.

I love it when forums are so brilliantly helpful like this!

 

[Wiimer]

Okay, broadly speaking I've had success With one extra step "Alexa, listen to music in the living room", before asking for the music one wants, it's doing what we need.

So thank you @Burnside and @Wiimer for your help and suggestions - it put me on the path to a win. And without buying anything new, which is itself a win!

For reference, in case anyone else finds it helpful, (and in case I have to reset everything and need to refer to it myself in the future ) the steps were:

In Alexa app, go to Fire TV Cube, go to Speaker, make it part of a speaker group with the WiiM, then choose "Let Alexa Choose" as the speaker (as opposed to Use my Preferred Speaker, or built in speaker). This seems to have done the ideal thing of confirmations/Alexa talkback comes from the Cube built in speaker, even when the amp is off, but music plays through the WiiM/amp.

Then, to switch the amp on and select the right input for WiiM:

Set up a routine in Alexa app: When you say "Alexa, listen to music in the living room", Alexa will: Amplifier power on, Wait 5 seconds, Amplifier input: PC.
(The list of inputs in Alexa routing creation was limited to USB, PC, and d.v.d., goodness knows why, and the amp doesn't have a PC input. But I tried it and it fortunately works to select the SA-CD/CD input!)

I think I got lucky on the input selection, but it is, for now, job done.

I love it when forums are so brilliantly helpful like this!

Glad it worked out for you.
(Most of the credit goes to @Burnside though! )

I don't know if this will help you, but the phrase I ask Alexa could be simpler and shorter.

In my case,
"Alexa, number 1"
"Alexa, number 2"
"Alexa, number 3"...

These numbers activate routines so that I can play different Amazon music playlists for each.

However, I am operating this in Japanese, so I am not sure if this will work in English (or any other language).

 

[Burnside]

Yeah, I tend to keep routine voice triggers simple (less chance for alexa to misunderstand you in my experience) particularly if I'm using them in the car - so "alexa, car playlist 1" rather than "Alexa, shuffle my arnay-le-duc playlist" (it's a campsite in France where I compiled the playlist if you're wondering ), so "Alexa, living room music" would have sufficed for me

 

[SpeckledEgg]

These are good points. I did consider what triggers to use, something that would not be misinterpreted as something else, and is also easy of the rest of the family to remember. I think I like "living room music". I'll retrain Alexa (easy) and retrain the family (um...)

 

[Burnside]

These are good points. I did consider what triggers to use, something that would not be misinterpreted as something else, and is also easy of the rest of the family to remember. I think I like "living room music". I'll retrain Alexa (easy) and retrain the family (um...)

The good thing about Alexa voice triggered routines is that you can have multiple invocations (up to 5 or 6 iirc), so you could just add that shorter version and any others the family might prefer..