Alexa Audio Integration

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Questions about hardware that can be controlled by Indigo (but not through the interfaces and plugins listed). If Indigo doesn't support some bit of hardware you're interested in, and you don't find a 3rd Party Plugin for it, add it to this forum. Be sure to include links to as much information as you can find about it.

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Posted on
Fri Dec 09, 2016 6:17 pm
whmoorejr offline
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Alexa Audio Integration

For audio integration, I have an Alexa Dot connected to my server. (Audio line out to line in on Mac Mini) Using Airfoil to Airplay out the "Built-in Input"

I haven't been able to figure out a way to bring the audio in via Bluetooth. (With hopes that as a bluetooth input, I would get metadata = album art, etc) anyone have thoughts on that?

Sent a feature request to Rogue Amoeba for 1) Alexa integration via ? 2) Ability to change the label of the "Built-in Input"

Anyone figured out other ways to integrate audio from an Alexa device into indigo?

Anyone figured out a way to bluetooth input audio onto a Mac?

Or is there a way to get the metadata from your "Now Playing" page on your alexa.amazon.com ?

Also hoping that in a future firmware update, Alexa will have the ability to control one device from another. (Dot in amy office, Echo in Living Room..... while in Living Room "Alexa, play X on my office dot.) But I haven't seen any ways to control an Alexa device outside of itself (and I'm not going to carry an Alexa remote around with me)

Bill
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Posted on
Fri Dec 09, 2016 7:59 pm
jay (support) offline
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Re: Alexa Audio Integration

I don't believe you can push sound to an Echo.

Not sure of anything that turns your Mac into a bluetooth speaker, though I actually did think about it the other day. Haven't had a chance to look around yet.

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Posted on
Sat Dec 10, 2016 9:34 am
whmoorejr offline
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Re: Alexa Audio Integration

I paired my Dot with my MacMini and it showed up as a bluetooth speaker available to Airfoil. Pretty cool.... but I was trying to go the other way. (Put Amazon music into airfoil). I did achieve this the hard-wire method.... so I have a working solution, but I would like it to be cleaner.

Echo and Dot both have Bluetooth Input. The Dot also has Bluetooth output. https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer ... =202009700

If I could push the audio out of the Dot and into the MacMini, I could put the little booger anywhere in my office (no 3.5mm audio cable draped across my desk).

on my iMac I'm running ElCapitan which has "Bluetooth Explorer". Under "Utilities : Special Options", there is an "Allow role switches for audio connections For A2DP connections" Sounds promising.... but my MacMini is running Yosemite and there is no bluetooth explorer built into the OS. I haven't tested it either to see if it works.

Looked everywhere for a "Bluetooth Speaker OS X App" or similar.... A2DP Input, Bluetooth audio in, etc... and found nothing.

Bill
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Posted on
Sun Dec 18, 2016 7:44 am
zabazoom offline
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Re: Alexa Audio Integration


Posted on
Sun Dec 18, 2016 10:15 am
Colorado4Wheeler offline
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Re: Alexa Audio Integration

I've tried probably 10 different bluetooth speakers with my various Macs and it's an exercise in futility. I can get them paired without too much fuss but getting them to play reliably is a different story. I think the Mac is really built to receive bluetooth and not send it because just about every attempt has resulted in extremely choppy sound.

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Posted on
Mon Sep 11, 2017 10:24 am
whmoorejr offline
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Re: Alexa Audio Integration

To update this from where I started....

Last week sometime Amazon release "Music Everywhere". This has helped me out a ton. Now all of my Alexa Dots/Echos are house speakers with all my airfoil speakers.

One Echo Dot is in the server room (3.5mm from Dot to MacMini Microphone) = Airfoil Built-In Audio Source.

Tell Echo in bedroom to play music everywhere and now all the amazon device sync music plus dot in the server feeds Airfoil to sync across all the airplay devices.

This gives me a lot of speaker when using Amazon music or any other music source on the echo.

The only remaining problem I have is with indigo announcements. My system will make different audio announcements throughout the day and for certain alerts.... that just means I have to remember to switch the audio source on airfoil before any announcement. (Experimenting with a couple other RogueAmoeba products now to see if I can merge audio sources)

Lastly... for indigo announcements, I wanted some cheep airfoil speakers.... don't need expensive high end for something that is primarily used for reminders and announcements. You can get the iHome iW1 for under $40. Capability wise, it is overkill for what I needed, but the price was right.

Bill
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Posted on
Tue Sep 12, 2017 8:59 am
jay (support) offline
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Re: Alexa Audio Integration

Thanks for posting the follow-up. I haven't had time to experiment with the Music Everywhere feature yet.

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Posted on
Tue Sep 12, 2017 9:38 am
whmoorejr offline
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Re: Alexa Audio Integration

It's still finicky. 1/3 of the time it works fine. 1/3 the time it will find a band or song named "everywhere" and jus play that on one device. The remaining 1/3 of the time it will tell me I need to set up that feature in the Alexa app. (Even though it is already set up). But I'm hopeful that it will improve.

Bill
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Posted on
Wed Sep 13, 2017 6:04 pm
Dewster35 offline
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Re: Alexa Audio Integration

Jay,
Just because I like proving you wrong ;)

Say to Alexa "connect to my mobile device"..... the first time there is a pairing process, from then on out it's a quick connect and the echo or dot turns into a dumb bluetooth speaker that plays your phone audio.

jay (support) wrote:
I don't believe you can push sound to an Echo.

Not sure of anything that turns your Mac into a bluetooth speaker, though I actually did think about it the other day. Haven't had a chance to look around yet.

Posted on
Wed Sep 13, 2017 6:50 pm
jay (support) offline
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Re: Alexa Audio Integration

Dewster35 wrote:
Jay,
Just because I like proving you wrong ;)

Say to Alexa "connect to my mobile device"..... the first time there is a pairing process, from then on out it's a quick connect and the echo or dot turns into a dumb bluetooth speaker that plays your phone audio.


Interesting! (though I'm pretty sure when I wrote that back in December 2016 it wasn't possible)

In the context of this topic it would be pushing audio from your Mac to an Echo. Have you found a way to do that?

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Posted on
Thu Sep 14, 2017 6:44 pm
Dewster35 offline
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Re: Alexa Audio Integration

https://www.dropbox.com/s/vpq7n89mlo0vu ... M.png?dl=0

Like this? Not sure quite why you would want to do this... but tell it to pair your device, connect to it via bluetooth and then click the volume icon in the menu bar and choose the echo just as you would any airplay device.

What exactly would the use case for this be?

Edit: I'm braindead.... so yeah, now I see the utility. I never got around to hooking up my airport expresses when we moved because they only seemed to work well hardwired and I don't have that setup available here... so whole house audio is back :)

Posted on
Fri Sep 15, 2017 10:04 am
jay (support) offline
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Re: Alexa Audio Integration

Dewster35 wrote:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/vpq7n89mlo0vuib/Screen%20Shot%202017-09-14%20at%208.40.00%20PM.png?dl=0

Like this? Not sure quite why you would want to do this... but tell it to pair your device, connect to it via bluetooth and then click the volume icon in the menu bar and choose the echo just as you would any airplay device.


Yeah, exactly like that. I must be totally missing something obvious so can you walk me through the exact steps you took to make your Echo show up on your Mac? I can pair the opposite way (have the echo pair with my Mac), but I never see the echo in any of the speaker output selections (the menu in your picture or in the Sound system preference).

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Posted on
Fri Sep 15, 2017 2:13 pm
Sharek326 offline
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Re: Alexa Audio Integration

I don't mean to jump in but what I did to pair it was go into Alexa App >>>>>Settings>>>>.Bluetooth Setup up device.

Posted on
Fri Sep 15, 2017 6:56 pm
Dewster35 offline
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Re: Alexa Audio Integration

Sharek326 wrote:
I don't mean to jump in but what I did to pair it was go into Alexa App >>>>>Settings>>>>.Bluetooth Setup up device.



Jay,
This works too ^.

Keep in mind it is still shitty bluetooth so range does matter. After I got the close echo to pair, I tried another one and that fact finally sunk in. I'm on the hunt for something that would boost the bluetooth transmission signal from my mac mini to be able to achieve whole house audio.

Posted on
Sat Sep 16, 2017 10:02 am
jay (support) offline
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Re: Alexa Audio Integration

Sharek326 wrote:
I don't mean to jump in but what I did to pair it was go into Alexa App >>>>>Settings>>>>.Bluetooth Setup up device.


Yeah, I did that. And while it shows up in Airfoil, it never shows up in iTunes, the volume menu, or the Sound Preference in Settings. Odd.

ss141.png
ss141.png (45.83 KiB) Viewed 4266 times


And, BTW, even this much used to not work back when I was messing with it last year so they've made some improvements to the bluetooth capabilities in the past year through firmware upgrades.

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