Smart assistant multimedia extension know-how
When it works, controlling your TV and Sound System with Voice Assistants can feel like magic. Using voice commands avoids thumbing through menus and lets you enjoy a great movie or perfectly-timed song much faster and easier.
But using Smart Voice Assistant as your TV remote requires a bit of know-how. To avoid potential frustration, we’ll go through how you can extend the features of different Voice Assistants, and explain how to set them up. It will be as easy as pie 😉Just use your voice and control your entertainment from across the room.
You can naturally also add multimedia systems in your KNX/Loxone/Gira Smart Home and control them from a single interface. This enables you to orchestrate different scenes and let your home work in synergy with your needs. For example, by commanding “Cinema Time”, your blinds roll down, music fades, the TV turns on and plays you a movie. All you need is a fresh batch of popcorn and the game is on.
Before you add multimedia to your home, you need to connect your home with a smart assistant.
Here is how you do it:
Control your TV hands-free
Say it and watch as thousands of movies and TV episodes come to life with vibrant colors and detailed contrast in 4K. With the help of Amazon Alexa, Google Home and Apple Homekit of course!
Alexa (Echo, Echo Dot, Echo Plus) integrates the smoothest with Amazon Fire TV (Amazon Fire Stick or Amazon Cube which in itself is already a Voice Assistant), but you can use voice commands with Android TV as well.
Compatible with Android TV are Logitech Harmony Hub, Nvidia Shield and Sony Android TV.
To pair them with Alexa, go to Alexa App, Menu>>Skills & Games and enable Harmony Skill/Nvidia Shield TV/Sony’s Android TV.
Voice Commands to try:
- “Hey Alexa, play Stranger Things on Netflix on Fire TV.”
- “Hey Alexa, play/pause/resume.”
- “Alexa, turn up the volume.”
- “Alexa, next episode.”
- “Alexa, search for comedies on Netflix.” (works only with Fire TV)"
Google Home connects the most effortlessly to your TV via Chromecast (from the Google Home App >>Account>>More Settings>>TVs and Speakers>>Add a device) but works well with any TV supporting CEC (manufacturers: AOC, Hitachi, Insignia, ITT, LG, Magnavox, Mitsubishi, Onkyo, Panasonic, Pioneer, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, Sylvania, Toshiba, and Vizio). The newest addition is that Google Home also works with SHIELD TV as long as they’re in the same network.
Voice Commands to try:
- “Ok Google, play Eminem on Youtube”
- “Ok Google, play next episode of Narcos on Netflix”
- “Hey Google, show my pictures on Living Room TV”
- “Hey Google, watch Ozark on SHIELD.”
HomeKit plays on Apple TV only (which is expensive comparing to above mentioned Alexa Fire TV and Chromecast).
Voice Commands to try:
- “Hey Siri, I want to watch Gone Girl.”
- “Find TV shows for kids”
- “Find surfing lessons on YouTube”
Control your Music with Voice
Voice Assistants allow you to choose a specific song, artist, album, genre or mood for any and every occasion e.g. “Play happy music.” or “Play music for reading”. You can control what’s playing when by saying pause/next/stop and change the volume anytime, from anywhere. The fun doesn’t stop there, this is also a possible command option:
“Hey Google, play the album with a diving baby and a one dollar bill on its cover.”
- “Alright, here’s the album Nevermind.”
Alexa works seamlessly with any Sound System with Bluetooth, Logitech Harmony Hub or many Sonos players. It gets even better, you can extend any Hi-Fi system with the latest generation of Echo devices (Amazon Echo Input, Echo 2nd gen and Echo Dot 3rd gen) that have the output jack and can play on any sound system. Crazy, huh?
Supports these Music Services:
- Amazon Music (Not available in Canada)
- Apple Music
- Spotify
- TuneIn Radio
- Deezer
- Pandora (Not available in the UK, Canada, or Australia)
- iHeartRadio (Not available in the UK or Canada)
- SiriusXM (Not available in the UK, Canada, or Australia)
Google Home plays music either via Chromecast/Chromecast Audio (which enables you to play music on any Hi-Fi system), via Built-in Chromecast devices (e.g. MagniFi Max) or with any Bluetooth speaker.
Supports these Music Services:
- Google Play Music Free and Premium.
- YouTube Music (US, UK, Australia, and Mexico only)
- Spotify Free and Premium.
- Pandora (US only)
- TuneIn.
- iHeartRadio.
- Deezer Premium+
Apple plays music on AirPlay 2 supported devices and allows AirPort Express extension for any sound system.
Supports these Music Services:
- Apple music
- Limited shortcut support for other systems like Spotify
Thank you for taking the time to read this overview of the popular assistants, hopefully it helped you find a multimedia solution for your smart home.
Stay awesome & use voice!
