Jordan O'BrienCasaTunes has officially brought voice control support to its whole home audio solution, with the company embracing Amazon’s Alexa.
Multi-room audio is currently the hot topic in the AV industry, and while industry leader Sonos continues to play around and tinker with support for Alexa, CasaTunes is already offering it. In fact, both CasaTunes and the DIY musicBox 6 music servers can be controlled using Alexa voice control, making it one of the first whole home audio solutions to do so.
Using the CasaTunes Skill for Alexa, homeowners can control the volume, turn rooms on and off, share music around the home, and queue up songs they want to listen to – all with their voice. All the typical commands are supported, including play, pause, next track, previous track, shuffle, and repeat, while users can also ask Alexa what is playing in a room, and schedule an alarm.
“At CasaTunes, we have been working on providing a robust voice control solution, based on the Alexa voice service, to existing and prospective CasaTunes and musicBox 6 homeowners. With the growing popularity of voice based control systems, homeowners are looking for products that include voice control,” says David Krinker, president with CasaTunes.
“At less than $50, the Amazon Echo Dot is an excellent alternative to keypads in the home. We expect customers will deploy these devices throughout their home, and use these, along with theCasaTunes and musicBox 6 Apps to control their music.”
Communicating with the CasaTunes Alexa skill can be done simply by saying ‘Alexa, tell CasaTunes’, followed by the command. For example, all these phrases would work when paired with a CasaTunes device of DIY musicBox 6 music server.
- Alexa, ask CasaTunes to power on Living Room
- Alexa, ask CasaTunes to schedule an alarm for 8:00 am
- Alexa, ask CasaTunes to share music with Master Bedroom
- Alexa, ask CasaTunes to select next playlist
- Alexa, ask CasaTunes what song is playing
- Alexa, ask CasaTunes to power off all rooms
The Alexa Skill for CasaTunes and the musicBox 6 is available now as a free upgrade for all existing CasaTunes and musicBox 6 systems. Unfortunately, the skill is only available to those in the US at the moment, however.
Google Home users may feel left out, although that smart speaker already supports multi-room audio voice control through Chromecast-enabled speakers. Thankfully, CasaTunes could also be supported by Google Home at some point in the future. Speaking to CE Pro Europe, David Krinker, CEO of CasaTunes, notes: “We look at all types of control options, including Google Home. We prioritize support based on customer demand, market share, licensing, and development cost. In the case of Google Home, this is something we are investigating.”