@theedpope Sonos/UBI are non-standards (proprietary, not open) as well?
Yes but UBI will be more open than Sonus, and will have more options that you can achieve for less money. Of course it is in Beta right now, so it is not a solid platform to incorporate into a lifestyle. But, it is coming along nicely.
Once again, it is all about what you want and where you see yourself going with the HA projects.
Where do you see that itās just $99? I didnāt see anywhere on that link.
You have to sign up for the Beta program . Project UBI I think it was called. Once you join they will send you an email to apply for Beta Testing the Hardwareā¦ At least that was the way it worked for me.
Ditto. Sign up again and wait a few days to be accepted or whatever. The acceptance email has the link to order.
I signed upā¦ weāll see. For 99 bucks itās worth it just to play with one.
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But how would that work then? Can you have 4-5 Ubi boxes in your house, each designated as a zone to send speech to?
For $99 itās definitely a better alternative than Sonos, but unless it can just be used as a remote audio playback endpoint, again itās just one more device that does too much for this particular function.
I get the point of Sonos, and I definitely get the point of Ubi, but it seems like weāre trying to shoehorn solutions into places just because thereās no better alternative at this point. My ideal scenario would be for ST to have audio at the hub, and for the app to play audio on demand for notifications (natively).
I know itās wishful thinking at this point but thereās no reason the app is not capable of doing this, the same way it can handle notifications. And ST should sell an āaudio gatewayā of some sort for cheap that does just that ā add itself to your ST network and relay messages. You should be able to use this for good morning / night / hello prompts, weather, alerts and random announcements. And something like this shouldnāt even cost $100 considering what it does.
[quote=āviguera, post:27, topic:4090, full:trueā]
But how would that work then? Can you have 4-5 Ubi boxes in your house, each designated as a zone to send speech to?[/quote]
Yesā¦ actually you could. But speech, right now, is sent via http request. I donāt know how that compares with sending speech to Sonos.
Well, you do have the ability to using voice commands to run stuff in your home.
Yeah, if youāre ONLY looking for audio announcements then either solution is way expensive.
Sonos is so much more than a shoehorn solution?
Ubi is too early to see where or if it goes anywhere when it comes to being a full audio endpoint.
A sonos connect or a sonos play 1 is an awesome device for a full audio endpoint.
You can play almost any music source, play pre-recorded announcements, and even have it translate custom text. They work without being connected to the cloud 100% of the time and can be joined together to form stereo or even full surround sound configurations.
Granted, the retail cost on a sonos play 1 is $199 US but this gives you a complete audio endpoint for a room or many rooms.
Comparing Ubiās and Sonos is like comparing apples and orange seeds. The Ubi isnāt even a fully grown orange.
I for one, hope ST never puts native audio into a hub, let the people that do audio well do it.
[quote=āpstuart, post:29, topic:4090, full:trueā]Comparing Ubiās and Sonos is like comparing apples and orange seeds. The Ubi isnāt even a fully grown orange.
[/quote]
Ehā¦ I donāt know that I agree completely. Iād say the Ubi is a sapling, not a seed. Still has a LOT of growing to do, but we can already reap some benefits from Ubi. Itās not completely in the āideaā stage still.
But the over all ideaā¦ that is that the Ubi is still in itās infancyā¦ is valid.
At least I didnāt compare it to the DNA of an orange vs a fully grown apple treeā¦
Ubi is way to new to be considered in production use. Last night while watching football the ubi must have responded to the tv 15 times. My wife and I found it quite amusing when it would actually respond with gibberishā¦ Then she asked if there was a way to shut the stupid thing up.
Very low WAFā¦ Sonos, very high WAF. Heck Sonos has a high GAF (grandparent acceptance factor)
I suggest people who are worried about 199-399 costs for adding sound to a room look at the cost of doing it the old fashioned wayā¦ A multizone amp, wiring, decent in wall or in ceiling speakers and then the method to control the audioā¦ This is at minimum about $1k per room done right. Sonos is just so much cheaper comparitively. On top of it, you can convert them into stereo matches, surround sound, etc. Oh and if you want sound in another room, just unplug, move and plug back in.
I wish sonos was available when I did my whole house audio. Would have saved a ton of moneyā¦
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[quote=āpstuart, post:31, topic:4090, full:trueā]
At least I didnāt compare it to the DNA of an orange vs a fully grown apple treeā¦[/quote]
Yeah, Ubi doesnāt get triggered by the TV way too much. For some reason my wife hasnāt asked me to shut off Ubi. Sheās usually not one to be at the bleeding edge of tech and stuff like this usually annoys her enough that I have to either make it work or shut it offā¦ but as I said, for whatever reason sheās okay with Ubi.
I guess our family just isnāt into music that much when weāre home. I just donāt see us using Sonos more than once a month for anything more than ST announcements.
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Thatās the same situation that Iām in. I have no need or interest in whole house audio for anything other than announcements.
I rarely listen to music in the car, and never at home. And the wife listens maybe once a week, if that.
We are heavily invested in tech, with several multi-monitor desktops, laptops and tablets, a few large (70+ inches) TVs and the like, but never really have had the need for this whole āplay music through the houseā business to justify the expense of a bunch of Sonos equipment.
But then again maybe weāre in the minority, or maybe implenenting Sonos was the cheap / easy / fast way for ST to go. Either way, I certainly hope there are alternatives down the road for people that want announcements without the need to spend hundreds of dollars per room.
We are similar. Each member of the family has very different tastes in music as well. Any listening is done with headphones or ear buds. The perfectly adequate wired speaker setup only gets loud during movies or football.
My Ubiās arrived on Monday. Been great so far. Notifies when someone at front door (porch motion sensor), notifies specific garage door opening, welcome home on presence etc. The IFTTT integration is probably the best though: weather report at 8:00 am just before we all depart, I created a recipe for Ubi to announce NOAA weather warnings, watches, advisories, Android map presence for āDaddy is 15 minutes from homeā, reads out description of Google calendar events like ātime for bedā "did you do your homework yet ātime to pick up kidā āthe state fair starts todayā and more. And of course digests the voice commands for āGoodnightā to lock up and shut down the house, or specific lights. Voice commands are fine when Iām close or loud enough. It even tells us jokes if we ask it to. It answers math questions and stuff like what is the population of Japan. A hit with the family. Have one in family room right next to my seat, the other next to the bed. Lovinā it!
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@Dlee @chrisb @pstuart How long did you guys need to wait before the UBI guys respond back? I put my name in the list a week ago (willing to discuss via phone/email; ready to buy an UBI for personal use), and have not heard back from them ā¦
Oh BTW Rakuten has Sonos Play 1ās for sale for ~170$. Wanted to bite the bullet, but am waiting to see if anyone else (read Amazon) drops their prices ā¦
They are insanely slow to respond. Even after I placed my order, they charged my card but waited over a week before I emailed again and then they shipped my Ubi.
These guys are not ready for prime time. Give them some room, but ultimately stay on top of them.
I got mine off eBayā¦ so I canāt really speak about ordering. But yeah, support isnāt the worst Iāve ever seen from a kickstarter (* cough* lifx *cough *), but it isnāt on par with SmartThing either. (Yes, I know Iām brown nosingā¦ 
)
I have an android tablet docked between my kitchen and living room. Using Tasker, autovoice, and autoremote I can do just about anything I want through voice prompts or pass messages back from smartthings to the tablet for audible messages. If you have a tablet laying around or even a smartphone not being used this could provide a cheap solution that doesnāt require the new purchase of a $200-300 device.
With autovoice now able to be triggered through google now and with google now able to detect āok, googleā from any screen and when your device is being charged (screen off) you get a truly handsfree system. Just an option.
I couldnāt find any reasonably priced mounting kits. can you post a link?
Hereās a cheap optionā¦ Not the prettiest, but simple and easy for any and all sizes.