I have tried to search for a few answers, but keep coming up short so I apologize if this has already been discussed. I am also doing this research preemptively before my Dot and Smartthings Hub arrive.
I have two Bluetooth speakers - One in my kitchen and one in my living room. Ideally, I would like to say “Alexa play music in my kitchen” or “Alexa play music in my living room”, having Alexa then pair to the specific Bluetooth speaker.
From reading Echo forums and others, it does not seem possible without disconnecting or re-pairing each device. The one thing I did notice, was that Alexa will pair to which ever device is turned on and play through that speaker. Would a work around be to use a smart plug for both speakers and have a keyword for Alexa that could turn on the specific outlet that I want to play the music through?
Yes it is an adequate workaround. This is exactly how I have Alexa play through my home entertainment system. “Alexa, turn on House Audio” enables a Harmony Activity that turns on and switches my Amp to the correct input, as well as turning on a Smart Socket that powers a Bluetooth Stereo Adapter. The net effect is the Bluetooth adapter turns on and a few seconds later I get Alexa’s bluetooth join confirmation chime through my home audio system. “Alexa, turn off House Audio” does everything in reverse and ‘she’ returns to her place on the bar that separates my living room and kitchen.
Do like most of us, just have multiple Dots! Never can have enough of those! Then you can direct the music to that particular Dot which is already connected to its own speaker.
Thanks! Another question geared more towards Echos / Fire TV.
I was able to pair my Echo to my Fire TV and I can have it play shows. But I wanted to take advantage of the sound system from my TV. It seems as though I cannot say to my Echo Dot “Play Music on Fire TV”. Any work arounds for this?
I just use the remote that came with the FireTV and say the same sentence. You can direct music to be played to various echo devices but I do not believe you can direct music to a FireTV. However, I do believe you can tell her to open up Pandora or any other app on the FireTV…
The integration between echo devices and FireTV is more geared towards visual display stuff…I think…