Fairly new to ST, and I currently am using VLC Thing for all sound. My question is, I am thinking about buying an Amazon Echo, and I’ve heard you can use this for sound with ST like a Sonos. Amazon has the new Dot coming out, and was thinking about buying one. If I use the Dot instead of VLC Thing, will I gain anything? Is the voice different?
I wasn’t sure if there was any advantage or not.
You cannot currently output sound to the Echo from SmartThings. It is only used for voice control of your devices, not as an integrated smart speaker.
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My bad. For some reason I thought that I saw a YouTube video of a guy explaining his smart home setup, and he had his Echo set up for this, so I thought it was doable. My bad. Thanks.
No Worries, it’s definitely a feature most people have on their wish list. Hopefully Amazon will enable this type of integration!
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Actually you can have your cake and eat it to. Set up vlc thing and connect it via bluetooth to your Echo. I would use an Android device for your VLC thing. Now your notifications from vlc thing will play through your echo as well as Alexa’s voice.
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Thanks for the input. Currently I have VLC Thing running on a Mac Mini connected to speakers throughout my house, so sound quality is good. However occasionally VLC Thing will cut off the last of the announcement, or sometimes you can tell a difference in the voice depending on the message said. I just thought maybe it would be Alexa’s voice if using Echo, and all of the sound notifications would be consistent.
You can output sound from the Echo IF you have VLC running on your computer and you choose the computer sound output to be the Echo. Thats how I have it setup now and its working.
How do you have them hooked up? Are you using airplay or hardwired?
They are hardwired
I tried that route using a Raspberry Pi 3. I ran into an issue with the bluetooth not pairing with Echo. I spent several hours installing and reinstalling packages via apt-get. Started losing my mind so I tried 2 other bluetooth speakers and they BOTH worked. I then tried connecting to the Echo again. No dice. It would connect for about a couple seconds then disconnect.