Echo Alexa - Remote microphones for whole house

Finally got Alexa hooked up to my V2 and loving it so far. Starting to work next on momentary/virtual switches to see what else I can do with it!

Has any come up with an idea to put remote microphones in different rooms around the house? The echo remote only works when you press a button and actually interrupts the Echo from listening. My idea (as I’m sure others have) is a microphone and perhaps speaker in each room of the house. From my research with Amazon, you can have multiple Echos but they are not linked. Ideas?

A good portion of the cost of building the Echo is the 7 microphones (for focused far-field trigger word detection and clear capture of speech) and a somewhat decent speaker.

As such, it is likely not a significant savings to build “remote microphone” units, as they would have to be priced as much as the main unit. The main unit may even have a slim margin, as it is a Trojan Horse to get Prime (etc.) into your home. Remotes do not increase this benefit significantly, so Amazon has less incentive.

Let’s hope that the next version of Amazon Alexa will have the capability for multiple 2.4 mhz or Bluetooth enabled remote mics like my Panasonic phone system connects to other stations for speakerphone.

1 Like

I’m willing to bet on Bluetooth or IP devices for Echo connection. Without whole house access (mics? spkr?), Echo is relegated to a condo/apartment or big house kitchen implementation.

Plenty of us with multiple Echos have been asking for the ability to link them together. Another needed addition is expanding the BT so it can be used for more than just audiobook reader.

1 Like

Again: regular “mics” won’t give you the accuracy of the Amazon Echo!!!

You need the seven-micophone array and its digital signal processing to accurately handle the wake word and speech.

So it is quite possible Amazon will not make a “remote node” for Alexa.

But there’s no reason a household couldn’t use a few of the main unit, and have them coordinated with each other.

1 Like

I submitted this request to amazon today:
Please consider adding a “room” name assignment to each echo.
Then adjust the connected device voice actions to prepend the room name to the device request prior to sending to the connected device.
Ex: room=kitchen
Connected device name=kitchen lights
Request: turn on the lights
Resulting echo action: turn on the kitchen lights
Should (room) device not exist, try device before giving up.
A user could walk into any room with an echo in it and simply say turn on the lights…
How awesome would that be?
And you’ll sell more echos…

3 Likes

im searching for something like that and everywhere i go i see a lot of people trying to add multiple mics all over the house. i think thats the wrong way. i think the best way to do that is find some wifi/bluetooth walkie talkie that can connect to the same receptor and put that one next to echo. anyone knows something like that?

They do kind of work together, i plugged in a fourth echo dot in the living room so the firmware would update. Only the echo that was closest would respond.

Well, the dots are airways on sale for around $35.00. They come with the far field technology.

I have…
Show in the kitchen
Echo in the living room
Echo in the master bath
Echo in the parents room
And 7 dots, one for each room of the house.

I’m going to get a tap for the back porch, maybe…

1 Like

I use this

Got it on an amazon sale day before xmas for ~10 bucks.

1 Like

I’ve got a couple of those remotes sitting in a drawer… Never use them.