Essential Install | Voice Recognition
WyreStorm says it
was at the forefront
of Echo and Alex
integration – showing
its Enado solution at
ISE in 2015
“There is no doubt that those with the hardware
platforms available today Amazon, Google and Apple will
dominate – much like the Mac vs Windows battle of the
80’s & 90’s. The platform most easily accessible to users
will win out. If Alexa is built into your car then you will use
her at home; if Google voice is in your phone and TV then
that will be your choice. Apple may struggle to catch up
when the price point of its Siri-capable HomePod is six
times that of an Echo Dot.”
Habitech says that its been working with Alexa to
explore the potential of voice control to change the nature
of home automation.
Justin Martin-Lawrence, Habitech’s technical manager,
says: “CES this year showed the extent to which consumer
tech manufacturers are stampeding to implement the
convenience of voice control. In everything from cleaning
bots to cars it’s becoming the tech achievement they want
to shout about.
Habitech says that
voice will be a big
game changer for
home control
“Auto manufacturers such as Ford, BMW, Hyundai and
VW were demonstrating the obvious benefi ts of hands-
free control functionality in the driving environment, the
latter claiming to be the fi rst to have directly integrated
the feature with the car’s own system without an
intermediary interface. VW had a dedicated Alexa Booth
at CES.”
Martin adds: “We have already tight-knitted Alexa
integration with the near universal control capability of
Simple Control, and we’re also exploring the features
of rival techs such as Google Assistant. Its ‘smart reply’
feature is particularly natural and effective and I’d be
surprised if the big brands were not already beavering
away behind the scenes to integrate with it.
“When it’s stable and reliable I think voice is going to
be a big game changer for home control and I think that
day is fast approaching.”
HDANYWHERE says that the equation of adding
Amazon’s voice control user interface Alexa to macro
sequences results in end-user approval.
Chris Pinder, managing director of HDAnywhere, says
that from the outset you need to understand there are two
Alexa control types; smart home skills and custom skills.
He explains: “Smart home skills are ones made by
Amazon, which are fairly limited and standard across all
compatible devices. Custom skills are unique to brands
and their devices.
“Custom skills allow for much greater leveraging of a
device’s full functionality. In HDAnywhere’s case, this is
the IP-to-IR engine and the power of macros! Just like the
convenience of a single button press. Macrosequences
delivered because of our on-board
technology, plus our custom skill, mean
that with a single voice command you can
achieve brilliant end-results utilising a mix
of AV devices.”
Explaining the difference between
custom skill and smart home skills, Chris
says: “Using HDAnywhere’s custom skills,
once could ask: ‘Alexa, tell my TV to
watch BBC News’; but through Amazon
Smarthome Skill that would be ‘Alexa, turn
on BBC News on TV in living room’.
“The HDAnywhere custom skills of
instructing Alexa to switch the TV to CCTV
or to pause the TV are not supported by
Amazon Smarthome Skill.”
Chris adds: “If you want to experience
the HDA difference in voice control,
simply download the latest MHUB
operating system (OS7) to your MHUB via
the top left corner on the settings page.
“Post installation, simply ask Alexa
to discover devices (or download the
MHUB 4K PRO Control Custom Skill) and
it should fi nd and add your MHUB. From
that moment you will be able to voice
control your whole-home AV system.”
Setup as simple as
Alexa, discover devices
“
Find out more at www.pulse-eight.com
58 | July 2017
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