Home Assistant integratio available

A quick note that the Linkplay custom component for Home Assistant was polished based on 3 different Arylic devices:

  • S50 PRO
  • A50
  • Up2Stream_AMP3
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@robi looks interesting. Will have a look at it and test. :slight_smile:

I am very happy to hear, Home assistant has become available!

Two questions:

  1. Which voice assistants are supported? Google, Alexa, Siri?
  2. When will also Up2Stream Mini support Google Assistent?
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@KolfMAKER

Too early for me to answer your questions however I have managed to set up the devices in Home Assistant. Then it will be a case of seeing what can be linked to Alexa & Google Assistant.

I will post more when I have explored to functionality. Regards, Kevin

Thanks Kevin!

Just to be clear, my wish is to use the Up2Stream Mini as a WiFi-speaker via Google Assistant (not as a Bluetooth speaker).

Looking forward to hear from you findings.

Cheers,
Ernst

@KolfMAKER

OK Ernst understood. I am trying to achieve this too :slight_smile:

What would be your preferred Source / Streaming Service ?

Kevin

Great Kevin, thnx! :+1:

My main streaming source is Spotify.

OK Ernst,

That is good news to start with as Home Assistant has a Spotify Integration :slight_smile:

Exactly.

What I have done so far, is have two speakers (with the Up2Stream Mini inside), combined with a S10. So I ‘linked’ the speakers to the S10 in the 4Stream App.

Next I put the S10 in Bluetooth mode, as this was the only way for my Google Assistent to recognize the S10 as a speaker.

But I was unsuccessful playing music this way. And anyhow, I do not want Google Assistent to see my speakers as Bluetooth speakers. I only want to stream via WiFi (for obvious reasons).

So I am curious :wink:

It is theoretically possible with Home Assistant (HA) being the Key “Gateway”.

So the Architecture is something like-

  • Backend
    = HA Custom Component Linkplay (to manage the Arylic Devices - including multiroom zones )
    = OR HA DLNA Digital Media Renderer (Arylic devices are DLNA renderers)
  • HA Frontend = HA Spotify Integration (To manage access to playlists, Spotify content etc.)
  • Google Assistant Frontend = HA Scripts can be exposed to Google Assistant as “Scenes” (A subscription with Nabu Casa $5/per month is required for the Alexa & Google Assistant side of things.)

There could be a simplification if the Spotify Integration can handle the backend media players directly.

Not being free could be a constraint but not in my case as I use Home Assistant in two properties for many Home Automation applications so I already have the Nabu Casa subscription as it saves a lot of time on the configuration side of things (particularly with respect to access from Mobile Devices when away from LAN).

However as usual it is likely that in practice it will be a challenge to set it up quickly :slight_smile:

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Thnx NWT.Stuff !

Great how you look at it and create a working environment. I am not sure how difficult this is. But I am looking for something that is easy to set up.
Preferably for me, just configurating with Google Home App and 4Stream App. For this I think Google Assistent needs to be supported by Arylic in the Up2Stream Mini.

My projects are mainly HiFi speakers with built-in amplifiers (active speakers), rebuilt and upgraded with streaming (built inside). I mainly use Up2Stream Mini v3 to built inside the speakers, and S10 for adding analog sources to the streaming eco system.

My big wish is to use voice commands to play music on vintage (active) HiFi speakers.

A quick note about how Spotify works.
Main thing is that you can’t exclude the original Spotify app from the system, even if you use the HA Spotify integration. In principle that is just a temporary remote working in parallel with the app.

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@KolfMAKER @robi

I can select a Spotify playlist on Google Assistant and play it on an S50+ Preamp. It’s not straightforward and wouldn’t be of much use to anyone that doesn’t have hands on experience with Home Assistant (or even some hardware with it installed). I will post more information when I have more experience with the tools. At the moment HA needs configuring and I would need to cut and paste ever playlist url into a HA script which is then exposed to GA as a scene. A scene is executed in Google Home Routines.

A better solution would be some form of direct GA Integration for Arylic (or Linkplay which Arylic use). @KolfMAKER I am sure that is what you are looking for with your projects.

I have not succeeded with the Mini & Pro DIY Boards. I think there are some posts on the forum which relate to this in some extent. The problem here is Spotify Connect does not see the Mini & Pro. The Mini, Pro & S50+ are all broadcasting the “_spotify-connect_tcp” service however the Spotify Front End only sees the S50+.

I don’t think it is a firewall issue as the PRO is hard wired on the LAN. The Mini doesn’t have a LAN port so is on wifi.

I think I will research some of the posts on the forum but I have noticed before that the Spotify behaviour of the DIY Boards is different to that of the S50+ preamp. It would probably be better to create a new topic for this or add to the existing one/s

Regards, Kevin

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@NWT.Stuff
I would prefer a direct integration of Google Assistent with the Up2Stream Mini.
Probably this integration has already been done by Arylic/Rakoit/Linkplay, but not yet on the Mini.

This integration is on my Wishlist!

Still interested in your findings Kevin!

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@KolfMAKER @robi

I will look into the Spotify Issues with Arylic.

I am committed to implementing Multiroom in our Villa in Spain-Multiroom Spain. It would be nice to offer our guests a unilateral solution based on the Music Subscription they have (e.g. Spotify, Amazon, Deezer). For this reason I am interested and committed to finding cool solutions for them to enjoy :slight_smile:

From a personal point of view I have a large digital music collection which is sitting on a Synology NAS (there is a Music Server which syncronises between UK & Spain). The 24bit/96kHz tracks sound amazing but again that is down to the fact that the original recordings are good.

So my major efforts on Voice Control will be playing playlists from this Server and Creating Multiroom Zones using Home Assistant which can then be exposed to Google Assistant, Alexa and possibly my next generation of Voice Control with Open Source Software. The experience is totally transferrable to other platforms as in simplistic terms Music Streaming consists of a Source, Sink/Target and Control Point. The rest is just communications hurdles that prevent the perfect triangle :slight_smile:

I think Linkplay in HA will really help the Zone Control side of things.

Regards, Kevin

Spotify Connect has suddenly started working with
Arylic - Mini, Pro & Amp (was working before with S50+)
Spotify - iOS app, android & web interface.

Might give Home Assistant another go :slight_smile:

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@KolfMAKER @robi

Got the Voice Control Working with Home Assistant, Google Assistant & Alexa. See attached PDF.

Working Platform for Voice Control with Google Assistant, Alexa using Home Assistant. In this case the audio source is Spotify.

Voice Control Spotify Home Assistant Google Assistant Alexa

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@NWT.Stuff
Thanks for sharing this feedback Kevin!
I guess you created a setup like you described before with HA custom components.
But I am very much interested in the setup description/your PDF.

@kolfmaker

The pdf link is shown in previous post as I edited it.

I’ve updated the component to pass through the UART commands so they can be used directly from HA automations.

shot
shot

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