How to Install a STEALTH Voice Assistant In Your Ceiling

[@foforivera]

Taking note, you sir are doing the lords work

[@FutureProofHomes]

Haha! Thanks for the good feedback! Deep Home Assistant integration steps coming in the next video. Stay tuned!

[@michaelhinchey]

Caught my attention. Very informative and cool video. I'll be watching for new videos.

[@FutureProofHomes]

Thanks for the good feedback! Next vid coming this week.

[@whatwhat-777]

already loving the content..unique stuff, no one has taught how to do this in youtube, and believe me i watch many HA yt channels.

[@FutureProofHomes]

Awesome to hear! I’ll continue trying for creative and new content. Thanks for the good feedback.

[@A_Class216]

Super dope. Definitely a game changer. I want to install Alexa in ceiling.

[@FutureProofHomes]

Do it! When people come over to my home their minds are blown. Honestly, even a mediocre voice assistant feels magical when it’s in the ceiling of every room. I can’t wait to get a 100% local chatGPT powered assistant wired in the home.

[@gregormartynus6178]

would be open to share the diagrams you show in this video? They are such a great reference!

[@gnospanker]

Cool solution, I didn't realized there was an amp that had already thought of some of the stuff it does. So the only bad audio you hear is the audio of Alexa's voice? And all music is coming from the Sonos stream? Do you need a separate Sonos stream for every room? And is the pairing the Sonos box to the individual echos through bluetooth or network? (and how reliable is that connection?) Overall looks really great. I know you've already moved on to the OpenAI version but I would still like to see what you've got going on in Home Assistant for this version.

[@wilty5]

Excellent video, I live in an apartment and can’t add ceiling mounted speakers, can you suggest a solution that allows me to mount the speakers on some sort of a stand in each room instead of ceiling mounting? Thanks

[@FutureProofHomes]

In that case I would highly recommend looking at HTDs smaller 2 channel amplifier. Plug your floor standing speakers + voice assistant + audio source into the set-top amplifier they make and you should be off to the races! www.htd.com/auto-switching-amp

[@wilty5]

@@FutureProofHomes thanks

[@wilty5]

Thanks for the amplifier solution, I was wondering if HomePods can be used as the speakers along with the amplifier and the home assistant project presented in this video? Thanks

[@ABnSuItan]

looking forward for you home assistant voice assist guide.

[@FutureProofHomes]

Yep. That’s the next vid! Excited to put that one out.

[@p.2617]

@@FutureProofHomes I'm looking forward to it as well! I'm subscribe and hope you share your YAML for some of the automations in your demo vide (garage door 5 minute notification, etc.)

[@YegorYurchuk]

Thank you for interesting and usefull video. So, you have to connect all sound sources from whole house (some TVs, streaming media players) to HTD amplifier to solve volume down scenario, when you speak to voice assisant or its speak to you... TVs will play sound only through celling speakers? If TV connected to it's own soundbar with subwoofer how to volume down it? And if you already have some expensive Home Theatre AudioVideo Receiver installed with standing 5.2 speakers, subwoofers, projector etc... it will be difficult achive volume down scenario in this case with HTD amplifier. Only with some home assistant automatisation with universal IR controller to volume down multichannel sound? Waiting for next videos with software solutions. Thanks!!!

[@FutureProofHomes]

I have 5.1.4 in the living room, powered by Sonos. The TV audio comes out all the speakers, but the voice assistant only speaks through the 4 in-ceiling speakers. Likewise, I have 7.2.4 in the media room with the project. TV/projector audio comes out of all the speakers, but the voice assistant only speaks through the 4 in-ceiling speakers. It's perfect for my needs. The TV volume gets turned down and she speaks from above your head. Sounds great. Feels seamless..

[@RaduNemerenco]

Thanks for the great videos. You're adding some important pieces of the puzzle of a smart and secure home. I am impressed with the capabilities of the HTD DMA-1240ADS. The problem for me is that they don't ship worldwide. Do you know any alternative, which would support multi-room and assistant/music inputs?

[@verschup]

Great video and I was able to install this in my place. I ran into a bit of an issue though as I ran out of tokens in one day as it seems that the assistant just kept listening as either the tv was on or music was playing. I have no idea why as my understanding is that it only should trigger on the wake word. Is there something that I should look at or a value where I can change this. Thanks and keep posting these awesome videos.

[@FutureProofHomes]

Try different wakewords and mic sensitive settings to minimize false positive wakewords detection. You’re right though. This is an issue. In time, it will get better.

[@verschup]

@@FutureProofHomes thx, glad it isn’t just me. Gonna do the music assistant next 😉

[@dilloniverson2806]

I am confused and new to this. Is the Sonos Port required if you are not using Sonos Speakers? I'm putting together a shopping list to use the Rasperry Pi Zero W 2, and am considering using a different brand of in ceiling speakers. Will the Sonos Port still work if required, and if not, is there any other brands that are more universal?

[@shpyda81]

I've been dissatisfied with my Apple HomePod based speaker system which handles all of my voice input for smart home commands as well as music playback throughout the house. This solution is very intriguing, but I was really hoping to transition to a wired solution for better speed and consistency which is where my current system fails, and I want my next solution to be rock-solid. One disappointment with the method you demonstrated is that it uses the Pi Zero 2 which depends on wireless connectivity. Is there a way to do this same/similar setup with Ethernet so I can check all of the boxes? I would like to run one cable and do POE to handle power and data to each ceiling module, does this seam feasible? Any input would be appreciated as I want to make sure I get this right.

[@MarioMinati]

This is a really clever setup. Thanky for sharing! I have one question regarding the home theatre integration - is it correct that you only mute the surround channel (from sonos amp) during the assistants voice outputs and the front channels are still unmuted or how do you realize muting these channels? I assume you connect your sonos bar directly with your tv.

[@FutureProofHomes]

Yes! Correct. The living room is a 5.1.4 setup and the voice assistant only speaks through the 4 in-ceiling speakers. Good news is that the Sonos + Alexa integration also does sound ducking on the remaining channels. So all the TV audio ducks down, then she speaks from the ceiling. It sounds beautiful.

[@kenhargrave3932]

Thanks for this follow up video, great info. Looking forward to hearing about the software you used.

[@FutureProofHomes]

Yep. Video discuss all the Software is coming next!

[@momopew_pew]

I noticed the Denon and monolith 11x in your vid.. are those still in play, if so, how/why? These vids are right where I want to be. I've been a traditional denon 5.1/7.1 and use HDMI/CEC with appleTV feeding into denon. As I attempt to rebuild the system and add 2/4 in ceiling speakers for the in-ceiling voice assistants, I'm a bit lost how to merge them and how to simplify the setup.

[@FutureProofHomes]

For my traditional Denon Dolby Atmos home theater system, I have the 7.4.2 speakers powered by my Denon/Monolith.. EXCEPT 2 of my in-ceiling speakers. THOSE speaker are powered by the HTD amplifier which allows for voice assistant auto-switching. This enables Alexa to speak through two in-ceiling Atmos speakers while my traditional Dolby Atmos (non-sonos) rooms are playing a movie. For Music in the home theater, I used Home Assistant to automatically turn on my Denon and switch to the correct input when the Sonos Port starts streaming music. It sets the Sonos volume and Denon volume accordingly so music doesn't blow your ears out. After Sonos has stopped streaming for 5 min Home Assistnat will turn the Denon receiver automatically shuts off. I've basically automated a remote turn-on solution. Hope that helps!

[@johnnyracks]

Assuming you have a denon with pre-outs for height, run the heights to a 2channel / 4 channel amp with multiple inputs like the one shown in this video. One input on the amp will be your height pre-outs from the denon, the other is the wyoming assistant. Set up an automation when wyoming detects your trigger in that room it quicky switches the input on the amp from the denon pre-out to the wyoming assistant. Set the automation to change the amp input back to the denon pre-outs once your command has finished. This method should cost you $250-$350. The amp just needs to have ir controls and any ir hub that works with home assistant should do!

[@shadowopal]

Very nice. Thanks for this.

[@FutureProofHomes]

Glad you liked it!

[@toddhutchings8738]

Excited about this option. Is there an another hardware option for either a one or two areas within a Sonos system of a home?

[@FutureProofHomes]

Take a look at the htd.com website. They have smaller 2channel amplifiers with voice assistant capabilities. That could meet your needs perhaps

[@dwaynebaker9817]

Love your videos. I have watched them a few times because this is something I am looking to do in my home which has a rather large footprint. Just a quick thing im a bit confused about. Are you using a SONOS AMP and a SONOS Port for both solutions? Or did your replace the Sonos Port with the Sonos Amp?

[@FutureProofHomes]

I’m using the amp for surround speakers. You can’t use a port with Sonos beam. The Sonos ports are used for 2 or 4 channel in-ceiling zones when those speakers are not connected to a Sonos beam. Hope that makes sense!

[@TheGamingArt]

What is in the Amanda hardware you’re using? The speaker wiring is completely unnecessary with a Sonos setup as they’re mix APIs Sonos provides for audio overlays. I really want to know what’s in that pick though if it has wake word support and is fully offline + HA compliant.

[@JohnCMancini]

Thanks for the video. I really like the idea. I am considering doing something very similar. How do you power the LC6i?

[@FutureProofHomes]

I purchased the 12V DC adapter below and wired it into the converter. I even connected my amplifier's trigger out to the LC6i "remote connection" to make sure it's always on when it needs to be. Sorry for late reply! www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07VQHCK6P/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s02?ie=UTF8&th=1

[@JohnCMancini]

@@FutureProofHomes No worries! I had purchased a similar Power Supply and got it working. I am using a HTD PLA-240ADS. I have an Echo in the ceiling and I am using the LC6i to connect my SONOS AMP. Works pretty good so far (although I am still troubleshooting a periodic "skip" in the audio when playing via the SONOS Amp). Next step is to replace the ceiling Echo with a Raspberry PI Zero with the Microphone Hat, seems like a straight forward replacement, I am sure you will cover that in your next video :)

[@FutureProofHomes]

Nice! Yep. That’s my next vid exactly. :) :)

[@ajinfrance]

This looks good 👍 may try this out.

[@FutureProofHomes]

Sweet! Hit me up if you have any detailed questions! Here to help.

[@jason5365]

Hi great video, question... If you have 1 dot and 1 audio source connected to zone 1. Can that source play on all zones ? Or do you need to use the override with another source and does the override auto play on all zones?

[@FutureProofHomes]

Yep. The override will play across all zones. You could have one Alexa plugged into zone one and another plugged into override which would superseded everything and play in all zones. Hope that helps!

[@dvd123123]

How about Sonos? Can you achieve all the objectives using Sonos system, e.g having Sonos one or roam in multiple rooms

[@FutureProofHomes]

Yep. 100% perfect integration with Sonos ecosystem.

[@theaccent13]

Are you able to play music via the ceiling speakers which is connected to the Sonos Amp or are you limited by the Sonos App where it will only allow you to have them as surround speaker or a speaker group for music?

[@FutureProofHomes]

Assuming I unpaired the Sonos Amp with my Arc, yes, those in-ceiling speakers would then act as a separate zone completely independent from the Arc.

[@p.2617]

Absolutely! I have this system and while I do not have Alexas installed in the ceiling of every room, the amp can be used as a stand alone product with it's own app to send audio sources through to your speakers.

[@Nick_1976]

This is magic...??? Are you a wizard ?

[@FutureProofHomes]

Yes! Wait… where’s my staff?

[@stefan-lupo-pelzl]

Would it be possible to just use HA-implemented Sonos speakers to play the Assistant's voice through these rather than the more complex dolby atmos setup you used? How would that change the setup?

[@FutureProofHomes]

Working on doing this.. I’ll demo this capability in the future for sure. I want it too.

[@stefan-lupo-pelzl]

@@FutureProofHomes that‘ll be great. I am sure many viewers would love to have a local but ‚simple‘ setup. Taking into account that IKEA sells their Symfoniks (Sonos) speakers makes this setup even more affordable.

[@gregormartynus6178]

the link in your description to "In-ceiling voice assistant mount & amplifier" is no longer working

[@AutomateWithRob]

Have you considered integrating into the Sonos API, similar to solutions like Josh Ai?

[@FutureProofHomes]

I’m familiar with Josh.ai. Can you elaborate on what you mean by, “integrating into the Sonos API”? What kind of integration exactly? Currently the system is already tightly integrated with Sonos (via Sonos Skill admittedly, for now).

[@AutomateWithRob]

@@FutureProofHomes the idea here is using tts and home assistant to deliver the messages over the Sonos without using the HTD

[@FutureProofHomes]

Oh! Yea, that did kinda work! But it required me to set the Sonos volume with the TTS request payload and if I was already playing music it would briefly blare the music at a loud volume before the voice announcement came through. Also, I recall having issues with the Sonos going back to the initially set volume and continuing to resume the music again.

[@gabeg.4583]

Can either Alexa or Google home, via a wakeword, allow me to start a full conversation with chatGPT?

[@FutureProofHomes]

Not without really crazy, always breaking, unofficial, disappointing hacks. No.

[@Nick_1976]

If you don't have a large budget to spend on a fancy amp. My challenge is to find some way to blend both audio from Wyoming satellite and TV/Movie surround sound. 😢

[@michaelangeloabarreto4588]

It does seem now Google Assistant can use paired BT for voice output

[@FutureProofHomes]

Tried it. :) BT doesn’t always stay connected. The audio quality is low. Also, all the same issues occur that I received with “the simple solution”. i.e. When you turn the BT music volume down the voice assistant’s voice volume also gets turned down. And it doesn’t work with Dolby Atmos surround from TVs. :( I would love if everything could be wireless though! That’s the future, for sure.

[@AAmtb]

What happens if Amazon removes the audio out port in the future?

[@FutureProofHomes]

It’s already happening. Amazon’s newest voice products don’t have audio out. You’d have to hack/solder their future products or figure out a completely wireless solution. For me, I’ll be transitioning to a local voice assistant not built by any of the big tech companies that meets my requirements. The race is on!

[@p.2617]

This is why I did not put Alexa mounts in the ceiling of each room.

[@iamasink]

the auto tracking camera is genuinely nauseating lol

[@JAkino266]

First

[@FutureProofHomes]

Winner!!