I have an Dot. I purchased a bluetooth receiver on Ebay for under $5 and paired it to the dot. I also bought on Ebay an FM microphone transmitter which is connected to the bluetooth receiver. When I ask Alexa to play music it starts playing. Then I tell it to connect to bluetooth, and the music comes from the receiver on the entertainment center, and radios located all around the house. Quality is great. Stereo separation is great. Bass and treble are great. When I want to return to the Dot's audio I just tell it to turn off bluetooth, and the radios all over the house and yard stop. Only thing I have that is not common, is a 16 camera security system. I use the plus side of the power supply for the cameras as the antenna. Not counting the $49 for the Dot, the whole system cost less than $15. Scrapped an Oldsmobile Aura, so I removed the stereo system from the car and mounted it in a five gallon bucked with a gel cell to power it. That's my favorite companion when I'm out in the garden working. Set a walkietalkie next to the dot in the house and I carry the other walkietalkie with me outside. Works occasionally but I need better quality walkietalkies for it to be really usable. Looking for a cordless phone with an intercom function.
One nice feature the OLD LCD TVs had in 2005, the LG model had a MUSIC option where you could turn off the SCREEN when listening to an AUDIO STATION or any INPUT to the tv which is audio. Saved power not running the light ballast when you are only using the tv speakers for audio tracks. Wish they kept that feature in the NEW tv's.
Extra ordinary ,this is a LAN setup which can used for multipurpose, with your knowledge we can save money instead of buying 5 to 6 Amazon devices Unnecessarily in all rooms when we have Old devices which can support.Save Money Save Earth.Love from India, as are famous in using and reusing old devices.
Very long video but full of great information. I also agree that if the Amazon products were allowed to talk to eachother it would make them 50 times better.
just smashed the like button and subscribed to your channel. You lost me under the stairs but you are a stand up guy to teach a bunch of people you never met something this complex. Thanks for sharing your expertise.
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I use three Chromecast Audios in my house, Google Home allows you to group them so that you can play the same music in different rooms. With the chrome plugin you can cast any audio to the speakers, but only certain apps allow you to, Spotify, iPlayer radio, Deezer etc... I got my CC Audios for Christmas, but hope they were picked up at the offer price at the time £15. They plug into the surround sound, via optical, a PA via 3.5mm to twin phono and the third i use the line-in on a Logitech Boom radio. They all sync really well, you can adjust any lag on each one, and the wiring is less although you do need a power to each CC Audio as well as the speakers. As they use WIFI they can suffer drop if your router freaks out. Finally what your video does show though is the option to wire one CC Audio in the same was that you have your Echo. You wouldn't have voice control or the ability to ask questions. but music and the phone app would work fine. I got the idea from a youtube video, when I find it I'll add a link.
Patrick Foster Hello Patrick. Does Chrome cast setup work well? Or do you have any faults? You set it up once and that's it? Or do you occasionally lose the settings? Thank you very much
Alexander Rincon I use the google home app on my iOS and Andriod devices, now Chrome has a play feature in the browser, no plugin download. Maybe there is no need for the Google home app to set this up
Thank you! I already have speakers pre-wired for whole house audio. So I just connected an echo dot to the whole house receiver and was good to go. Your Echo remote demo now allowed me to control my whole house audio from my 2nd floor master bedroom. You're bluetooh speaker demo also allows me to have an option for the Echo not to be heard all over the house! Brilliant! I now just wish there is a way to just use another echo dot in my upstairs rooms and have the music come off the echo connected with the receiver. I think I may have a work around if I just use Amazon Music and not Spotify, where all the Echo will be playing the music at once.
Nice idea - but for the Bathroom bluetooth, I'd have used a Bluetooth transmitter for audio, from the closest bedroom. (These things are dirt cheap from ebay, and power from USB.) It would be using audio that's been split off from that room's incoming audio patch. That way, even the bluetooth would be playing whatever the rest of the house was listening to at the same time. So when you jump out of the bath, and go back to your room to get dressed, you're still listening to the same thing.
I agreed with Gary... You are genius 👍. I just ordered Alexa dot. It costs more because I have to ship to Nigeria. I need cheaper means to ship large quantities of dot to Nigeria for retail.
I really appreciate all the work and detail you put into this. Just purchased an Echo Dot and am really looking forward to doing something similar in my house. Thank you!
The idea of creating the echo dot is to keep your home/office totally wireless, I believe! For the cost of cables, accessories, time and energy you have spent on setting these things up, you could've bought couple of additional echo dot devices and probably avoided all these wiring mess up. By seeing all those lot of cables I felt like oh my god, it could be hazardous! I don't think so every member of the family like the same channel of the audio content played by echo dot. You could've built a space satallite instead ohh man!
Great video. Thanks for providing all the various cases that you did. It gave me plenty of ideas to use in my setup! One reviewer said you were long winded. Not the case at all. Perfect amount of detail! Thank you for putting that together!
This - is - SMART! Forget the hassle of Muilti Room Audio Recievers, just use Ethernet to RCA or 3.5mm Jack(s)! I have Multi Room Audio with my 2 Google Home Minis in the: Kitchen and in my Room (next to my Computer) I can play Music everywhere in my House with either Bluetooth (my computer) or Google (kitchen/my room) also you can connect Bluetooth Audio devices with Google Home too... I have 2 of them.
What a great implemenation, and great video. This is how you show what is going on and how to do it. Thanks for the practical and complete explanation of what you did here. Great job!
Congrats, but I just think buying 4 or 5 echo dots and syncing them all together is better. Then you can plug any type of speaker into them. Time is money and that seems like a lot of time to put all that together. Great video though.
That's a very expensive way of doing things.. The point of this video was to connect to the Echo Dot to devices you already have, without spending a lot of money.
I enjoyed your thorough explanation! Very helpful for me. We just got Echo Dot in the Mexican market, and this set up of yours, is something I will do. Thanks mate!
Thank you for sharing your setup. Very interesting. I can imagine that we will only have this type of wiring nightmare for a short time. Low cost alternatives are on the way if they are not here already.
I know this is an older video now, but I recently got multiple Echo Dots and they work well. Only the closest one responds and they can all now be linked in groups. I have "Everywhere" and "Entertainment" groups or can have different music on individual echoes or groups. This may not have been available at the time the video was made. Given the Echo Dot is about $50 in AU dollars, it is only a small extra expense for a lot more functionality :). Great video though for sharing audio across rooms from one device.
Brendan White but with “ Everywhere” feature can it play the same music everywhere with different Bluetooth speakers connected to each dot or does it disconnects from whatever speaker it’s connected to and play everywhere within the dots speaker?
What is that slich device u use there for continuity test? It's a multimeter or what exactly it is? Can I have name and model so I can search for data myself?
I do it a bit different. I have bluetooth speakers in all my rooms that need. I then would saying something like "Alexa connect to bluetooth speaker" and it connects to the last used one. Then if I am upstairs use the alexa app on my phone to change the bluetooth speaker. I get a slightly pause and then it starts to play on the newly selected blutooth speaker. I control my music from either spotify or the tunein app.
For a solution that would connect to bluetooth speakers throughout the house, what if you used mini phone jack splitters out of the Echo, and plugged into them bluetooth Transmitters? Since the Echo only has one Bluetooth transmitter built in, you could bypass it by plugging in to the audio output 4 or 6 or more. I imagine a setup where the mini phone jack from the Echo was split into 4 or more outputs. Each output would be connected to its own bluetooth transmitter. (i've searched and found many that are under $15US and are powered as well Some are battery operated, which you wouldn't want in this setup). Then each individual transmitter could be paired with a bluetooth speaker, or even a set of bluetooth headphones. If the ~30ft range of bluetooth is an issue, then you could use your mini-phono-to-cat5 trick, and put the transmitters in various parts of the house, closer to the speakers they are sending signal to. Thoughts?
I immediately thought of this as well but one thing that could cause issues is latency with the Bluetooth it might be fine with one but having the whole house done up might have some issues.
Loving the videos, Vince! Your creativity using random bits of cables and connectors from eBay andAmazon is fantastic! I've been inspired to do some of these projects myself. Keep up the good work!
Nice job! let me correct a concept. Amplified signals have no problem with long distances and not amplified signals do have. This loss of signal depens on the kind of signal you have. For example, line signals are stronger than mic signals... Greets
Man, I love the creativity. Your audio over Ethernet is just brilliant. Now, it's admittedly a little bit 'ghetto', DYI stuff, and I'm not sure it's great to dedicate a whole Ethernet run just for audio in the end; but in your use-case it's really doing the job great. I think, however, the best way would be to have some small computer (e.g. Pi) receiving the Echo's audio out (so, sitting right next to it in the kitchen), taking that Audio IN and transcoding it into a digital stream (mp3, aac, webm, whatever works best), and have several end-point Pi's (so, all over ethernet, real data ethernet, but maybe wi-fi too!) receive that stream and play it on their audio OUT. Basically a server/client audio player whose main input is the Echo (but, alternatively, anything a computer can receive, e.g. internet stream etc). Caveats: - I don't know of any software to do that (haven't looked) but I'd wager there are solutions in audio engineering, broadcasting, studio software, small open source plugins for players maybe, and I think VLC actually does streaming out of the box too (but the audio line IN encoding and streaming directly might be beyond VLC's features). - I think you'd only need the most basic Pi to do that, so ~$25 max per device, more like $15 iirc. - To control the Pi's, the best way would probably be to have scripts that get triggered via ssh from the "main" Pi (next to the Echo), and you as a user only ever interact with said main Pi to control all of them. But if you have a computer to spare (old laptop, VM, maybe a beefy Pi), I think you'd love the kind of features in openHAB, a free and open-source home-automation server that essentially lets you do whatever -- including controlling Alexa or GoogleHome devices. I haven't tested it yet, but it's high on my priority list for 2019 :-) Anyhow, thanks for sharing all this good stuff and have a great one!
Chile my alexa dot in directly in front of my tv and whatever you said lana del Rey started playing that song from great Gatsby and I had to stop your video and finish listening, this is my song lol
Fantastic Demonstration and I really DO appreciate the complete presentation... You did an awesome job of explaining everything, Thank you for sharing!! Bob a New Subscriber in Canada
Too much, for me, you are so smart. Thank you for teach us how to connect, we just want to talk with somebody and Alexa now is our friend. God Bless you.
I have a Amazon fire TV cube that come with a remote identical to the remote you have. But I went out and purchased a Amazon echo studio but when I tried to pair up the remote from the cube to the studio I couldn't get it to work.
What a comprehensive guide you have provided. You have given me some ideas for achieving sound in multi-rooms. I don't have Ethernet in my rooms, but I use a home-plug. I wonder if it will work over a home-plug?
Hi, thank you. Unfortunately it won't work. When I connect it up via Ethernet all it is doing is using the wires in the Ethernet cable so it is not actually an Ethernet signal just a normal audio signal travelling down the twisted pairs of wires. Those home plugs (powerline adapters) work differently so they will only send an Ethernet signal.
If you can make this shorter and to the point starting off materials that you'll need that would be great secondly I'd like to know can I do a reverse audio on my electronics meaning if I leave the room can I listen into another room or watch using let's say a smart TV should I use the audio and Camera from that???
Thank you Mate. I've been waiting for technology to catch up with my desire to stream audio throughout my home without spending a fortune. Excellent tutorial. Your family probably thinks you're nuts. I think you are a genius.
Cor Blimey, the amount of wiring !! I thought I am mad to have load of wiring in my house but you got loads more BUT it is more organized than me, LOL. Thanks for the tutorial.. great video. !!
i got the splitter ans a duel bluetooth dongel, but i can only pair one speaker, i am thinking it could be because the speakers are the same, is their any way to change one of the speakers address ?????
An easier way would be to use Google Chromecast's all over the house, they run on WiFi and you could skip all the cable fiasco. But then the price would be a lot more as far as buying the units separately.
I've a Yamaha soundbar with subwoofer....can I connect an echo device to the soundbar and then with two echo studio to create a home theater setup...will it work ? I mean will the echo studios and the sound bar connected to echo dot play simultaneously
vince can you pelase tell me what specific remote you have to connect via bluetooth cos when ive looked at the normal amazon controls it states its only available for firetv or firesticks. or am i not looking in the right place ????
You could try doing an Ebay search for an old "black burst generator" to create a dummy video load for those TVs that won't work without a video signal. Should be pretty cheap now that analogue TV is basically dead.
Great video mate... I don't have cat5 going through the house.. Just ordered the echo plus but was thinking of ordering another two of the standard echo v2 and thought the could all link up over WiFi. 300-400 for pretty decent multi room. Can I link them all over WiFi?
Ok, just watched the video and it is very informative. However I have one question regarding the wirering. it seems that you use a Mono 3.5 plug. How would you wire a Stereo 3.5 plug to an RC45 cable. Also, if you have more than 15 meters to cover via an Ethernet Cable would it not be more advisable to use a Cat7 cable rather then a Cat6 or Cat6a cable? Also, would it not be better to place the "Echo Dot" in the rough middle of the house and hanging it up like a Smoke detector with an 3.5 extension to where it is needed? Maybe even you can get the 3.5 to RC45 and then re-convert it back to an 3.5 audio plug? Anyway, great tips in your video. I got my "Dot" coming today so it has already given me plenty of tips of how to connect every room. P.S. I will probably use an on/of switch in every room so I can easily disconnect or connect each room where I do not want the "Dot" to work.
Could you just be plug Alexa Into a home entertainment system with wireless speakers and just put the speakers in all the different rooms throughout the house?
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i wonder if you use rj 11 phone jacks instead if it could work, the rj 11 phone wire has 4 wires but red and green are the only ones used for the phone ,black and yellow are unused , so you only have 2 extra wires to play with , but i wonder if you used one of the phone wires for gnd either red of green if it would effect the opertation of the house phones, like connect the left channel audio to black and the right channel audio to yellow and then connect the audio common ground wires to either the red or green wire , i wonder if it would interfere with the phone
yeah probably no way to know till you test it though maybe i will run some test it ,you could always do mono though, also to let you know i think you can download the fire tv remote app on you phone and use it to voice control alexa with ,do the same thing as you do with your physical remote with your phone i think they just recently added this to the UK and german version of the app if i am not mistaken i am in the US
Hi. Thank you very much for your video. Could you include the name and purchase links for the cables and other accessories that you used for this project? Thank you very much
Bloody hell Vince, this is the first time I've seen you on the camera. You certainly look middle-class. Not Julian Ilett middle class, but middle-class none the same. Great videos btw.
A very creative idea to the problem and well implemented, however you mentioned about not minding having the best quality audio and its a good job as the audio signal from this would have really deteriorated. Also an active speaker will just use an internal amp to boost the signal and will not restore quality to a signal. On the other hand I have got to hand it to you for a extremely interesting method for delivering audio .
Hmm how's that multiroom if every room in the house essentially plays the same song/music? No ideal if you ask me but it might be working for some people out there.
seen this vid, i know it's been i while and you might have updated to a better speaker system all around the home.. audio left -- right RCA should work on your audio in on the TV , is there a switch point on sources? try this Vince
interesting... I thought you needed an rca to cat5 balun to send audio through ethernet wiring, but obviously not! I wonder if your issue with the TVs is just too low an audio signal voltage for those sets to see any signal.
This will help maybe 3 people, who happen to have millions of cables & ports/adapters & wires running behind walls & data center switchboard hubs... pretty cool though. The cheaper option for me would be sonos.
The other way to setup multiple audio in rooms. Is by buying more Alexa Echo Dots and just set it up in the app. You no longer need this setup. Watch other RU-vid videos about it from other RU-vidrs. But you still can not use Bluetooth while you're in the multiple audio mode.
So your solution to multi room wireless audio is wiring? Unless the wiring just happens to already be there then you would actually get a much better audio system and even save money by using something like Sonos. With the cost of echo dots constantly falling it is far easier to put one in each room and connect that to your desired output. The 3rd gen dot is a reasonable small speaker in its own right but since its introduction people have been offloading their older models so they can be picked up for under £20, which gives you full Alexa functionality and if its going to be connected locally to a better speaker, decent multi room audio without having to rewrite your entire house.
to cast simultaneously spotify tidal or other go to Google home app tap + create speaker group select your chromecast(s) select next done in spotify you'll see that speaker as one device note you'll need at least 2 is handy though to hear music in other room as well downside both same song but is handy when working in house and not want to switch constantly just a tip which works
