Poltergeist with Alexa Show 8?

[Pete]

This is a repost from Cocoontech.

I have an old Pioneer Elite VSX-44 connected to my Roku TV. The Roku TV is not connected to the internet via Ethernet or Wireless.

Pioneer VSX-44 Manual

It is configured with 2 devices - Kodi (CEC) and a DTV NVR. The Pioneer is plugged in to the house network. I do not use the remote control features for the Pioneer on any phone.

The Pioneer is configured for 7.1 playback which works fine.

There is no LMS (Squeezeplayer) connectivity to the VSX-44.

Last night watching a movie I heard the Alexa Show 8 device in the home office start to speak like it was responding to a command.

The home office is on the second floor of the home.

Movie watched was: The Girl Who Believes in Miracles (2021)

The Alexa Show 8 started to play music.

The Alexa devices in the home are all connected to Home Assistant and I can see their status on the Alexa Media page. I looked at HA / Alexa Devices status this morning and saw this:



Logged in and see this:

Note no one was upstairs or near my home office when this occurred.

The odd thing here is that the Alexa Show 8 audio started to play on the rear channels of the VSX-44 as zone 2. The zone 2 audio is autonomous from main audio zone. There is no blue tooth interface on the Pioneer VSX-44. Zone 2 is not configured to connect to anything. When I shut off the receiver Zone 2 continued to play the Alexa Show 8 music. I do not use any of the features of the VSX-44 other than playback of the DTV NVR and Kodi box. (no radio et al). The Pioneer VSX-44 is connected to the house ethernet.

Finally used the VSX-44 remote control to shut off Zone 2 audio.

BTW wife blamed this occurance on the Homeseer automation. Homeseer is not connected to the VSX-44. Homeseer does not manage the Alexa devices here. There are no scripts or automations running on HA that request the time.

First time I have seen / heard this. How does this happen?

[outbackrob]

It might be time to move....

[mterry63]

At least your poltergeist has good taste in music. Amazon has recently added functions to link devices as "speakers" to other Alexa devices. If you dig into the Alexa app you will see the feature.

I just told my echo "Alexa, what time is it answer" (from your screen shot) and she said "Tiny Dancer remastered, by Elton John" and played the same song.

[TC1]

As mterry63 alluded to, there's really two issues here.

First is that the Echo device heard "something" more than likely during the movie that was being played and interpreted something as the trigger keyword (Alexa or Echo or Computer, depending on your configuration).
Whatever followed was then interpreted as "what time is it answer".

I'd report both to the Echo folks. The first one might be unavoidable, but the second one is definitely correctable.

[Pete]

There is an Alexa Show in the Kitchen and an Echo next the TV room which didn't trigger anything.

The Alexa Show in the office is on the opposite side of the house on the second floor.

Just talked to the Alexa Show in the kitchen "Alexa, what time is it answer" and it responded with the time.


So it was a glitch.

Thing is that the music played to the VSX-44 Zone #2 which are the rear speakers of the 7.1 system.

I have never used Zone #2. When I checked the configuration of the VSX-44 the option to use Zone #2 speakers was set to the rear speakers in the 7.1 configuration.

[TC1]

Pete, I just performed the same experiment as mterry on a 1st or 2nd gen? (an old one) Echo....

Me: "Alexa, what time is it answer"

Alexa: "Here's Tiny Dancer by Elton John on Amazon Music...."