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    Airplay Speak Feature Requests

    Use this thread to ask for new features

    Here is my current TODO list:
    • implement resending of audio packets which have been lost, to enhance reliability
    • support for more audio codecs
    Last edited by spud; July 24, 2013, 11:29 AM.

    #2
    Stream Music

    This may already be possible but I'm not an Airplay user so please bear with me.

    Is it possible to use this Plug-in to route music from Pandora to an Airplay speaker from Homeseer.

    I gave up using Ultra's 1121 plug in to do this so wondering if it is do-able via this plug-in

    I have speakers in my backyard - in a prefect scenario Homeseer (via this plug-in) would stream Pandora to those speakers on demand and also be able to interrupt the music to make an announcement.

    To be honest I'd be happy if I could get Homeseer to play pandora in my yard triggered by a Homeseer event - the addition of the announcement (with music the temporarily paused) would be icing on the cake.

    BTW, This plug-in is great and I have now used it with my Apple TV, my Pioneer 1121 receiver and an Airport express I had laying around.

    Before this I have been pushing Homeseer voice via my SONOS system which works great but the SONOS units are too expensive to drop in all my locations.

    Great plug-in - thanks for developing!

    Comment


      #3
      I don't think it's possible to do that with the current version of the plugin unless there is an easy way to write the Pandora stream to audio files.

      I'm not a Pandora user, and actually I just find out that I can't use this service because I'm in Canada.

      Comment


        #4
        I have AirplaySpeak routing to my Denon 2313 AV receiver. The Denon listens for Airplay even when it's switched off: if it sees Airplay packets, then it cycles on, switches to the Network Airplay input mode and plays. This introduces a delay of about 5-6 seconds during which time the first part of the AirplaySpeak initiated stream is lost. If the Denon is already switched on (e.g. for TV watching) then there is a very small delay for it to switch input streams.

        Would it be possible/feasible to have a delay parameter set so that all streams from AirplaySpeak would be delayed when sending to such a unit as the Denon? It would apply mostly superfluously when the Denon is already switched on, but would ensure nothing is lost of the AirplaySpeak stream while the Denon does it switching on routine.


        --------ah! just made it to the Beta page and saw there is a newer version with a Before Delay setting. I'll try this to see if does what I need, thanks.

        Comment


          #5
          Originally posted by smcwilliams View Post
          I have AirplaySpeak routing to my Denon 2313 AV receiver. The Denon listens for Airplay even when it's switched off: if it sees Airplay packets, then it cycles on, switches to the Network Airplay input mode and plays. This introduces a delay of about 5-6 seconds during which time the first part of the AirplaySpeak initiated stream is lost. If the Denon is already switched on (e.g. for TV watching) then there is a very small delay for it to switch input streams.

          Would it be possible/feasible to have a delay parameter set so that all streams from AirplaySpeak would be delayed when sending to such a unit as the Denon? It would apply mostly superfluously when the Denon is already switched on, but would ensure nothing is lost of the AirplaySpeak stream while the Denon does it switching on routine.
          Have you tried the "Delay Before" setting? I had the same issue with XBMC and added the before and after delay settings for this reason
          You need version 1.1.0.6 or later which is not yet in the updater, you can get it from there:
          http://forums.homeseer.com/showthread.php?t=158908

          Comment


            #6
            Option to disable new devices by default

            Hi spud, I'm enjoying your plugin so far.

            I think it would be useful to have an option in the AirplaySpeak config for whether newly found devices are enabled or disabled by default. I believe the current behavior is that new devices are enabled by default, correct?

            I have several computers running Airfoil speakers that pop on and off the network from time to time that don't really need to play homeseer speak commands, so it would be useful to have them disabled by default. I really only need a couple of my Airplay devices to receive "all hosts" homeseer speak commands, so it would be easier for me explicitly enable the ones I want, rathar than have to go in and disable anytime a new device comes on the network.

            Anyway, an option in the config would allow users to set the behavior that best suits their situation. Would that be something you could implement?

            Thanks for considering...

            Comment


              #7
              Originally posted by teladog01 View Post
              I think it would be useful to have an option in the AirplaySpeak config for whether newly found devices are enabled or disabled by default. I believe the current behavior is that new devices are enabled by default, correct?
              correct

              I have several computers running Airfoil speakers that pop on and off the network from time to time that don't really need to play homeseer speak commands, so it would be useful to have them disabled by default.
              I really only need a couple of my Airplay devices to receive "all hosts" homeseer speak commands, so it would be easier for me explicitly enable the ones I want, rathar than have to go in and disable anytime a new device comes on the network.
              Do you know that if you disable your Airfoil speakers from the config page and save, this setting is persistent (written to AirplaySpeak.ini), so the next time this Airfoil speakers popup it will be disabled. That means you only needs to disable each device once.

              Another way to avoid this problem, is to explicitly set in the host field of your Speak command the devices you want to receive the speech. All other devices will be ignored.

              Anyway, an option in the config would allow users to set the behavior that best suits their situation. Would that be something you could implement?

              Thanks for considering...
              Anyway, that's easy to implement, so yes I will add it.

              Comment


                #8
                Do you know that if you disable your Airfoil speakers from the config page and save, this setting is persistent (written to AirplaySpeak.ini), so the next time this Airfoil speakers popup it will be disabled. That means you only needs to disable each device once.
                Yes, I figured out after some testing that the setting is saved. Thanks for verifying that.

                Another way to avoid this problem, is to explicitly set in the host field of your Speak command the devices you want to receive the speech. All other devices will be ignored.
                I do realize that devices can be targeted explicitly, and I do have a some Speak events that are targeted to specific hosts. But I also have several "general announcement" type Speak events, and I think it would be cleaner and easier to maintain to just send to all hosts for these general announcements, then manage which ones are enabled in one central place, instead of maintaining the list of hosts on each individiual event. Does that make sense?

                Anyway, that's easy to implement, so yes I will add it.
                Great. Thanks for the awesome work on this. I've been waiting for a plugin like this for a while now

                Comment


                  #9
                  Would it be possible to automatically create devices for each airspeaker, like in the iTunesSpeakers plugin?
                  If yes, than maybe also the selections on/off/volume as on the plugin page.
                  I would like to make manual selections of the airplayspeakers at specific moments....

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Originally posted by Rutger View Post
                    Would it be possible to automatically create devices for each airspeaker, like in the iTunesSpeakers plugin?
                    If yes, than maybe also the selections on/off/volume as on the plugin page.
                    I would like to make manual selections of the airplayspeakers at specific moments....
                    yes that's possible, but tell me more about why exactly you want this?

                    Note that if you play some music from iTunes, and want to stop the music then play an HS annoucement and then resume the music, it wouldn't be possible with the AirPlay Speak plugin only. For this you need both AirPlay Speak and iTunes Speakers as explained here: http://forums.homeseer.com/showthread.php?t=159797

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Hi Spud,

                      I use both plugins and the iTunesSpeakers plugin is fantastic so far.
                      I can easily switch the appropriate speakers on and off ans set the volume with sliders in hstouch and because AirServer works fine on my jailbroken devices, I would like to set also that airspeakers easily.
                      For instance the active iTunesSpeakers could be active airspeakers, but on other occupation situations, I don't want to have always a specific device(s) as an airspeaker. When I'm in the garden I can set that airspeaker active so in the rest of the house, the airspeakers can be disabled.

                      At this moment the setting is static in the plugin. There is no possibility to change that setting with a script? Editing the ini file doesn't work either.

                      Maybe I'm thinking too difficult...?

                      Comment


                        #12
                        I understand, you're right, right now there is no way to dynamically enable/disable or set the volume using AirPlay Speak.

                        The easiest solution from a coding point of view is to allow these features for scripting, so I think this is what I'm going to do first. Then I may also add some devices similar to the ones in iTunes Speakers.

                        Thanks for the feedback.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          For now, I use a script that use the iTunesSpeakers for speak commands.
                          At the bottom of each speaker, you can toggle the virtual 'AirSpeaker', that will be used for the speaking commands, simply by ticking on the name. These virtual devices are also used in step 2 and 4 below.

                          Screenshot (Speaker iPad and Serre are green = activated for speak commands):
                          https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...play-speak.jpg

                          Short description of script:

                          You listen to music at some speakers.
                          1: Stop music player.
                          2: Check for active iTunesSpeakers at this moment and write value 1 to some virtual devices. (Each ItunesSpeaker has an virtual device).
                          3: Speak command started.
                          4: Check for activated Speakers in step 2 (DeviceValue=1) and activate them back again, if neccessary. (maybe they are still activated, because of speak command).
                          5: Resume music, if it was activated before.
                          6: Reset DeviceValues of virtual devices to 0.

                          If have to finetune some things, like the volume from each speaker, which also has to be stored.
                          It's an idea, and works for me at the moment fine.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            I have added some functions to be able to enable/disable and set volume level of a speaker from a script. See http://board.homeseer.com/showthread...57#post1070757

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Originally posted by spud View Post
                              I have added some functions to be able to enable/disable and set volume level of a speaker from a script. See http://board.homeseer.com/showthread...57#post1070757
                              Cool! I can see these functions being useful.

                              Is it still possible to add the option for newly discovered Airplay devices to be disabled by default?

                              Comment

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