Please release Speaker Client to Open Source

[mrhappy]

Nice job and it's a quick way to get whole house notifications.

The issue is that it still doesn't have the ability to control which speakers you can send to. I want to be able to only send some messages to the area that the lighting devices are in not the whole house. That can only be done using the speaker client protocol.

It does in a similar way to how the Sonos plugin decides where to send text to, if you send the host data string to the python script you can decide in python whether or not you wish to speak the text and as such you have a zone type support.

I'd love to see the speaker client protocol published as it would be useful for a number of things but I just don't see it happening...it's been asked by a couple of developers but does not appear that HST are particularly interested in doing it unfortunately.

[Timon]

It does in a similar way to how the Sonos plugin decides where to send text to, if you send the host data string to the python script you can decide in python whether or not you wish to speak the text and as such you have a zone type support.

I'd love to see the speaker client protocol published as it would be useful for a number of things but I just don't see it happening...it's been asked by a couple of developers but does not appear that HST are particularly interested in doing it unfortunately.

Lets hope they change their mind and officially release it. If necessary the protocol can be figured out using Wireshark but we shouldn't have to just to be able to send messages to remote speakers.

[S-F]

Who are the three people that voted No?

[Timon]

[wpiman]

I voted no. Not our IP.....

[Timon]

Been working with Spuds AirplaySpeak. Works great on my tests with a Raspberry Pi. Next is to setup ones using a RBPi Zero.

[Timon]

I've been running my test version on a Raspberry Pi Zero W and it works fine. Only issue is the Speaker pHat I'm using has very bad clicks. Pimoroni says they are fixing that for new builds but I've not found out when that may be. BTW, if you use the Speaker pHat forget the little speaker that comes with it as it's junk. You heed to use a real speaker. I've got a pair of only non powered computer speakers that work but I'm looking for something in I can use that looks nice while I'm waiting to see the new Speaker pHat come out

I don't understand the comment about "Not being our IP" that WPIMAN made.

My understanding is that the actual speaker protocol is HS's. If it's not then whose is it? I don't really care about the fact it uses WAVE as that's a well know sound format. I just want to see the transport layer released.

[Furious]

Just to add, my 2 cents - the fact that the speaker client relies on windows media player - which will eventually be discontinued entirely - it needs to be redone with something else.

My HS server is on windows 10 pro N. Every time I get a large update, the speaker client dies. I then have to find the latest media feature pack (which MS never seem to work out how to upgrade or even put in a prominent place to download), install that, reboot, then add the media player feature.

All so I can hear speech and play wav files.

If someone can find something I can put on a PI to play notifications or speech without a massive 5-10 second delay, I'd be forever grateful. Bluetooth - too spotty, airplay speakers - too laggy/unstable. wireless speakers - all of them do power management so they turn themselves off.

[Timon]

Just to add, my 2 cents - the fact that the speaker client relies on windows media player - which will eventually be discontinued entirely - it needs to be redone with something else.

My HS server is on windows 10 pro N. Every time I get a large update, the speaker client dies. I then have to find the latest media feature pack (which MS never seem to work out how to upgrade or even put in a prominent place to download), install that, reboot, then add the media player feature.

All so I can hear speech and play wav files.

If someone can find something I can put on a PI to play notifications or speech without a massive 5-10 second delay, I'd be forever grateful. Bluetooth - too spotty, airplay speakers - too laggy/unstable. wireless speakers - all of them do power management so they turn themselves off.

I do agree that everything that's Microsoft specific link the current Speaker Client should be moved to open protocols. Then inexpensive clients can be made using RaspberryPi Zero W's. Currently for me Airplay works but I would like something that's totally open source and can stay in sync across multiple rooms.

[zimmer62]

Can we keep poking for this?