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Airplay Speak - HS3 User Guide

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    Airplay Speak - HS3 User Guide

    INSTALLATION / CONFIGURATION

    System Requirements:

    This plugin is for HS3/HS3PRO
    It supports most of Airplay compatible hardware or software. Here is a list of compatible devices, even if your device is not on this list but is Airplay capable there is good chance that it just works with this plugin, if it doesn't, post the problem in this forum and I will try to fix it.

    Prerequisites:
    To auto discover the Airplay Speakers on your local network, this plugin needs a Zeroconf implementation (i.e Bonjour) to run on your Homeseer machine.

    On Windows this is the Apple Bonjour. If you have installed iTunes (or most of other Apple software), it should already be installed.
    If it isn't, you can download it from the following links:
    64bits version: https://www.dropbox.com/s/a0lhdxpbd19go4i/Bonjour64.msi
    32bits version: https://www.dropbox.com/s/dkoi00zvlhxx2cn/Bonjour.msi

    On Linux this is the Avahi daemon. Read this guide for additional steps needed on Linux.

    You will also need to add rules to your firewall to let Bonjour (mDNSResponder.exe) and the plugin (HSPI_AIRPLAY_SPEAK.exe) access the network.

    Plugin Installation:
    Download and install from the updater (
    Audio / Video and Infra-red (IR) Support category), or download package from the Beta Testing thread and follow instructions to install.

    Plugin Configuration
    Start the plugin from the "PLUG-INS > Manage" page and go to the config page "PLUG-INS > AirplaySpeak > Config". If everything is ok, you should see one line for each Airplay Speaker the plugin has detected:

    Click image for larger version

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    If your Airplay speaker is password protected, set the password there.
    You can also adjust the volume, and enable/disable each speaker.

    The "delay before" and "delay after" settings are used to add delays before and after each speak action. The numbers set here are seconds. It may be necessary to use these settings because otherwise on some speakers you can't hear anything for very short announcements, in this case just add a 1 or 2 seconds in "Delay After".
    You can alos use the "Delay Before" to better synchronize all your speakers.

    "Event Before" and "Even After" settings are HS events that will be run before and after each Speak action. You may need this for example to turn on your airplay speaker before the speak action, and then turn it off just after.

    If you have another HS plugin that behave as a Speak Proxy you may need to set the "Forward speak events to HS Speakers" to No, otherwise both plugins will forward the same speak action to the HS speakers and you will hear it twice.
    The "Delay before forwarding to HS speakers" setting may be used to synchronize Airplay and HS speakers as usually streaming to Airplay devices takes more time.

    Finally you can choose one of the voice installed on your system for Text To Speech (TTS).
    Last edited by spud; March 27, 2017, 07:32 AM.

    #2
    FEATURES

    To send a Text To Speech announcement to your Airplay speakers, create some event action of type "Speak Something" like in the screenshot below:

    Click image for larger version

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    By default, the speech will be sent to all enabled AirPlay devices as well as all HS Speaker Clients. You can target specifics AirPlay devices (or specific speaker clients) by clicking on the "Advanced Options" button (plane with red background), then click on the "Edit Speaker Client List" button, and then enter the name of the devices exactly as they appear in the config page.

    Click image for larger version

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    Instead of some text to be spoken, you can also set a WAV, MP3 or AIFF file to be played.

    Click image for larger version

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    Ideally, for best performances, to avoid any conversion or resampling by the plugin, the audio files should be:
    - stereo
    - sample rate = 44100Hz
    - 16 Bits per sample

    SCRIPTING

    You can use the following function from scripts:
    Code:
            SetSpeakerVolume(string name, int volume)
            SetSpeakerEnabled(string name, bool enabled)
    For example the script on the screenshot below let you enable/disable a speaker from an event. First parameter is the name of your Airplay speaker, second parameter is True to enable and False to disable.

    For SetSpeakerVolume, the first parameter is the name of your Airplay speaker, second parameter is the volume and must be an integer in [-30;0] interval.
    Click image for larger version

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    Last edited by spud; August 11, 2016, 05:18 AM.

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