CasaTunes has announced that owners of Amazon Alexa devices will soon be able to control the volume, muting, on and off functions, and sharing and playing of music on CasaTunes and the DIY musicBox 6 music servers with voice commands.
The newly unveiled CasaTunes Alexa skill offers support for all transport commands, including play, pause, next track, previous track, shuffle and repeat. Homeowners are able to ask Alexa what is playing in a room, and schedule an alarm or fall asleep to music.
Examples of commands now possible with the integration include, “Alexa, ask CasaTunes to schedule an alarm for 8:00 am”, “Alexa, ask CasaTunes to share music with Master Bedroom” and “Alexa, ask CasaTunes to select next playlist.”
Following a request, Alexa submits it to CasaTunes and the relevant action begins in the appropriate room or room group. One or more Amazon Echo, Tap and Dot device located in different rooms throughout the same home, can also be used to control CasaTunes or musicBox 6 multi-room audio systems. Futhermore, the CasaTunes’ system is designed so that once a room is associated with an Amazon device, the room name no longer needs to be included with each command.
“With the growing popularity of voice based control systems, homeowners are looking for products that include voice control,” commented David Krinker, president at CasaTunes. “At less than £45, the Amazon Echo Dot is an excellent alternative to keypads in the home. We expect customers will deploy these devices throughout their home, and use these, along with the CasaTunes and musicBox 6 Apps to control their music.”
The Alexa Skill for CasaTunes and the musicBox 6, is currently in Beta, and will be released later this month. It is a free upgrade for all existing CasaTunes and musicBox 6 systems.