Internet Radio updates have been requested before Alexa etc was a thing… so what are Roon to do? Anyway, an Internet Radio offering is in the pipeline we know, what else, as always, we have to wait but I don’t believe Roon are not aware of the directions things are heading in.
The Internet Radio has needed an upgrade for a long time. Nice to have but seems an easy win perhaps. Is this the highlight of the big update?I hope not.
Looking at this again recently, I believe Amazon are slowly opening up full catalog music skills, but I think it is still USA only and also I think it may be Alexa device only (ie your cloud API is expected to yield an audio stream that can be piped to an Alexa device). This means that the only way to get full integration is for Roon to provide a cloud streaming service for amazon that basically streams from your home NAS, or Roon put your library in the cloud - ie a load of new complex infrastructure needed.
At this point, many people are also asking for remote access to Roon. I would guess that any work on voice can only reasonably be considered after remote access is done via cloud if that ends up being the eventual route, or that Amazon drop the requirement to stream the music to Alexa devices which seems unlikely in the near future as they want to sell devices and thus want the user lock-in. TBH - while I want full voice control, if the end result is only to an Alexa device - then forget it. The people to put pressure on to allow this to be done properly the way Roon users would want is Amazon, not Roon.
Also If the flak that Yamaha (and Logitech) got when they released in the US only initially (despite that it was beyond their control and was firmly in Amazons court) followed by a very long wait for everyone else was anything to go by, then it would seem more trouble than it is worth right now even if it were possible to do the job properly in a Roon context.
Another problem is this space seems to be going through a bit of an upheaval at the moment - Google and Amazon seem to be embroiled in another buy up and consolidate war which as ever with such wars tends to only reduce choices for us end users and cranks up the burden of support for everyone else - another reason I don’t see Amazon fully opening up full catalog music to non Alexa devices anytime soon. TBH from a Roon perspective, Google may actually be easier to support via Chromecast infrastructure with better resulting audio quality as at least there are some high quality cast endpoints available along with a better designed in-home audio network compared to what I believe Amazon have at the moment.
All a bit of a mess for us really…
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I wouldn’t hold my breath on this.
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As reported above, they tried it and couldn’t make it work well enough to release it.
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Note that the recent “Roon Partners” update mentions Onkyo, Pioneer, and (something else) are now Roon-tested via their Chromecast integration. Google is leaning on this integration, Roon has a protocol that works well with it, so why hare off to Alexa when Google is easy? And the rumor mill suggests the next iteration of the Google Home Mini, which will be Nest-branded, will incorporate the functionality of the now-defunct Chromecast Audio, but now operable via the Google Assistant.
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Exactly. With a google home assistant like those fantastic Insignia ones with speakers., if you start the roon stream to it, you can use your voice to pause/play/and skip tracks, as well as raise and lower volume.
In all seriousness, why don’t we email Jeff Bezos so he can send our requests to other executives and we can have the new lossless capable Echo Studio & Echo Show devices become roon ready? Just throwing it out there, it could be possible.
Please no alexa bs in Roon. Thanks.
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Gees no integration in Alexa after all the asking from your customers.
Do you still have capable developers on staff or have you released everyone to make your margins?
I have a very nice hi fi system and find myself listening to my echo dots all over the house because they Sync music better and is more useable than Roon
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I have Alexa voice commands working with Roon, not sure if anyone has tried this before so I am reporting in case it is useful. It is bit of a hack.
I recently got a Fire HD 8 and the show mode stand. I had already setup a Harmony hub and used the Deep Harmony extension for use with a harmony companion remote. The deep harmony extension emulates Roku device so volume, play pause, skip forward, rewind and few other commands work with the remote,
I then linked the Harmony hub to Alexa but be sure to use something other than ‘Roon’ as the friendly name (Alexa confuses it with ‘room’). Alexa does not like ‘Music’ either as it will start playing Amazon HD so choose something like ‘Jazz’, ‘Tunes’ etc.
Voice commands such as play, pause, volume up, down , skip forward work. I have setup Harmony hub to control the volume of my DAC.
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Perhaps you could try using Sooloos instead of Roon as this will close the circle nicely.
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Alexa and Google Assistant integration is a must have for me. Plex fully supports this no reason Roon can not. The integrations to add are fairly straight forward to build out. The people who do not want it should simply turn off the feature.
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There is no reason Roon can not except it might not be in their product “vision.” Personally, I hate voice activated commands and would be one who turns off the feature, as you suggest. I guess it really depends on how many customers want this feature and where Roon puts it in their priority list. They don’t share that information.
There’s a very capable Alexa skill for controlling Logitech Media Server called ‘MediaServer’ that also allows casting audio from LMS to an Echo device as audio sink. If it can be done for LMS then why not for Roon? The excuse that Alexa hears badly when music is playing and that ‘Roon’ sounds too much like ‘Room’ is rather lame - who ever said Roon had to be in the invocation name?
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This. It could have easily been Valence or RoonServer.
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+1 for building in Alexa integration… something similar to what Sonos did. Really a cool feature that in our house increased utilization.
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Yes, please.
I’ve been using Roon Extension: Deep Harmony - rich feature set for Logitech Harmony for well over a year without issue. Highly recommended but does require some tech knowledge and/or great patience to learn and setup but once working it’s hands free.
Yes. Please add Alexa control.
Any progress on this very important feature?
Core Machine (Operating system/System info/Roon build number)
Innuos Zen Mini iii
Network Details (Including networking gear model/manufacturer and if on WiFi/Ethernet)
Gigabit wired Ethernet
Audio Devices (Specify what device you’re using and its connection type - USB/HDMI/etc.)
Sonia Move
Description Of Issue
I have given my 12 yo daughter the Roon app and her own profile which all works well with her Sonos Move. We have a rule of no screen based devices at bedtime and I’d like to enable her to select Roon playback (playlists and Tidal) from either her Echo Dot or Alexa voice services in the Sonia itself.
Sonia doesn’t seem to allow either Tidal or Roon as a Music service in its app and I can’t see how to get Alexa to recognise Roon
Is there a way of achieving voice control over Roon from an Alexa enabled device?
Many thanks
Peter