If you are planning to build a smart Multimedia & entertainment device-enabled home, then there are so many options available right now.
I'll share what's new in smart music and multimedia devices that you can buy right now. Also which platform you can use to integrate those devices into your smart home.
We have written a complete guide on DIY Home Automation - How to set up home automation? Which will help you to set up your smart home automation by yourself!
So, which platform you can use? You have some great options like Google Home, Amazon Assistant (Alexa), Apple HomeKit, Samsung SmartThings, etc. We will take each of them one by one.
Google Home platform uses Google smart voice assistant called Google Assistant. Google Assistant is pretty powerful for controlling multimedia devices.
Just like Google, Amazon Echo devices have their own smart assistant called Alexa. Apple HomeKit has Siri to control all things. Samsung SmartThings only has an app that controls supported devices from a single platform.
Smart Multimedia devices
This article is all about the usage of multimedia devices like Music, smart speakers & other media devices.
I'll cover all of the popular and best multimedia products that you can use to automate your home.
Music & Media Devices
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| Photo by Sebastian Scholz (Nuki) on Unsplash |
If you want to play music with your voice you can do it with a smartphone's voice assistant. But what if you want to play it on speaker. You will connect the Smartphone to the speaker via Bluetooth. Right?
Yes, you can. But you can do it in a more smart & convenient way. So you will need your smartphone rarely to control smart devices. Just connect and sync the music app with Smart speakers.
So after that, you can play music just by giving a voice command to the Smart speaker! It's possible nowadays because speakers are smart enough to process human language as it has a voice assistant.
Then it will communicate with your device and will play music for you from any music platform like YT Music, Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, etc.
There are many smart speaker manufacturers available that you can choose to automate your whole home.
Google, Amazon, and Apple are the major ones and you may also have other options like Bose, Sonos, & Microsoft(Cortana).
First, Google! Google has its own home automation platform called Google Home. It is controlled by the Google Home app and also by integrating the Google Assistant, so you can control it even with Google Voice Assistant.
Google has a wide variety of smart speakers like Google Nest, Nest Audio, Nest Mini, Home, Home Mini, Home Max, Nest Hub, & Nest Hub Max.
Google Nest and Home devices are smart speakers that have Google Assistant built inside. They only work on voice commands.
1] Google Nest Mini - Google Nest Mini is Google's affordable but powerful smart Speaker which is cable enough to automate our whole Home.
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| Google Nest Mini Photo by Kevin Bhagat on Unsplash |
Google Nest Mini has its buttons underneath the Speaker's plastic covering. To increase and decrease the volume, you'll need to hover the hand on it & then tap on the right and left sides of the speaker.
Tap on the top of the speaker to play and pause the voice which is currently playing. It blinks 4 LEDs in white color which means it is on and when it turns orange it means Google Nest mini is close or not listening to you.
Nest Mini has a Hole to tie it on a wall which is absent in other devices. It is a small plus point over the other because you'll not need to buy the wall mount accessories for that.
Google Nest devices can be grouped together to control them with a single voice command. That means you can turn on/off Google Smart Speakers with the voice command "Google, Turn on the Speakers".
2] Google Hub devices - The Google Hub devices have a display with their speakers. You can control it through voice commands and with a touchscreen display.
It also has a camera with a light sensor so you can make a video call, & record the video just like a Tablet device.
It has Google's core applications so you can play YouTube videos, weather, and do Google searches.
You can place the Nest Hub device in your bedroom beside the lamp, so you can access it easily. Hub devices also connect with Nest Mini and Home speakers to transfer tasks from one device to another.
3] Chromecast with Google TV - Google has its own casting device called Chromecast with Google TV support. You can consider it to use a smart device to improve your TV streaming experience.
You can cast YouTube, Netflix, and other major streaming platforms to your TV using Chromecast's casting feature.
Connect your Smart speaker with Chromecast and just tell a Smart Speaker to turn on/off the TV & play specific movies or series with voice command.
It supports a variety of smart speakers like Google Nest/home, Amazon Echo devices, Apple HomePod & other speakers which has built-in Google Assistant or Alexa.
For more details about their products and comparison visit Google's official store website
Amazon
Amazon is also a great choice if you are searching for an alternative to Google smart devices. Amazon has Echo and Echo Dot as smart speakers.
1] Amazon Echo & Echo Dot - Echo is Amazon's premium smart speaker which works with Alexa. The Echo Dot is a compact version of the Echo with minimum features.
The only way you can control it is through Amazon's voice assistant Alexa. Echo devices support the Zigbee and other Hub-based platforms.
Amazon Echo is big in size. Obviously, it has more & bigger speakers. The Echo speaker gives a more powerful sound output than the Echo Dot.
Echo Dot has a single LED Display Clock to show time while the clock is absent in Echo speakers.
You can show other things like temperature, and timers instead of the Clock on Display of Echo Dot.
Buy Amazon Echo & Echo Dot 4th-gen smart speaker
2] Amazon Echo Show - For the Display device, you have options like the Amazon Echo Show series. It has a touchscreen display, camera, sensors, microphones & a button to switch on/off the device.
You can control the Echo Show devices with a display screen and Voice assistant. You can set up smart Home automation, reminders, routines, and alarms using Echo Show devices.
It has privacy protection features that blink the light when the device is using the camera.
Buy Amazon Echo Show devices
3] Amazon Echo input portable - Amazon Echo input portable as its name suggests is a portable echo device. It is the only device that has a battery inside it. So, you won't need to plug power source every time.
It has 4 microphones so voice receiving functionality is great. It's bass and sound quality is also great.
It has a battery backup of more than 24 hours, as Amazon claims! So you can carry and go it anywhere you want but just keep it on the internet network area.
4] Amazon Echo Flex - Amazon Echo Flex is the smallest, cheapest, and most flexible Alexa Echo speaker device. It is a small-sized plug-like device that operates on Alexa commands.
It has 2 microphones just like Echo Show 5. It has a Mute button with a single speaker. It also has a 3.5mm headphone jack so you can enjoy music direct through the Alexa-enabled echosystem.
It comes with some features like 3.5 mm Audio output and Far-field voice control which literally means you can control it from a far distance with your voice.
Buy Amazon Echo Flex cheapest Alexa-based Echo device
5] Amazon Echo Studio - As we have seen Amazon's cheapest Echo device, now we'll see Amazon's most expensive Echo device, Echo Studio.
The Echo Studio has 5 speakers. A 2-inch midrange speaker, 1-inch Twitter speaker, and 5.25-inch Woofer with Dolby Atmos support. Those are High-fidelity speakers with 7 built-in Mics.
Its sound quality is the best of all smart speakers I have ever seen in my opinion. It weighs around 7-8 kg so plan to buy it accordingly.
Buy Amazon Echo Studio
Apple
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| Photo by James Yarema on Unsplash |
1] Apple HomePod mini - Apple offers only one smart speaker which is the HomePod mini. Initially, Apple released the HomePod as their primary Smart speaker device, but Later they discontinued it.
You can start using the HomePod Mini within a few minutes. Just keep the HomePod mini within the range of the Apple device that has Siri installed on it.
Now just put the device on the top of the device so your Apple device will Sense your HomePod mini.
But now HomePod mini is available and is capable of doing all general smart speaker tasks like playing music, setting the alarm & timers, finding your Apple devices, and controlling your other smart devices through a smart voice assistant Siri.
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| Photo by Loewe Technologies on Unsplash |
It also supports AirPlay, so you can cast media from any of your Apple devices to HomePods & Apple TV.
For more details, visit Apple HomePod Mini
2] Apple TV - You can also cast your Apple device to Apple TV using its built-in screen mirroring feature.
Apple TV supports HomePod mini integration in it. So you will able to control your TV using HomePod mini using Voice Command or the Apple HomeKit app.
Apple TV is available in 4K, 4K HDR, and HD display with Dolby Vision & Atmos. You can buy Apple TV in two variants - 32 & 64 GB!
Buy Amazon Echo Studio
Other Smart device Brands
Apart from the major smart device brands that we've reviewed previously, you can choose other brands like Sonos, Bose, Mi, and Harmen-Karsen.
These speaker devices also work well with Google Assistant, Alexa, & Siri. You can connect them through wifi or a hub.
Some other variants from Sonos & Bose also have built-in Alexa & Google Assistant within them.
They are quite expensive than Google and Amazon speakers, but they offer great audio output & features. They have bigger speakers and woofers than entry-level Google Nest speakers & Echo speaker devices.
Microsoft's Cortana-based Harmon/Kardon invoke smart speaker is also in competition. It has solid built quality with two color variants - Graphite Black and pearl silver.
It can connect to your mobile devices through wifi or Bluetooth as it has a dedicated Bluetooth button. Apart from the smart speaker, you can also use it as a Bluetooth speaker.
Buy Sonos & Bose speakers
Conclusion
This guide is all about how can we automate the different smart devices for entertainment purposes using the different smart assistant platforms?
I hope you have gained knowledge and chosen the desirable devices that you wanna automate.
I've shared all the popular and best devices to combine & automate your dream smart home with ease.
Turning on/off your multimedia devices like TV and music speakers with your voice and app. You can achieve this by choosing the right platform!
If you have any queries regarding products and devices, how to use them? Just drop a comment down below.
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