VoxCommando
Microphones and Speech Recognition in General => What is a good microphone for speech recognition? => Topic started by: LilFonky on September 02, 2014, 02:56:11 PM
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I know multi-mic solutions are thin on the ground so I just wanted to point out this product:
http://www.pyleaudio.com/sku/PDWM8300/Professional-conference-Desktop-VHF-Wireless-Microphone-System
There's a 4 mic UHF version as well but sadly each transmitter requires AA batteries on the 4 mic version.
MSRP is $639 USD but street prices are in the $200 range.
Has anyone tried anything like this?
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In theory it would probably work well enough, except that you'd need to find an alternative to batteries. Also those microphones might require you to stand pretty close to them, which is good and bad, depending on how you look at it.
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The eight-mic VHF system actually will take wall power for the mics, it's the 4-mic UHF rig that is batteries-only. Pyle is one of those "manufacturers" that doesn't manufacture anything, they just buy up surplus capacity from random Chinese factories and resell whatever they can get their hands on. Some of their stuff is passable, and some of it is horrible, but these are the only cheap wireless mic systems I've ever seen that come with an integrated mixer so I'm very curious. Insofar as they're electret condensers (I assume cardioid) they should be sensitive enough so I might take a chance in a month or two and report back on my findings. 8 mics is probably overkill in my application but whatever, I suppose it wouldn't hurt me to have some spares. I'm also worried about dealing with the extra-looooong vhf antennas...
Has anyone else cracked the multi-mic nut? My original plan was to run VoxWav on a bunch of cheap wall-mounted android tablets in "always on" mode but I'm not having great luck with that on my network (I'll post more about that in the Android forum once I test it again on more devices). WO Mic works fantastically, but I can only hook in one Android device at a time and it takes away my ability to run a second mic using the regular windows driver. I've not tried out VAC yet so maybe that's a solution, or part of one at least...
Anyway I can see from browsing the forum that this is a perennial topic, so I'd be really excited to know if anyone has had any recent luck.
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You probably don't just need a mixer but one with auto mic gating. Don't know if the one you linked to supports that but probably not.
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No almost certainly no gates to be had here. Do you have any experience with the summing of background noise and VC? I'm wondering if the old strategy of just turning things right down might not do the trick. Another thing to test would be to stick an expander between the output of the mic and the computer input. I actually have one of those in my collection so maybe if I get my courage together to buy these goofy mics I can stick it inline and document my results. It's not happening this month as I've already got a couple of Vox-related purchases in the pipe (with a purchase of VC itself OTW), but I'm intensely interested in the distributed microphone issue and I think working on it would be super fun.
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After I read some reviews about the pyle, I would say don't waste your money for such a "Pro" Microphones - here are some reviews on amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Pyle-PDWM8300-Professional-Conference-Microphone/product-reviews/B003D2O15W/ref=cm_cr_pr_btm_link_2?ie=UTF8&pageNumber=2&showViewpoints=0&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending (http://www.amazon.com/Pyle-PDWM8300-Professional-Conference-Microphone/product-reviews/B003D2O15W/ref=cm_cr_pr_btm_link_2?ie=UTF8&pageNumber=2&showViewpoints=0&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending)
maybe this is interesting, but I'm sure this will be Ultra-expensive ::yuck
http://www.revolabs.com/documents/solo-executive/solo48_sell_sheet_pr0911 (http://www.revolabs.com/documents/solo-executive/solo48_sell_sheet_pr0911)
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HI Kalle-
I actually have some of these Revolabs mics at my job and I've never been too fond of them, mostly because of the stupid wired-in li-poly packs in the mics, which tend to bubble and are not easily replaceable. They're expensive, but not crazy expensive if you're hell-bent having some. You can get a pair with a charger and receiver for about $500...
For my purposes, though, I need something that's commodity priced.
I'm sure the Pyle mics are crap-tacular, and there's essentially no QC, as one would expect at this price. I expect I'd have about even odds of getting a set that works, so I'd be operating in the land of calculated risk if I went ahead. But the idea for the product is conceptually almost exactly what I want, and it's the only thing I've ever seen at almost any price that ticks all the boxes (except quality). I am afraid! But if they work it would be a cool proof of concept.
Anyway, there are still plenty of things that need done before I haul off and buy a bunch of mics. I'm just really interested in multi-room strategies since my home, small though it is, has multiple rooms...
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OK so I have some gadgets coming in the mail, which include (another) android tablet, a tiny PC, and these:
http://smile.amazon.com/Movo-MA100-Omni-Directional-Calibrated-Microphone/dp/B00LCIVLRK/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1409782302&sr=8-3&keywords=movo+microphone
http://smile.amazon.com/dp/B00ADR2B84/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=P4UH7DQ1L9ET&coliid=I2Q0S6CZHBKDJX
I've also done a little more testing with VoxWav and after some tweaks I'm having better results than I was the other day. Raising the gate threshold really high and turning off UDP broadcast improved VoxWav's performance (dunno why UDP should matter, might be a coincidence), so I'm gonna try each of these little mics out an see how they compare with the built-in mics on my phone and the new tablet. I'll report back on each mic soon, hopefully this weekend.
The over-arching strategy is going to be to hang a cheap tablet on the wall in each of the rooms where I want mics, which gives me touch controls and voice capture ganged together in each room where I want control. I'd like to see if I can get 3-4 instances of VoxWav to play nice with VC all at once, with the addition of possibly a boundary mic in the living room at some point. I'd like to eventually be running the Vox computer in a headless way using Splashtop for access when I need to make changes to settings.
We shall see...
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I am running VC with these Ceiling Mounted Boundary Mics (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/281138724185?limghlpsr=true&hlpv=2&ops=true&viphx=1&hlpht=true&lpid=108&device=c&adtype=pla&crdt=0&ff3=1&ff11=ICEP3.0.0&ff12=67&ff13=80&ff14=108 (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/281138724185?limghlpsr=true&hlpv=2&ops=true&viphx=1&hlpht=true&lpid=108&device=c&adtype=pla&crdt=0&ff3=1&ff11=ICEP3.0.0&ff12=67&ff13=80&ff14=108)) along with a Shure SCM-410e
The Mics are quite sensitive and the Shure Mixer has Gating and a logic output for speaker selection (for VC response). All this connects into a PC
Its quite interesting to see what VC hears and the confidence level it assigns. I my situation, the more of a vocab you setup, the better the confidence (and recognition) is.
The hardest part was to setup the input and output gains so that VC was happy - It helped to be able to record the input and play it back as I was able to pick up and tune out some noise.
Not played with the UDP setting but this maybe a VoxWav thing??
Vangelis
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Raising the gate threshold really high and turning off UDP broadcast improved VoxWav's performance (dunno why UDP should matter, might be a coincidence)
There is no way that turning off UDP will improve your recognition accuracy. All it will do is make it so that you can't send messages by clicking on things like the last recognized command or alternates or confirmation popups. It will also stop VoxWav from sending events to VC. In your case this won't matter but sometimes we use this to reduce audio volume while speaking a voice command.
Raising the silence threshold to the correct value makes sense, but "really high" could just as easily make things worse. It will be different for everyone depending on their setup and their device's microphone sensitivity. I must caution other users not to assume that setting this value "really high" is going to be a magic fix because it could just as easily make VW unusable.
I talk about these thresholds in this video:
&feature=youtu.be&t=3m14s
The link will take you to 3 minutes 14 seconds into the video which is where I start to talk about the thresholds. Rewind if you want to watch the whole thing.
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Nice microphones, never see this ceiling mics before. I think your advantage is the shure mixer, the expensive part ;)
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;) That's what was holding me back, until I found one on EBay ;D
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Ebay 8:32
And ye shall know the ebay, and the ebay shall make you free.
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Hi Vangelis-
How are you handling wire runs in your deployment? Are you running mic cable through the plenum/attic and then down to an XLR wall plate? Or are you doing some kind of surface mount thing? I rent, so I've not really been too keen to run wire through the wall, which is why I'm so interested in wireless options. I've got mixers and microphones aplenty but running xlr all over the place is what's keeping me from pursuing boundary mics or PZMs or similar. I also just sort of like the idea of "cheap-and-cheerful" for this kind of thing, but I'm always looking for new reasons to buy gear so I'd be very interested to know more about our install.
Are you using the gates heavily on the scm-410? Has it been your experience that VC accuracy drops significantly as you begin summing more mics without the gates turned on?
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Castle O/S uses Kinects all over the home in every room to do the very same thing. The great thing is, the 1st gen Kinect is dirt cheap since the 360 was replaced by the Xbox One. The guy seems to get pretty good dictation.
http://youtu.be/ksiJWthOxY0
Personally, I would much rather use VC instead of Castle OS since VC is so much more customizable. However I am just showing you the concept of a whole home microphone setup.
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The CastleOS video addresses "whole room" audio, not "whole home". Kinect is not wireless and I wonder how many Kinects you can plug into to a single computer, even if you could run usb cables more than the recommended maximum of about 15 feet.
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Also you can do the same thing with VoxCommando and Kinect.
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Hey LilFonky,
I run the XLR cables through the attic (up from node 0 where the Shure Mixer is). These are balanced and provide phantom power (as you probably already know :) )
I try and keep away from RF as any interference will play havoc with VC recognition hence using all wired connections.
As for gating - I actually use it to determine how VC responses are routed to the Sonos speaker in the 'speakers' location. Background noise can be a pain but you can tune this out to some extent. I can also factor in other volumetric sensing through automation and EventGhost if its really noisy.
Vangelis
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As for gating - I actually use it to determine how VC responses are routed to the Sonos speaker in the 'speakers' location.
Cool. How are you sending TTS responses from VC to Sonos?
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I capture the TTS response as an .mp3 file and have Sonos reference an SMB share (with a little bit of unpn).
Alternatively I can hook into Google TTS via my automation and have VC -> EventGhost (TCP Broker / Output from Shure via digital capture card for Sonos room selection variable) -> Automation (Sonos) to make the announcements (there is a little delay however)
Vangelis
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Well I got my new tablet and tiny mic and tried them out together. Sadly (and perhaps predictably) the little mic doesn't produce enough output to be useful for voice recognition; I think the impedance is too high for regular recording, though it works famously with my RTA apps. I have another ultra-cheap mic on the way, and if that's not sufficient I'll be giving up on the el-cheapo mic approach. The next step will be to dig into my stash of recording mics (AT2035, AKG c1000s, SM58, EV 660A, EV RE320) and see how they do. But even if I'm satisfied with the performance I'm disinclined to go this route on a permanent basis as I'm loath to litter the house with mic preamps and phantom power supplies and the like. I'm also not thrilled about encumbering my recording mics for a purpose other than recording.
TBH, I now expect that none of these options will outperform the built-in mic on my laptop, and short of an elaborate hard-wired install as in i.e.,Vangelis's boundary mic rig, the next best option is to just have a bunch of computers all over the place running separate instances of VC. Still, I feel like lots of wall-mounted tablets sending audio over the network to a single instance VC is a most elegant, conceptually clear solution, so I plan to continue to pursue this route for at least a while longer. I'm super-duper interested in hearing people's success stories in this realm, so if anyone is having good luck in a multi-room, open-mic deployment please let us hear about it.
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TBH, I now expect that none of these options will outperform the built-in mic on my laptop, and short of an elaborate hard-wired install as in i.e.,Vangelis's boundary mic rig, the next best option is to just have a bunch of computers all over the place running separate instances of VC. Still, I feel like lots of wall-mounted tablets sending audio over the network to a single instance VC is a most elegant, conceptually clear solution, so I plan to continue to pursue this route for at least a while longer. I'm super-duper interested in hearing people's success stories in this realm, so if anyone is having good luck in a multi-room, open-mic deployment please let us hear about it.
I can't say I have a success storey ... But I have been evaluating and trying to understand the different approaches for the whole house system ... So I will share my ideas
To be able to put things into perspective I think the right approach is based on 2 technical parts and cost implications (which will be driven by how big the house/apt and how many rooms)...
First part: open mic or not ...
Now that depends on what one wants and if that is practical... Ex in my case open mic is not an easy approach at all although it is what I want, I live in an apartment that is 1m higher than the street and train tracks pass right behind the land. So lots of close by noise (noise gating helps, but not much).... Although I am working and researching a lot to improve that, Yet I am still very far from actual working practical solution ... (Late at night when all quiet it works great with very few misses)
Central or distributed VC
The central is an elegant solution but has lots of consequences:
How the voice is sent from other rooms... Wifi, wireless, cables ... And if the chosen system will allow VC to know from where the command is issued .... And if that is easy to achieve ... For example the mixer will it be able to send an event to VC to say the command coming on line 2 or if it is wifi will the software generate an event to tell VC which instance is talking (don't have android so I do not know what vox wave can do, but if it does not do that I think James can add it easily) ...
why we need to know which line is talking, because we will need to understand "turn off the light" means which room ... Or if you are installing distributed speakers "set the volume to 15%" has to affect that room and not the whole house ... And that drags complicated and or nested if statements that is not the forte of VC
On the other hand distributed VC is not elegant but reduces a lot of the complication of running wires and solving knowing which line the command is coming on.. And compared to good mic wireless systems I think the cost is not very different... Specially if one have few old PCs laying around ... Added bonus one combine other functions for each room like xbmc in each room ...etc.
The commands on different PCs can be synced easily by Dropbox ... But it brings the complicated ifs again
It will be great to find a cheap tablette that can run windows with a usb host.
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First part: open mic or not ...
My own perspective is that the desire for an open-air mic solution is the main issue.
We have a few Androids (along with some Amulet remotes, some USB mics, etc.). We can, and do, use VoxWav anywhere in our 2-storey house to control VC -- it's not a problem for us because we're not trying to use our Androids as open/area mics. For us, these are a reliable, convenient, and affordable (since we're using them for multiple purposes anyhow) choice.
Someone recently asked James what kind of open mic solution he's using in the "Coming Home from Work" demo video. The answer is simple: None. Every time he's talking to the computer, he has a mobile device or Amulet in his hand. And yet it apparently seemed natural enough that someone watching the video didn't notice that.
For me, it doesn't feel inconvenient or awkward to pick up the mobile or tablet and click a button before talking, anymore than it feels inconvenient to pick up the phone to call someone or walk to the top of the stairs if I need someone to hear me at the bottom of the stairs.
Sometimes, I'll unthinkingly go "old school" and call out to James from another room to ask him to turn down the music or change the living room speakers to the outdoor speakers, etc. Then suddenly I'll think, "Why the heck am I doing that?" Wherever I am, I pick up my phone (or open Tellvox on my laptop if I'm in my office) and issue the command myself. It takes literally a few seconds, and for me, it's a million times simpler and more reliable than having to yell my command at a microphone across the room.
So, the preference to use some kind of always on hands-free open-air mic system is the main challenge.
A reliable hands-free solution seems like it would be particularly important for users with disabilities and mobility challenges, but that wouldn't necessarily have to be open-air. Whenever I think about this issue, that's the problem I am interested in finding a good solution for.
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Just to chime in, I am starting to crack this nut.
There is a old thread that sort of addresses this http://voxcommando.com/forum/index.php?topic=1425.0 (http://voxcommando.com/forum/index.php?topic=1425.0)
I will be using a polycom ef2280, cheap on ebay. Make sure it comes with a power supply, if no ps do not get it.
My test mic is a pzm-11. I am hoping to have something running tonight.
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My own perspective is that the desire for an open-air mic solution is the main issue.
So, the preference to use some kind of always on hands-free open-air mic system is the main challenge.
for sure it is the main challenge... because we are trying to make the computer to emulate human behavior ... our brains use so many technologies to determine what we hear and what to act upon and what to discard ... those freaking powerful processers in our skulls they beat any computer ever made when looking at total performance ... yet it is the most natural, that is why it seduce many to achieve it
the mechanisms that we apply to hear what others tell us (what I can think of); prefix, noise filtering, sound direction, and content analysis (speech, music, movie, relative to us or no, voice recognition...etc.)...
the first 2 are easily achieved with current technology and relatively low cost... prefix, comes ready with VC ... noise filtering, using hardware and / or software (I just succeeded last night from isolating the street and most of the train noise using software, although it added latency -up to 3 seconds due to old PC - VC confidence levels jumped at least 10%)
sound direction will take a bit more complex system ... installing microphones on each wall to be able to determine precisely the sound vector direction and source location ( I think some high end array mics can do that as well but not sure how precise and if they render that as data so the PC use it for logic operations)...
the real challenge is content analysis... and doing that in real time, I do not think is available within current technology. We can filter music, movie, TTS through echo cancelation if all passes within the same hardware), and we can give some context by enabling disabling groups in VC and some AI functions (like the one that will execute the command even if the confidence was too low, if VC hears the same sentence twice)
A reliable hands-free solution seems like it would be particularly important for users with disabilities and mobility challenges, but that wouldn't necessarily have to be open-air. Whenever I think about this issue, that's the problem I am interested in finding a good solution for.
wireless mics studio quality will be a good option to try. if the person uses a wheel chair then the battery will become less an issue as one can embed high capacity batteries in the chair (like the ones used in UPS or alarms)
We have a few Androids (along with some Amulet remotes, some USB mics, etc.). We can, and do, use VoxWav anywhere in our 2-storey house to control VC -- it's not a problem for us because we're not trying to use our Androids as open/area mics. For us, these are a reliable, convenient, and affordable (since we're using them for multiple purposes anyhow) choice.
Does VoxWav tell VC which device is talking to it? can multiple devices connect at the same time ?
and may I propose to make a discussion board dedicated to open-air mic ... since it has many stages, devices and complex issues involved
Just to chime in, I am starting to crack this nut.
There is a old thread that sort of addresses this http://voxcommando.com/forum/index.php?topic=1425.0 (http://voxcommando.com/forum/index.php?topic=1425.0)
I will be using a polycom ef2280, cheap on ebay. Make sure it comes with a power supply, if no ps do not get it.
My test mic is a pzm-11. I am hoping to have something running tonight.
please let us know how things will go ... I found that passing my voice through equalizer helped a lot (my voice is naturally a bit muffled) by boosting the right frequency range (recording it and optimizing the equalizer to make it clearer)
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Does VoxWav tell VC which device is talking to it? can multiple devices connect at the same time ?
- Yes.
- Yes. They are not really "connecting at the same time". They disconnect after sending audio and reconnect when they have audio to send, but basically yes.
after VW has finished streaming audio for a given command an event is generated: (see attached image)
TcpMic.WavReadyand the payload is the IP address of the device running VoxWav. Of course if your Android device IP addresses are changing this will present a bit of a challenge. Most routers will allow you to assign a fixed IP to any device based on its mac address.
and may I propose to make a discussion board dedicated to open-air mic ... since it has many stages, devices and complex issues involved
Sure, good idea. How's this?
http://voxcommando.com/forum/index.php?board=50.0
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- Yes. They are not really "connecting at the same time". They disconnect after sending audio and reconnect when they have audio to send, but basically yes.
that does the trick ... I can not find an iOS app that do the same ...
after VW has finished streaming audio for a given command an event is generated: (see attached image)
so VoxWav won't fire the event automatically ... we must do something after the wavready event ? ...I am keen to learn how VoxWav work precisely (have no android to test) as a possible solution for droid devices installed in every room to control VC
Sure, good idea. How's this?
http://voxcommando.com/forum/index.php?board=50.0
this is great ... I just started a thread for noise filtering ... maybe I will take part of the discussion of this thread and posted there or link to it here ...
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so VoxWav won't fire the event automatically ... we must do something after the wavready event ?
What? Yes it generates this event automatically. As with all events it is your choice if you want to do something with the event or not.
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Maybe my question was not clear ... once something said in VoxWav what happens exactly ? VC will hear the phrase through UDP (tellvox) then the event generated ... or the wave file will be stored on the PC then we have to write a command that fires with the event to process it ?
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I think maybe there is no point discussing it until you have tried using VoxWav. It is streaming audio to VoxCommando. You don't need to write any commands. You only need to enable the TcpMic plugin, which listens for the connections from VoxWav. Yes a wav file is temporarily stored on disk and then analyzed but it is all done automatically.
VoxWav does not normally use tellVox, it uses speech recognition and audio steaming.
http://voxwav.wikispaces.com/VoxWav+Home
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Tris answer my questions ... Will start looking for an affordable android devices
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You must know someone who has one you can borrow to try it. Start with VoxWav free.
I'm not convinced that it is reliable enough to assume you can use it as an always on solution, and I certainly can't guarantee it. Maybe others who have really tried to use it for this purpose can offer their opinions on that. Dropping five dollars on VoxWav pro is no big deal but buying an android device only to find out that you don't like VoxWav would be unfortunate.
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I can corroborate James's assertion that VoxWav is not ideal for open mic use. There are lots of things I like about it, and it works well in ptt mode, but the intermittent nature of the audio stream makes it flaky in always-on mode. Also if you're restarting Vox frequently (like when programming) you have to restart the always on feature each time you re-connect. I've had better luck on the whole with WO mic, though I think Vox is the better app in many ways.
Today I received my most recent ultra-cheap mic in the mail and surprisingly I'm having decent luck with it attached to an Android tablet, casting audio to VC via WO Mic. After a bit of training I'm getting pretty reliable performance from several feet away, even with the tv on in the background. Too bad the WO client isn't multi-channel...
This is the mic:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/390866946296?_trksid=p2059210.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
It's a little big, but it's not very acoustically sensitive so I'm not getting a lot of unwanted ambiance in my test recordings. It doesn't produce a lot of output gain but since VC doesn't do so well with high gain that's ok. I'll keep playing but so far I'm pretty happy given what I spent (<$11 USD shipped). Only real gripe is I have to use a trs to trrs adaptor, which disables sound output from the tablet.
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Yeah, VoxWav was really designed to be interacted with.
User activates recording using either tilt or a button press, and then gets visual feedback of recognition results, alternates, OSD messages, confirmation messages, and TTS.
The goal was to create something similar to the Amulet, but better, that would be essentially free for those who already had an Android. The beauty of it when used as originally intended is that it is not too hard on your device's battery, your false positives should be close to zero, and the range is usually really good (whatever your wifi range is).
The only reason I created the always on mode was because of user's demands for it.
If you are using always on mode then it probably makes more sense to use a virtual microphone app like WO mic (Android) or Headset (iOs). In this case you don't want to be running on batteries.
The one advantage of VoxWav even as an always on mic is that you can use more than one simultaneously with a single instance of VoxCommando, and combine it with a "normal" windows mic, without having to install special programs like VAC.
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In fact I am not planning for android as an always on solution ... It is more press a button to say what I want ... For the moment it is the most reliable solution
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Ok... my 2 cents:
Although I am registered here for over 2 years, only now I am starting to trial Voxcommando.
Because my house took more time building than I initially expected, only last week I have connected and powered up my mic installation.
By the way... I was truly happy to find out that VC now supports Microsoft Speech Recognition Engine.
So... let me describe you my whole house mic system:
I have 2 Gentner AP800 mic mixers and a Gentner AP10 telephone gateway. I have 8 ceiling mics installed through the house from various manufacturers: Crown, Astatic, Beyer Dynamics and Audio Technics. All of these were bought from Ebay. An used AP800 should sell for $100 or less.
The Gentner AP800 is widely used in home automation scenarios. It supports 8 mics, features rs232 control, and has all the features one should need for every scenario. One of the cool features is that if you feed an audio source (TV, music, whatever) it can 'substract' that audio from the mics feed. For example: you can issue voice commands on a room playing loud music.
I have the mixers connected to my server running Eventghost. When VC detects a command, it tells EG, I query the mixer for the gated mic and know the location where the command was issued. I use it also has an intercom system.
This is, of course, theoretically because only now I will power up the mixers and start playing around. I'll have to set gains and volumes for the whole thing and try speech recognition accuracy.
Anyway... this just to say that the Gentner's AP800 are a very good option for whole house systems.
Regards,
Mike
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Thanks for mentioning the ap800. I see it has much support than my vortex.
I just might get one. Thanks.
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Thank you mike ...
For awhile I was reluctant which mixer to go, Vortex or ap800, the noise cancelation is deal maker ... Add to your comments the power supply issue of vortex, when buying from ebay, and the balance will tip comfortably to ap800
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Mike, I am curious how you will use the "subtraction" part. Are you also going to have a whole house media setup that allows you to tie into the system? For example, my vortex is in my spare bedroom and my cable boxes are with my tv's in other rooms. Not really feasible for me to run stuff back in an existing 60 year old house.
Haddood, I wonder where you got the notion of vortex power supply issues from.......
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Keith, all the vortex I found on ebay, was without power supply... Even somebody mentioned here in the forums that one should find it with a power supply ... On the other hand ap800 seems it have the power supply built in
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I don't think it was an "issue" as long as you got a power supply. The issue is that a lot of people are selling power supplies that cost more than the vortex itself. The power supply appears to be a special one so you can't just substitute a generic one for it.
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Haddood, I was joking around. I mentioned the power supply issues and ebay.....
Even though I have a vortex up and going, I am really interested in the ap800/xap800 route. Just the fact alone that I can find more than 4 posts (not including mine) on the internet that have good info is a plus to me.
I am still researching the line in ist fur the subtraction. Trying to find out how to do it without losing surround sound.
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Trying to find out how to do it without losing surround sound.
How about if you split each Chanel before it goes to the speakers, mix all the splits and feed to vortex as one Chanel ... Sure you need a mixer for that and splitters (maybe y splitters will do)
Just a thought ... As I can't do tests since I have no vortex or ap800
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so for $30 total i just bought a used xap 800. The xap800 is the upgrade to the ap800. I found this http://www.zoelen.net/ZMC.htm (http://www.zoelen.net/ZMC.htm) that has a decent build out. It does use a different ha solution, but the more info the better.
I found the above link from here http://board.homeseer.com/showthread.php?t=165984&highlight=ap800 (http://board.homeseer.com/showthread.php?t=165984&highlight=ap800)
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Mike, I am curious how you will use the "subtraction" part. Are you also going to have a whole house media setup that allows you to tie into the system?
Yes. I have a 'control' room in the basement where I keep all multizone amps and servers. I just feed the AP800 with all the possible sound sources (TV, Radio, MP3, XBMC).
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I capture the TTS response as an .mp3 file and have Sonos reference an SMB share (with a little bit of unpn).
Alternatively I can hook into Google TTS via my automation and have VC -> EventGhost (TCP Broker / Output from Shure via digital capture card for Sonos room selection variable) -> Automation (Sonos) to make the announcements (there is a little delay however)
Vangelis
are you converting the original tts wav that vox commando creates to mp3? I would like to know whats the easiest way to convert to mp3 so sonos could play the file. having trouble with this one :bonk
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From what I've read, Sonos can play wavs without any problem.
It would be greatly appreciated though if Vangelis would explain the steps required.
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https://sonos.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/80/~/supported-audio-formats
... Our users who're sending TTS to Sonos via their Vera controllers are also playing wav files, to my knowledge.
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If you still want to convert wav to mp3 anyway...
https://quote.ucsd.edu/phonoloblog/2007/07/23/batch-convert-wav-to-mp3/
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thanks James, the conversion solves my problem. for some reason sonos isnt able to play that particular wav file that voxcommando creates. Looks like I need to kick off a conversion right after the wav is created which might add a longer delay to a response from voxcommando. interested on how others came up with a work around.
thanks again for your response