Now that I finally completed my migration, my wife is requeting Audio notification for things like doors open (like our vivint system used to do) .
I have 2 sonos device I can use. I noticed the other day that the Airplay integration is discovering them Am i better to do this through Airplay or the Sonmos Integration. Other than this situation, I don't really see a need or reason to include the Sonos completely into the Hubitati environment.
Also, does any one have any suggested sound files for an attention tone/chime/ding? And finally sugeetion how to write the rule to include the sound file? I know Ill need to up load it into file manager. Thanks for any suggestions or help.
I have an extensive Sonos speaker system throughout our house and outdoors (20 units). I chose to use Amazon Alexa for HE notifications, device activations, and status with voice commands.
Using the Sonos system for HE notifications deletes the currently playing song from the queue, and it was hit-or-miss for some notifications and the stability of my SonosNet.
Don't get me wrong —I am not a fan of Amazon Alexa — but for straight TTS notifications from the Echo Speaks app integration, it does the job for me.
WE are really small, just a Play1 and Roam. We used to have the bigger 5 speaker unit, but that got bricked when Sonos did their forced upgrade thing a few years ago (one reason I have been hesitant to add much more sonos). Right now the Sonos' are not used much at all. I use the roam in my office more as a bluetooth speaker for my phone. I'm sure I can do more, I just dont have the attention span to dig into it right now.
We WERE heavily in Alexa. I think at one point we had lke 10 of them through out the house, and they started fighting with each other. The final straw was hunches and Alexa some how deciding what I really wanted was all the Bedroom lights turned on at 6000K and 100% brightness at 0300 every day for two weeks before I finally just pulled them all out . Even turning hunches off didn't stop it, and there was no rule to do it. Once the alexas were un-plugged it stopped.
At least for now, the only thing the Sonos' will be used for is these notifications. But I will keep this in mind if I start using them more, or even expand them. Im not inclned to give Amazon any more of a footprint, cna dont want to end up paying them a subscription to use them like this (they may not now, but they way they have been taking away benifits, and adding sees and subsciptions its only a matter of time) . Is home pod suitable or even any better of an option in that case?
Are you suggesting this in stead of the system integration?
Using the Sonos integration from @daniel.winks from HPM should be fine for your use case.
Also, you can always separate the Sonos Play1 and Roam speakers into different Sonos groups. You play music on the Play1, and dedicate notifications to the Roam (or vice versa).
I am using Google mini hubs with the Hubitat Chromecast integration. Works for both TTS notifications and storing MP3s in the hub and calling them to play when needed and also for voice control of Hubitat. If you already have Sonos, use them. I would not buy Sonos just for announcements though. What I don't know is what happens if the speakers, be they Googles, Amazons, Ring, or Sonos do then they are playing music when an announcement is sent from Hubitat.
