I just bought my HE for my Christmas Present. I wanted to decide on the home automation route before I bought my Whole Home Audio Amps.
I would like to purchase the HTD Lync System, but I'm not seeing any integrations with Hubitat. Can anyone tell me if you have zone, volume, and source control with hubitat or the same controls on another whole home audio amp like monoprice or dayton audio.
Main thing I'm looking for is reliability. I'm a novice when it comes to programming and don't wat something that takes constant tweeking.
Sonos once was a good suggestion. However Sonos has been changing the API constantly and breaking HA integrations left and right. Even Control4 and Crestron people are pissed about it. The Hubitat integration for Sonos is also basic as Hubitat isn't designed around A/V controls and structures.
Today for installs HTD or Denon Heos would be a good choice. Denon is higher on the list as most other HA systems do integrate with it already. As always with anything check the available integrations/drivers/apps before making any purchase with the idea of integrating it.
I hadn’t heard about that system or HTD at all until this thread. From a quick perusal of their website, it looks like a nice system.
But I think @jeubanks makes a good point to keep in mind regardless of what type of whole house audio system one has in mind.
Hubitat allows for some degree of integration with wireless multiroom speakers setup with Sonos, Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant.
There are also drivers for Denon/Marantz and Onkyo network-connected AVRs. Possibly other brands? I’m not sure.
The Denon/Marantz driver can also indirectly integrate with HEOS multiroom speakers, if the AVR has a HEOS input (most of them do, I think).
From the HTD website, I didn’t see anything about a local or cloud-based API, but it looks like they expect users to integrate with Alexa. I didn’t even see anything about integration with control4 or crestron, systems that often have a whole house audio control feature.
HTD has some AVR that are integrated and some that aren't. Have to pay attention to see if they have IP or serial (RS232) connections. I think most or a lot of their systems support RS232 but some of the newer is IP only and making a play for Alexa/Google type integrations. HTD is good but on the cheaper end of things so the big HA systems/integrators don't always have great support for it.
Generally if there's no mention of Control4 or Crestron that's a bad sign... I also check the CharmedQuark drivers list as they only integrate with local devices. So if they are supporting it then integration "is possible". Whether or not there's a Hubitat driver is another issue.
You should keep in mind, Hubitat is not a media controller. It is a home automation system. It is not designed or intended to manage whole home media. Folks have created drivers/integrations for limited control of some devices but if you are looking for a device that will allow you to control multi-room media out of the box and completely seamlessly, hubitat is not it.
If you want a full package with A/V controls then it's going to cost a LOT more than the HE hub.
If the idea is fully integrated you should be looking at:
CharmedQuark CQC - only fully integrated DIY package
Allonis MyServer (left this one out because they sell to DIY but are really more commercial)
Control4
Crestron
I didn't mention HomeSeer as it's not fully integrated the plugins are different providers/authors and they don't communicate/intermix well and it's not fully integrated. Home Assistant is the same and is not a pro level solution for integration but it's a fun project
Seeing as I use voice for most of my whole home automation control, Amazon echo devices paired with good sound bars work great. I have them sprinkled throughout my home, and use Vizio sound bars. Sounds awesome and multi room configuration.
Correct. But you could use virtual switches to trigger Alexa routines to play music. However for some reason the echo app and routines do not allow playing music to a group. Perhaps this will be added in the future
Again, that is not a seamless, out of the box, integration. It's a patched, messy, very easily broken implementation. It might work for you but I would not call Hubitat an Alexa whole home audio controller in that case.
For example, you have no plalist control over what Alexa is playing inside HE. You have no way to move media from one room to another inside HE. Both of which would be required to be a controller in my mind.
@Ryan780. It is an option and one that works pretty reliably for me. The OP is looking for options, this is one. In my short time here, I’ve noticed that you tend to post a lot of negative/ condescending feedback.
This is an option that when on a small budget or a preference to tinkering is involved is plausible. It still is not an integrated solution as the controller has no knowledge of what speaker is player, what it's playing, for how long etc etc. all of that information is stored within the Alexa system and whatever app it used to play the music.
Yes you can have a virtual switch and Alexa routine flip the switch. Now HE knows that a VS is turned on....and... nothing else. Doesn't know what is playing, what the volume level is whether it's muted or not and can't perform any form of control against it.
This method provides a "control" point but it is not a integrated solution for "automation" uses. It's a option and a method of getting a control point and is great if that single control point is the whole goal. Too many pieces and internet dependency for my taste though.
I would say the largest barrier for me to any type of true whole home audio solution is price. Who wants to shell out that kind of dough to get all that shhhhh...stuff when you don't really need it all the time.
But when I see a new person post
Then they are in the other group of people who do want all that control and do think it's necessary. No one would decide to buy a system like that and then settle for the kind of control you would get from Hubitat. Nor should they. If you're forking over that kind of money, I would want the thing to give me compliments every time I walked into a room!
It seems like in the case of this HTD system though, it may not really feature any serious integrations with the higher end home automation controllers, just its own gateway that allows the user to add a mobile app and voice assistant control.
In that sense, any diy solution for home automation, including hubitat, might be an option for the OP. Not saying that hubitat will directly create any kind of integration through its RS232 port, but then that’s the beauty of a system that allows users to write their own drivers and apps.
Edit: it’s also anyone’s prerogative to splurge on one particular aspect of their home automation and/or home audio when the total budget is not unlimited, then make up for that with bootstrapped solutions for other components.
Then I wouldn't expect Hubitat to be able to interface with it at all. If it's not going to allow a system like Control4 to control it, what chance does Hubitat have of connecting to it?
sounds like a question for OP to ask HTD. If that serial port is usable by anything besides their own gateway, then the sky's the limit, if time/effort is no object but cost is.
