Voice control is coming to the BluOS Hi-Res distributed audio platform.
Lenbrook International says the first set of Amazon Alexa Skills for the Blu-OS family of high-res connected audio products will be available January 15, 2019.
Users of BluOS Enabled products from Bluesound, NAD Electronics, and DALI Speakers, will benefit from hands-free control of their music from any Amazon Echo device.
With these inaugural Alexa Skills, BluOS users will be able to access playlists from leading services, radio stations, adjust volume levels or group players together to for whole home playback.
The BluOS Alexa Skills offers a variety of commands through any network-connected Echo device, including play/pause, next/back, shuffle on/off, input control and managing the play queue for most user libraries and music services.
BluOS users will be able to ask their Echo device to deliver music playback commands to their BluOS Enabled device via BluVoice, using phrases like, “Alexa, ask BluVoice to play new songs on Tidal”.
Lennrook suggests the list of commands will expand as various music services add more voice control functionality.
Voice control joins existing control options, including the BluOS Controller app, IR remotes, local hardware controls, and integration with Crestron, Control 4, and RTI.
The move is being hailed as the first step in a broader voice control strategy, which will include the creation of BluVoice, the voice-control interface that acts as the intermediary between BluOS and a compatible voice assistant.
“Voice control has been on the BluOS roadmap for some time, but we wanted to ensure that we delivered the most flexible approach for all of our customers,” explains Andrew Haines, BluOS Product Manager at Lenbrook.
“Externally integrating an Alexa Skill for BluOS is the first of many collaborations with the major voice platforms, ultimately giving BluOS users unrivalled choice in which voice system they use to control their music.”
