Can Home Assistant Do This?

Third party integrations
1

I’ve had it with Savant, Philips Hue, and Alexa. Each has its strengths but I just spent a weekend trying to get whole house audio and lights (“scenes”) working and it’s just not happening. And I’m tired of paying integrators for on-the-job training that never produces a satisfying solution. I’m ready to go open source/DIY.

Can Home Assistant help me? Here’s what I’ve got and what I’m trying to do with it:

I have a Savant Pro 8 setup with six audio zones and speakers built into various rooms of the house. It also coordinates our home theater setup with projector, motorized screen, etc. This much works pretty reliably.

We also have Philips Hue bulbs throughout the house (requiring multiple Bridges - a nightmare in itself) and Alexa voice controllers in each room.

We have lots of other devices that we’ve long since given up on integrating - from Kevo to Nest thermostats to connected garage door openers and security cameras.

I’m a huge fan of controlling whole house audio (Savant) by voice control (Alexa) now but it’s very limited and awkward. No volume commands. No location awareness. No “off” commands, necessitating weird scene requests, like “Alexa, turn on All Lights Off.” Neither Savant, Alexa, nor even Hue work well with multiple Hue Bridges.

What I want is pretty simple: “Alexa, turn on hardcore (local iTunes or Spotify playlist) in Gym” or simply “Alexa, turn on hardcore” while speaking to the home gym’s Echo Dot - it knows by its (or my) location to target the gym. Followed by the inevitable, “Alexa, turn up the music,” and when the phone rings, “Alexa, pause the music.” And, finally, “Alexa, stop the music.”

After that, “Alexa, turn on cool down” puts a serene playlist in the master bathroom and appropriate mood lighting for a chacuz.

Is this too much to ask? Any advice is appreciated.

2

I don’t see any Savant component fro home assistant, are you aware of any open source implementation of their protocols, preferably in python?

The Home assistant hue component is worth a try. Giving that a try is very easy, install home assistant on a computer, and try it. The hubs should be auto discovered. I only have one hub and four Philips bulbs, but they are very reliable in my system.

3

Thank you, Nick!

I doubt Savant offers an API. They want customers to work exclusively through their authorized integrators (so there’s no end-user support overhead, for one thing). This was my experience with AMX/Phast/Panja back in the day and it was dismal. To be fair, there were moments when everything worked well and the expense seemed justified, but now it seems that those pricey home automation systems just can’t keep up with the pace of technology.

As such, I’m afraid there’s no choice but to separate Savant from home automation duties altogether and relegate it merely to home theater management. For integration of whole-house audio, lighting, and all those other IoT gadgets I mentioned, Home Assistant appears to be the better, more future-proof and cost effective choice.

The only real expense I foresee is a new multi-zone amplifier, being that the Savant unit is proprietary.

I’ll give it a go, as you suggest. Thanks again!

4

Hi,
I understand what you want is to use Savant for this, but a seemingly reliable approach in HA seems to be Chromecasts. For lights, you can take your pick, I use Tradfri lights as well as Sonoff switches and relay boxes, both work well.

5

Personally I use squeezeboxes for my whole home audio. Centrally controllable, HA compatible, open source.

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You raise a good point re wall switches. I’ve been hoping for a Philips Hue switch to replace the traditional Decora switches (and one or two remaining Phast switches) we now have in our home. Philips’ Smart Dimmer Switch comes close but augments, rather than replaces, the existing electrical switches. We already have four-gang switch plates in many rooms of our house. Things are getting messy.

And that’s another reason we’ve been gravitating to Alexa. Voice control of all those light zones is pretty nice, except when you’re tiptoeing through the house for a midnight snack and don’t want to wake anyone else. I’ve actually resorted to using the flashlight on my phone. It’s pathetic. Another solution would be motion trackers that would automatically dim lights on (if already off) between certain hours.

We’ve invested quite a bit in Philips Hue, so unless Sonoff works with Hue bulbs, I fear we’re sorta stuck. Can Home Assistant translate Sonoff switch inputs to Hue commands? Maybe another third-party switch?

7

Does Squeezebox support Spotify? I don’t see it on their site.

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Yes, using the excellent Spotty plugin. You’ll need a paid Spotify sub.

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I have to voice a warning about the Sonoff switches, the touch plate looks cool, but is annoying to use. I have found myself making physical MQTT-switches from microcontrollers to have “Scene control” buttons instead in each room.

Problem with at least Tradfri (which is a Zigbee-lightlink system like Hue) is that you can’t actually have HA react to the button presses, but rather the controllers are directly linked with bulbs. Things become problematic when you have scenes that turn some of the lights off, and then the lights are ‘out of sync’ with the controller.

What I really want is dimmable Wifi switches with tactile controls on walls, in addition to a 4-button panel with scene names. Clearly too much to ask :frowning:

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I’m currently testing out a HiFiBerry Amp2 hat on a RaspBerry Pi using the Max2Play image to power some full-sized speakers using Squeeze. The HiFiBerry basically acts as a powered amp. Inexpensive, too. I can play from my Squeeze server (there are some nice remote control apps for various phone platforms - I like OrangeSqueeze on Android) and I can also send to it via the Spotify Connect feature in the Spotty plugin.

11

I know this is an old thread, but I had a similar complaint about Savant, and have been trying to do everything in Home Assistant. To that end, I put together an HA integration for the Savant audio switch, so I can at least control the audio portion of my Savant system. Not trying to plug anything – I basically just did it for my own use – but tried to package it well enough that maybe others would find it useful too.

If you are interested, here’s the repo:

And if anyone else has any luck controlling other Savant things HA, that would be great!

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