I manage IT for an older gym with about 50 TVs in it that are IR-only and their video input source is coax. I am trying to setup HA so that it can centrally control each TV individually (e.g., change the channel, change the input, power on/off). The challenge with a typical IR blaster like Broadlink is that the signal is received by multiple TVs when you only want it to go to a specific TV.
My thought was to put an IR transmitter directly on the sensor of each individual TV; however, It is cost-prohibitive to run cabling throughout the gym to each individual TV. In lieu of cabling, I was thinking there had to be a WiFi-enabled transmitter solution.
I found this open source solution that seems to do exactly that, but requires assembly of components:
This is definitely an option, but was hoping there was an off the shelf device available that accomplished the same thing. Also this project doesn’t specifically state HA compatibility, but since it works with Alexa skills and receives commands via HTTP it seems feasible to integrate.
Any thoughts or recommendations are greatly appreciated!
Ryan
Wow! That insecurely exposes the TV to the Internet. That is asking to be hacked. run FAR away from that. You can be sure it was not designed for direct Internet access.
If your router supports mDNS/Bonjour you can now access your device on your local network via the hostname you specified (**http://hostname.local:port/**), otherwise via its local IP address (this IP address is displayed on the serial output)
2. Forward whichever port your ESP8266 web server is running on so that it can be accessed from outside your local network, this is critical since Alexa commands come from Amazon’s servers, not locally
The cheapest wifi blaster off-the-shelf and supported by HA is the broadlink RM4C mini.
Still $15, so multiplied by 50, it’s not cheap. DIY would probably divide that by 2 or 3, but would surely be a misery to build and maintain.
You might also want to check if the remotes can have an ID.
Many TV manufacturers give this option, so you can use one remote for multiple TV’s individually….
And you could wrap the mini i a sort of tube, making it have directional beam, then it will only be received by the TV it is aimed at, but you still could have some issues with reflections.
My suggestion would be changing the TV’s for WiFi built in one’s, or go for a professional Hotel/Hospital system. They are designed especially to be remote controlled by an operator.
That’s expensive!!! $500USD minimum each….$25000 no matter
If you just need on/off maybe putting them on same AC could do maybe? If need change channel maybe a wifi/networked input device could work out. Wasn’t clear if these have HDMI and maybe CEC functionality?
Right - replacing the TVs is also not a realistic option. Before I did that, I would probably run IR cabling to all TVs … would be much cheaper than replacing the TVs.
@Prodigyplace Actually no it wouldn’t be insecure. My point about HTTP was simply that it had the capability to receive commands externally in order to build an integration. This is not inherently insecure … in our environment the devices wouldn’t be on the Internet, only on the local network. And all we would be transmitting would be TV commands (power on, power off, change input, etc.) - no need to encrypt that with HTTPS.
@Prodigyplace ahh i see the issue … i was not saying that “it receives http commands from alexa” - if that were the case, then yes that would be a concern. I was just saying that: 1. It works with Alexa. 2. It supports HTTP calls. (i.e. 2 separate unrelated items). Sorry for the confusion, I should have written that better!
Yes. The device interacts direct to the Internet using plain text http. My understanding from discussions in the issue I filed is the device does not have the resources to do https. They recommend NOT exposing directly like they first directed. They list the security concerns further down the README file.
Apparently Home Assistant can control them directly. There is somebody on that Issue thread that has done that.
My use case, arguably, is a simple one. I have a few IRBlasters attached to lights
(just on/off), so the sequences are pretty simple.
The TL;DR is to configure Home Assistant to have a switch with an automation
attached to toggle it back and forth, then call that from a fullfillment URL
in the Google Assistant Add-On. There will need to be something like this
for the automation to call:
rest_command:
master_led_off:
url: "http://10.120.128.1:8080/msg?code=F7C03F:NEC:32&address=0xef00"
method: put
master_led_on:
url: "http://10.120.128.1:8080/msg?code=F740BF:NEC:32&address=0xef00"
method: put
