Echo & Alexa Forums

General Category => Alexa Tips & Tricks => Topic started by: Resonance on November 20, 2017, 09:18:59 am

Title: Multi-Room Music
Post by: Resonance on November 20, 2017, 09:18:59 am
Hi, Just got myself a 2nd gen Echo for the living room. Anyway I set it up in a group (named downstairs) with a Dot we've got in the kitchen. Problem is it insists on playing on the downstairs group even when not asked. This means I have to specifically ask to either play on the Living room Echo or Kitchen Dot. Is this how it's supposed to behave? I would have thought the default would be to play on the device being spoken to and only play on the group when asked?

Title: Re: Multi-Room Music
Post by: Resonance on November 29, 2017, 05:13:34 am
Anyone got this set up so it only plays on a group when asked. I deleted and re-created the group to see if it would fix the problem. Unfortunately it didn't.

Help!
Title: Re: Multi-Room Music
Post by: asianrocker on November 30, 2017, 07:43:13 am
Hi, Just got myself a 2nd gen Echo for the living room. Anyway I set it up in a group (named downstairs) with a Dot we've got in the kitchen. Problem is it insists on playing on the downstairs group even when not asked. This means I have to specifically ask to either play on the Living room Echo or Kitchen Dot. Is this how it's supposed to behave? I would have thought the default would be to play on the device being spoken to and only play on the group when asked?

The bold is your problem. If you put your 2 dots in one group that will likely happen. Why did you put it on one group? Most people here don't know how group function works, I guess. I would gladly help you guys if you send me another echo device to test, LOL. I can only help  if I can imitate the problem on my echo system. I don't feel the need for multiple echos in my house.
Title: Re: Multi-Room Music
Post by: Resonance on November 30, 2017, 08:11:36 am
Hi, Just got myself a 2nd gen Echo for the living room. Anyway I set it up in a group (named downstairs) with a Dot we've got in the kitchen. Problem is it insists on playing on the downstairs group even when not asked. This means I have to specifically ask to either play on the Living room Echo or Kitchen Dot. Is this how it's supposed to behave? I would have thought the default would be to play on the device being spoken to and only play on the group when asked?

The bold is your problem. If you put your 2 dots in one group that will likely happen. Why did you put it on one group? Most people here don't know how group function works, I guess. I would gladly help you guys if you send me another echo device to test, LOL. I can only help  if I can imitate the problem on my echo system. I don't feel the need for multiple echos in my house.

I just assumed that if you put two (or more devices) in a group, each device would only play to the group when asked. That would seem logical to me.

Anyway I contacted Amazon and the default is to play to the group, even when not asked. Seems the wrong way to do things to me, but there we are.
Title: Re: Multi-Room Music
Post by: asianrocker on November 30, 2017, 08:59:36 am
Yap. It looks for the group name first and foremost. I guess to make it work right, make sure there is only one echo in that group.
Title: Re: Multi-Room Music
Post by: Resonance on November 30, 2017, 09:35:27 am
Yap. It looks for the group name first and foremost. I guess to make it work right, make sure there is only one echo in that group.

Surely that defeats the object. I want to sometimes play the same thing on two devices at the same time. So both those devices would have to be in a group. Or am i missing something?
Title: Re: Multi-Room Music
Post by: asianrocker on November 30, 2017, 10:49:15 am
I don't have that setup so I can't help you. I do know Amazon said you can do what you wanted to do, but since I don't use it, I really did not read about it.

All I can say is, in my case with my hue lights. I have to put 1 light in a group so I can name it properly the way I want - short and simple.

And from there, I got that echo looks for the group name first and foremost.
Title: Re: Multi-Room Music
Post by: emildp on December 11, 2017, 11:54:10 am
if you only want to play on the one device you are asking just say, alexa play holiday music, if you want to play on all the devices in your group...say Alexa, play holiday music on "group name" works with amazon music, supposed to work with Pandora, but i cant get group playback on all "Echoes" when streaming Pandora.
Title: Re: Multi-Room Music
Post by: Resonance on December 17, 2017, 08:36:59 am
if you only want to play on the one device you are asking just say, alexa play holiday music, if you want to play on all the devices in your group...say Alexa, play holiday music on "group name" works with amazon music, supposed to work with Pandora, but i cant get group playback on all "Echoes" when streaming Pandora.

That's how I'd like it to work. For me it plays on the group when not asked.
Title: Re: Multi-Room Music
Post by: cdnirene on December 17, 2017, 11:44:11 pm
When your music is playing in a group, say STOP (insert name of your group)

For example, I have a group called Everywhere. If I say “stop Everywhere”, the next time I ask Alexa to play music, it will only play on the one device.
Title: Re: Multi-Room Music
Post by: Resonance on December 17, 2017, 11:49:52 pm
When your music is playing in a group, say STOP (insert name of your group)

For example, I have a group called Everywhere. If I say “stop Everywhere”, the next time I ask Alexa to play music, it will only play on the one device.

Thanks for the tip. I'll give it a try.
Title: Re: Multi-Room Music
Post by: Resonance on December 18, 2017, 06:56:54 am
When your music is playing in a group, say STOP (insert name of your group)

For example, I have a group called Everywhere. If I say “stop Everywhere”, the next time I ask Alexa to play music, it will only play on the one device.

Thanks for the tip. I'll give it a try.

It worked. Thanks cdnirene  :) Now why didn't I think of this  :-\
Title: Re: Multi-Room Music
Post by: CailinRua on December 27, 2017, 03:39:20 pm
It seems that only one device, or all can stream music at once (Amazon Music). For example I am listening to pop on an upstairs device, my husband tries to listen to classical on the basement device and as amazon music is already steaming for me he is unable to listen to his own music without cancelling out mine. If this makes any sense. Is there a way around this? For example while I am streaming from Amazon can he stream music from his computer instead on another dot?
Title: Re: Multi-Room Music
Post by: Resonance on December 27, 2017, 03:54:11 pm
It seems that only one device, or all can stream music at once (Amazon Music). For example I am listening to pop on an upstairs device, my husband tries to listen to classical on the basement device and as amazon music is already steaming for me he is unable to listen to his own music without cancelling out mine. If this makes any sense. Is there a way around this? For example while I am streaming from Amazon can he stream music from his computer instead on another dot?

To listen to different music on more than one device at the same time you need to subscribe Amazon music unlimited family plan. Not sure where you are, but it costs £14.99/month here in the UK.

The limitation doesn't apply to other services, so you could listen to Amazon Music, while your husband is listening to a radio station on Tunein for example. With Amazon music though you are limited to one device streaming at once, on anything other than the family plan.