A question to those with voice announcements

hucker

Active Member
I basically have my whole system designed and mostly bench tested. The only thing left is voice announcements. I floated the voice/tone announcements by the wife and got the 'are you kidding me' look. Need to keep the WAF high and I don't want to make it complicated...

1) Do you like having a 'who's called list read to you'?

2) Do you like having a 'who's emailed list read to you?'

3) Did you replace the doorbell chime?

4) How does an occupant control volume of the announcements?

5) Do you like hearing that you have mail, or that 3 people came to your door?

6) Do you let the phone ring or do you let it use CID to tell you who is calling?

7) What happens if you didn't hear/understand the announcement how do you say 'beg your pardon'? I'm not planning on having touch screens so my only easy choice is to have UPB buttons handle this...

8) Is the maintenance a pain on this stuff (who gets named on caller ID, syncing up email accounts etc)

9) How do you determine where the announcements are made? Are time of day filters required? Is it a problem when announcments are made throughout the house? Speakers will be torn out of the wall in about 30 seconds if I wake the baby :)

So those with real world experience let me what what I missed and let me know if you'd include voice announcements again...

Chuck
 
If you've got a baby, this could be problematic. I've only done 1 HA voice announcement, not anything you've mentioned because of low perceived ROI. I announce the current temp, the forecast, and the high for the day at 7:45am. But, we have a 5 yr old and a nearly 3yr old, so for us the value is in making sure we're dressing them appropriately for school.

Hence, the only actual answer I can give to your questions is:
7) Suck it up, no reannouncement capabilities. This is information that is "extra" compared to what we get now, so if you cannot hear it the first time don't overengineer a solution that allows a re-speak. If we only understand it 50% of the time, that's 50% better than current state.

That said, I begin my announcements with:
"Good Morning, <childname1, childname2>", pause for 0.5seconds. That way everyone knows to be quiet and listen, plus the kids like hearing their name so they quiet down too.
 
1. Yes. This happens upon returning home.

2. Not something I need.

3. That's the first thing I did! :)

4. Various means are distributed around the house (X10 RF Palm Pads and Stick-a-Switches along with the main touch screen and multiple PC's).

5. No mail monitoring for me, but when away, doorbell presses trigger text messages sent to my mobile phone and my porch cam saves a snap shot.

6. Let the phone ring.

7. Repeat Announcement button on various devices (see #4).

8. For CID, I have a central text file that translates numbers to names.

9. I have several zones but only one source. Each zone can be on or off and is controlled by whoever is in that zone.
 
I use PowerHome, NeoSpeech voices, and an AB8SS speaker selector switch with 8 zones. The AB8SS is controlled through RS232 through my computer and accepts 2 inputs (1 from my PC and one from my AV Receiver). It's output is any combination of the 8 zones.

I, like you, set everything up and did not think I wanted TSS because of WAF. However, I began experimenting and found the voices to be crystal clear and the confirmation of events with TSS was an added bonus.

Here are some of the things I do with TSS.
1. Announce time and temperature on the hour during the daytime (but not Sat or Sun). A male voice announces the time and a female voice announces the temperature. Through PowerHome and the AB8SS switch I control which rooms have this announcement (main rooms downstairs). The switch is 100% reliable (i.e. the bedroom speakers don't come on when not wanted).

2. Announce who is calling twice using CID (a macro for powerhome written by TonyNo). This is announced in all rooms. Through a macro I wrote, the AB8SS switch resets each speaker after this announcement and only leaves the speakers on that were already on prior to the telephone ringing.

3. When my outside lights go on at night I have an announcement "I have turned on the outside lights. The perimeter is secured." I also have announcements when my blinds are opened and closed.

4. I don't use it for the doorbell and I don't need it or want it for email.

5. For fun, I had the refrigerator wish my wife a Happy Birthday and sing her a song when she got home from work on her birthday. (Got a big laugh for that one). I also got a big laugh when I set up a sensor near her treadmill in the basement. When she goes downstairs to exercise the speakers downstairs say "Good morning, the time is XX, the temperature is XX, Have a nice run." She got a big kick out of that one, but eventually made me eliminate the "have a nice run" part. I did eventually replace that remark with a countdown to the number of days to my birthday (but that's now gone also).

6. As far as volume, I don't have an individual volume control in each room. I do use an Insteon keypad linc in a number of rooms with 1 button dedicated to volume up and another button volume down. This works well but changes the volume in all rooms. That's fine for my setup but probably won't work for many others. You could also setup a button to repeat the last announcement, but I see no need for it in my set up.

SO, the short answer is yes, I would do it again. :)
 
hucker said:
I basically have my whole system designed and mostly bench tested. The only thing left is voice announcements. I floated the voice/tone announcements by the wife and got the 'are you kidding me' look. Need to keep the WAF high and I don't want to make it complicated...

1) Do you like having a 'who's called list read to you'?
Yes but only on demand by use of a keypad.

2) Do you like having a 'who's emailed list read to you?'
Yes but only on demand by use of a keypad.

3) Did you replace the doorbell chime?
No. What does this have to do with TTS?

4) How does an occupant control volume of the announcements?
I have volume controllers in each room.

5) Do you like hearing that you have mail, or that 3 people came to your door?
I used to but now I have the speaker application that HomeSeer uses on my work PC and it get the announcements live.

6) Do you let the phone ring or do you let it use CID to tell you who is calling?
System announces CallerID or name which is in the HomeSeer phone book.


7) What happens if you didn't hear/understand the announcement how do you say 'beg your pardon'? I'm not planning on having touch screens so my only easy choice is to have UPB buttons handle this...
I have a keypad that I can push and it will trigger HomeSeer to announce the last text spoken.

8) Is the maintenance a pain on this stuff (who gets named on caller ID, syncing up email accounts etc)
No maintenance at all other that updating the HomeSeer phone book when a new caller is automatically added.


9) How do you determine where the announcements are made? Are time of day filters required? Is it a problem when announcements are made throughout the house? Speakers will be torn out of the wall in about 30 seconds if I wake the baby :)
Sounds like you need zoned audio. I have the volume controls in each room and this has worked so far. In the kids rooms I use a HomeSeer speaker app on each of their PC's and they can turn in down if they want.

So those with real world experience let me what what I missed and let me know if you'd include voice announcements again...

Chuck
One of my biggest problems is the monotony of the same messages over and over but I've just recently loaded the ROC Randomizer and this has solved this problem.
 
Lots of good questions.

FWIW, I find more WAF points come from having information available on request vs. unexpected announcements. Being able to ask the HA machine for information on demand (weather reports, days to a future event, days since a historical event, device status for another part of the house, news, list of missed calls, etc.) or to help out (dial the phone, look up gas prices, change device status, change house mode, print the grocery list, etc.) has been a real plus.

That said, 1) "Who's called" isn't announced unless asked for (although we're welcomed home and told how many calls came in while we were out). If we are expecting an important call, we can be notified via cell phone SMS; 2) Could be available if asked, but we don't;

3) We use a hybrid approach for the doorbell. A motion sensor picks up activity approaching the door and plays the sound of a doorbell, provided that feature is not disabled because of house mode, severe weather flag or repeat count. (This avoids squirrels ringing the bell at 2 a.m. or repeated doorbell rings due to wind or extended porch activity.) If they can reach the button, :) visitors can still ring the old chime manually any time of day.

4) We rely on housemodes to change announcement volumes. When we're out of the house, announcements are disabled to avoid annoying the dogs; when we go to bed, the doorbell and most voice announcements are disabled, but caller id from known callers is announced in a whisper. Likewise, announcements are dialed down for a Do Not Disturb mode (handy in case of headache or nap) and way up for Housecleaning mode. I'm also playing with separate Casual and Formal Entertaining modes to filter announcement types and volumes. We can switch housemodes by voice over any cordless phone, a web interface, or with wireless remotes (palmpads).

5) Mail status and number of visitors are only available by request.

6) Telephones also use a hybrid approach to avoid a meltdown in case of extended power outage or automation server breakdown. (So far, neither has been an issue, but it pays to plan ahead!) The cordless phones are set to a very soft ring for callers not in the phone book, but have caller-specific rings for family and friends. Callers in the automation computer's phone book also get unique voice announcements. When we got our new number and the wrong numbers were coming in fast & furious, we had the computer answer all unrecognized calls and play the vacant circuit SIT tones then offer to take a voicemail message. We disabled that once our number made it to the active Do Not Call list.

7) If we miss the announcements, we're S.O.L. :D All voice announcements are preceded by a short "attention" tone that tells us to pay attention. If we still miss it, we can pick up a phone and ask for more information.

8) Email by voice doesn't really work for us. It's better for the computer to offer to open a terminal web interface window and display the account. Maintaining caller ID doesn't take much time at all; just a couple of moments to open the Incoming calls list, click an entry, then click Add.

9) Right now, announcements are house-wide with no zoning. They are only announced in the garage when I'm out there and the lights are on.

My theory is, voice announcements ought to enlighten and inform, not bludgeon. :) My advice is keep volumes subdued, precede announcements with a a subtle "attention" tone, don't overwhelm people with information they don't want or need, provide an easy way for people to self-manage/turn it down/turn it off when they need peace and quiet, and, most of all, PAY ATTENTION and BE RESPONSIVE TO FEEDBACK. Do that, and TTS announcements are a great addition to any home automation system!

Tom
 
I could not live without it. Use a AP800 to control it all. An AP800 is a 12 X 12 mixer which can be computer controlled. I can control which of my 9 speakers or which of my 4 mics are on or off at any time, and how the audio is routed. I can also control the volume of any speaker.

> 1) Do you like having a 'who's called list read to you'?

No, just how many messages if I have those.

> 2) Do you like having a 'who's emailed list read to you?'

Haven't done that yet.

> 3) Did you replace the doorbell chime?

Nope, my doorbell works fine as it is. I don't even have it connected to the HA system, as some people never see it to even press it. I know when someone opens the gate that leads to my front door, and I know when they put a package in a package box that I have. I even have a speaker on the front porch to thank the delivery guy.

> 4) How does an occupant control volume of the announcements?

I control this via programming. Messages to speak have different priority levels. High priority messages speak load. Lower priority messages speak softer, and the lowest priority messages don't speak in the bedroom when were in bed.

> 5) Do you like hearing that you have mail, or that 3 people came to your door?

I get e-mails for visits or packages, but it does announce packages when we get home also.

> 6) Do you let the phone ring or do you let it use CID to tell you who is calling?

It announces who is calling and rings phones if certain criteria is met.

> 7) What happens if you didn't hear/understand the announcement how do you say 'beg your pardon'? I'm not planning on having touch screens so my only easy choice is to have UPB buttons handle this...

They are all pretty to understand at this point, but I guess I could use speech recognition to repeat it. I also have LED signs for messages, so announcements like CNN alerts are there as well.

> 8) Is the maintenance a pain on this stuff (who gets named on caller ID, syncing up email accounts etc)

Not really.

> 9) How do you determine where the announcements are made? Are time of day filters required? Is it a problem when announcments are made throughout the house? Speakers will be torn out of the wall in about 30 seconds if I wake the baby :)

I pass my speak function a list of speakers and a priority, and it handles the rest. A few messages don't speak while were in bed, but most do.

I also have a party mode that mutes all speaking except for important messages. I have every door or window announced when opened and that would get pretty annoying for a party, plus I get sick of explaining to everyone how it works.
 
hucker said:
I basically have my whole system designed and mostly bench tested. The only thing left is voice announcements. I floated the voice/tone announcements by the wife and got the 'are you kidding me' look. Need to keep the WAF high and I don't want to make it complicated...

1) Do you like having a 'who's called list read to you'?

2) Do you like having a 'who's emailed list read to you?'

3) Did you replace the doorbell chime?

4) How does an occupant control volume of the announcements?

5) Do you like hearing that you have mail, or that 3 people came to your door?

6) Do you let the phone ring or do you let it use CID to tell you who is calling?

7) What happens if you didn't hear/understand the announcement how do you say 'beg your pardon'? I'm not planning on having touch screens so my only easy choice is to have UPB buttons handle this...

8) Is the maintenance a pain on this stuff (who gets named on caller ID, syncing up email accounts etc)

9) How do you determine where the announcements are made? Are time of day filters required? Is it a problem when announcments are made throughout the house? Speakers will be torn out of the wall in about 30 seconds if I wake the baby :D

So those with real world experience let me what what I missed and let me know if you'd include voice announcements again...

Chuck
1) Do you like having a 'who's called list read to you'?

we have the # of calls & # of msgs read to us. i've found that TTS will mangle ppl's names anyway.

2) Do you like having a 'who's emailed list read to you?'

we don't do this.

3) Did you replace the doorbell chime?

yup. customizable sound file based on the season :)

4) How does an occupant control volume of the announcements?

they don't

5) Do you like hearing that you have mail, or that 3 people came to your door?

yes

6) Do you let the phone ring or do you let it use CID to tell you who is calling?

cid announce

7) What happens if you didn't hear/understand the announcement how do you say 'beg your pardon'? I'm not planning on having touch screens so my only easy choice is to have UPB buttons handle this...

most announcements are pretty basic & easy to understand.

8) Is the maintenance a pain on this stuff (who gets named on caller ID, syncing up email accounts etc)

nope.

9) How do you determine where the announcements are made? Are time of day filters required? Is it a problem when announcments are made throughout the house? Speakers will be torn out of the wall in about 30 seconds if I wake the baby :)

we have zoned TTS w/ our rio receivers & medianet. depending on time of day or active motion sensors, announcements are made to either specific zones or throughout the house
 
Rather than go over the list (others have done a great job at that) I'll just say that it might be worthwhile to start small, and expand as you like and as the WAF allows.

We have a whole house audio system, and Isabella (the automation machine, running HomeSeer) can put announcements on there when we have the system on (mostly whenever my wife's home, as she uses it far more than anyone else). She has found this handy, and has grown accustomed to it, but I started with just very small things, like urgent weather announcements. The nice thing about this part of the system is that if the WHA system is off, announcements don't blare out all over the house.

A few months later I added a small, older laptop running behind a cabinet in the kitchen, hooked into a small flat screen tv there (uses a wireless keyboard and mouse). I put it in so that we could quickly check recipes, traffic, etc. from the kitchen and that went over OK. So, I added a very small, cheap (about $15 on sale pair of computer speakers to this system for voice announcements, delivered via HomeSeer's speaker client on that machine. The speakers are mounted UNDER the cabinets at the back, look very nice, sound OK for voice only, and now we have yet another way to get voice announcements out. Again, WAF was good because only important announcements PLUS an announcement that someone has entered the driveway are played.

Next, I installed the speaker client on a desktop that sits just outside my wife's home office, at one end of my office. A few more announcements were added, plus a replacement of the front door bell, which she couldn't hear from her office. Again, a small addition but another advance for HA. Now she's willing to let me put one in the master bedroom (actually a closet off of it, near some other AV equipment).

My point in all this is that you might benefit from starting small, then adding, and adding, and adding. Patience goes a long way with WAF, I've found.

Oh, and DEFINITELY turn off all but VERY important announcements anywhere people (babies included) are sleeping. And don't forget to include NAP times in that!
 
We ( because the waf has a lot of input ) use announcements for:

Any motion around the house, except during our sleeptime.
Any outside door or window is opened, especially during sleeptime.
reminder for my son to take his daily allergy med's

Reminders for the morning routines, breakfast, brushing, bus.

Time and Temp announcements 3 times in the morning.

Alert that a tv has been turned on if the kids are not allowed.

Announcements if something ain't quite right, power failure, Heating or cooling problem and etc.

If guests are visiting and are staying downstairs, a help button on the touchscreen will assist them in activating the tv and video selection, sleep time for downstairs and night lights with announcement confirmations on choices selected.

Birthday announcements for the kid's.

From Dec 1 to 25 morning announcement how many days til christmas.


All the touchscreens have a button to disable morning announcements for a day, no school and etc. ( weekends are configured differently ).

And a button to disable all announcements except those that are considered important.

The wife and kids love the announcements.
StevenE
 
Rick (from HST) Tinker's dog has figured out all the annoucements in the house. Annoucement that the dryer is done - ignored. Another annoucement of no note - ignored. Annoucement that someone is driving up the driveway - dog is sitting at the front door before the announcement stops. Another annoucement dealing with kids and dinner, dog is in the kitchen in seconds.

I still laugh about it whenever someone starts discussing TTS announcements.
 
The hardest problem with announcements is drawing that fine line between helpful and annoying, which varies from family to family. I keep it minimal. I use announcements for:

Phone messages and packages present when arriving home.
Time to take out/return the trash/recycle can based on its RFID presence
Medicine reminder.
Any doors or windows opened, but no more than once every 40 seconds (except pool doors)
Door left open 5, 10, 15 etc. minutes. (Each door has its own set of times for reminders.)
Caller ID
System malfunctions.
Alarm On/Off status.
And the most important one, we have a speaker in our front porch to thank the delivery guy/gal for the package when they open our package box.

For less important messages, we use LED signs in the Kitchen and Garage.
 
One thing I neglected to mention is to be ready for heavily sarcastic abuse by the wife.

Although my wife enjoys the daily reading of the weather now, she & the daughters still came up with an intentionally stoopid nickname for it. They call the voice "lolo" or "lalu" or "lulo" or a derivative therein. They actually all giggle everytime afterwards saying "oh, we better dress warm - lolulau told us it's cold"...
 
I am rebuilding my HA setup, and had to decide if I was doing TTS again. I will definitely do this again, but I won't bother wasting them anymore on stuff like CNN breaking news etc. TTS is very useful for security, medical and phone events.
 
About the caller ID and questions concerning to let the phone ring or not--my experience with caller ID has been that the caller ID info doesn't come in until after the first ring, and sometimes after the second ring. So, are you saying you have a system where it is an option to not let the phone ring unless you recognize the caller ID? If so, how do you do this?
 
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