Question alexa, harmony elite, denon 4300, spotify... cmon somebody must know!!

[ben16v]

hey, new to this home automation lark and have the above kit - already started looking at hue etc but that looks an even darker tunnel.

what i need to know is which way to focus my desire for control?

ideally i think voice over alexa to control the harmony (so i could use the actual remote as a next point of contact) to control the link between echo dot, harmony hub and 4300 spotify.

im quite happy with the harmony control of the sky, ps, xbox, tv, amp and pj within their activities and by voice control via echo.

but the new thing i am struggling with is the spotify (and tune in radio) from the amp..
the echo always plays through the echo speaker and not the amp - i did get tune in working yesterday but not today via voice control.

what settings or commands do i need to focus on to get it sorted so i can say - alexa play springsteen on spotify in living room/amp/or similar so it comes out of the amp speakers,

... the next question will be whether to get the hue to connect to the echo or the harmony....

hope someone can help with this
many thanks
benji

 

[limegreenzx]

Is the Denon a Heos amp? If it is you need the Heos skill enabled on the Echo to play via the Heos streams, otherwise it will default to using the Echo stream.
I wouldn't bother too much with Hue connection with Harmony. Harmony does not keep track of the status of the lights. On paper it looks good setting a movie activity and being able to dim the lights etc along with turning on the AV system, in practice it is all too easy for the lights to get out of sync with the Harmony activity. I would concentrate on Hue with the Alexa.
Finally, have you setup an Alexa group for all the devices and scenes in the room. This makes it a lot easier to control the Hue lights if you have multiple rooms with Hue bulbs and multiple Echo devices.

 

[ben16v]

will have a go later as the amp is a heos device,
hue with alexa when i get some and set up groups - its like gardeners world - jobs for the weekend
many thanks

 

[ben16v]

right it appears that spotify is not compatible with alexa and heos!
the echo will play spotify but not the amp... and the heos activity will will play tune in tv and amazon music via the echo - the reviews back this up and it is not compatible - weird!!

 

[bobert]

My set up is very similar to yours, only my amp is the 2400, I agree with the comments above, I have Harmony elite but it hardly ever gets used, I find it only really works if it is the only device you use, otherwise it falls out of syn really quickly then just gives up. I have an echo dot connected to the Amp via bluetooth, a bit clunky but once its connected spotify streams just fine. I am considering getting another dot to connect to the amp Via line out, as you can then rename that to 'amp' and ask any other alexa device to play through that, You could set a harmony activity to change the amp to the alexa line input too I guess.

 

[Harry Hendel]

I have the same setup but I use HomeKit/Siri. Harmony isn't compatible for HomeKit yet which is my only problem.