Amazon DOT integration with Mezzmo

[JCDinPGH]

I just wondered if there was any chance or way I can integrate my Amazon DOT with Mezzmo. I'd love to be able to do something like "Alexa, ask Mezzmo to play artist <artist name> and then have it stream that artist from Mezzmo to the Amazon DOT. I understand there is integration with a Fire stick but I'm trying to avoid buying even more hardware. I don't know if a new skill for Amazon devices would be possible but it would be great since I can then integrate my own online collection of music.

[Paul]

Not sure if it is possible. We'll do some investigation and discuss it further here. Thanks for the suggestion!

[smitbret]

I just wondered if there was any chance or way I can integrate my Amazon DOT with Mezzmo. I'd love to be able to do something like "Alexa, ask Mezzmo to play artist <artist name> and then have it stream that artist from Mezzmo to the Amazon DOT. I understand there is integration with a Fire stick but I'm trying to avoid buying even more hardware. I don't know if a new skill for Amazon devices would be possible but it would be great since I can then integrate my own online collection of music.

I second this request.

[smitbret]

After further research, it looks like we shouldn't hold our breath. Amazon voice search is dependent on "catalog registration". Pandora, ShowTime, HBONow and other apps that have consistent catalogs that can be registered will work but since everyone's Mezzmo library is going to be different there is no way to register it.

[Phenomenon101]

You can somewhat get around this, but with Google Home. Lots of videos for people using Tasker/AutoVoice/Plex to select the movie they ask it to play. Some people are working on an Alexa version to catch voice commands like this one.

Some people are using IFTTT with Alexa as a trigger and Maker to send the command based on the variables used in IFTTT. From there, you would have to build something so Mezzmo would receive those URL commands from Maker. Not terribly difficult, but not impossible. Some people do this with their phones using Tasker and Netflix. Works pretty well.

[Phenomenon101]

Wow, Plex got Alexa integration a lot faster than I thought. Should definitely be possible.

[JCDinPGH]

Anymore thought on this? I just did a search for "Alexa and DLNA" and really didn't find too much. There is some work being done but it appears to involve more programming than I think a typical user would want to do. The idea of being able to say "Alexa, tell Mezzmo to play Depeche Mode to Living room" would be incredible. The old ISY994I plugin used to require the "tell ISY" part but they next version doesn't even need that anymore. Alexa can play music but not from a local source btu interfacing with Mezzmo would allow playing local music/movies with the "play to" feature also. I think this would also give Mezzmo a lot more exposure as the Amazon ECho user base is pretty large I believe.

[Peter]

It would be a good feature to have but we don't currently have time available to look at this, possibly a Mezzmo user who has some programming skills might want to look at https://github.com/alexa to try out the sample app.

[JCDinPGH]

If anyone were so inclined to take this upon themselves (I don't have the skills), there is a similar project that was created for controlling a DirecTV DVR via Alexa.
https://github.com/bklavet/Echo-skill-to-control-Directv/tree/master/Custom%20Slots%20for%20Network%20and%20Control%20B eta%20(not%20the%20youtube%20tutorial)

There are pretty detailed instructions on implementing the DirecTV integration also.

I did implement (didn't write the code though) this one and it works very well. I basically have full voice command control over my DVR through Alexa. For example "Alexa tell DVR to change channel to ESPN" or "Alexa tell DVR to pause" are just some of the examples. So at least we know it can be done and commands can be sent. I imagine something similar could be done by someone far more clever than myself, to send commands to Mezzmo via Alexa like "Alexa tell mezzmo to play Depeche Mode to Yamaha".

[Peter]

From this example it looks like we would need to add a handler in the Mezzmo server for the actions, so Alexa would send a request to the Mezzmo server with the file name 'Depeche Mode' and the device 'Yamaha' to play the file.

[JCDinPGH]

Sorry for digging up an old thread, but it looks like a different company has done exactly this but their DLNA server is not nearly as robust as Mezzmo. They basically created and online WWW that their DLNA server speaks to via a customer created account and then their WWW is linked to Amazon as a skill.
http://www.mymediaalexa.com/

[Peter]

We are currently asking users what Mezzmo feature they would like implemented next http://forum.conceiva.com/showthread.php/9323-Have-Your-Say-What-is-the-the-1-feature-you-want-for-the-next-version-of-Mezzmo if we get more votes for Alexa we may implement this.