Lenbrook International – the company behind the BluOS hi-res multi-room platform that runs the Bluesound ecosystem, as well as BluOS-enabled NAD and Dali kit – has announced that a first set of Amazon Alexa skills for BluOS products will be available on 15th January 2019.
The update will allow BluOS product owners to control their kit hands-feee using just their voice, via any Amazon Echo device.
The first set of skills will allow access to popular or user-defined playlists from music services (such as Tidal) or favourite radio stations, adjust volume, group players together for a multi-room experience, or simply ask what’s playing. The list of commands is set to expand as various music services add more voice control functionality.
BluVoice is the voice-control interface (or trigger word) that acts as the intermediary between BluOS and a compatible voice assistant. For example, users will be able to ask their Echo device: “Alexa, ask BluVoice to play new songs on Tidal”.
Lenbrook International’s BluOS product manager Andrew Haines says the Alexa integration “is the first of many collaborations with the major voice platforms”, so we can guess that support for the likes of Alexa-rival Google Assistant could be next on the voice control roadmap.
The products that will receive the update include Bluesound’s multi-room portfolio, the Dali Callisto active speakers, and NAD’s compatible players and amplifier.
To activate Alexa, users will need to download and open the Alexa app, search for and download the BluOS voice skill, launch the BluOS Controller app and open the left navigation drawer, and look for 'Music Services' and select 'Amazon Alexa' to set the default name and choose your default device.
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