The voice-controlled home used to be relegated to sci-fi movies and speculative visions of futuristic societies, but thanks to smart technology like Amazon's Alexa virtual assistant, it's a reality of today.
One of the coolest applications for this tech is controlling different aspects of your home theater and wireless music setup. By pairing Alexa with your HEOS-enabled system, you can effortlessly queue up your favorite songs, switch inputs and manage your devices. Here's how you can maximize your HEOs-enabled system with Alexa.
Play music on audio streaming services
The beauty of Alexa is that it lets you take a completely hands-free approach to controlling your audio equipment. When paired with a HEOS-enabled wireless speaker or sound bar, you can play any song you like from leading streaming services like Pandora and Spotify.
All you need to say is, "Alexa, play Prince on Pandora," and your nearby wireless speaker will begin rotating through the Purple One's biggest hits.
If you have a wireless music system that stretches out across the entire house, you can get more specific. Tell Alexa to play music in certain rooms or even pause a track mid-song and resume in a different part of the house. It's as simple as saying, "Alexa, pause" and "Alexa, resume in living room."
Control your home theater
As voice command technology becomes more sophisticated, we're inching closer and closer to the day when we don't need remotes at all. HEOS-enabled home theater systems feature some of the most advanced capabilities in this regard, letting you control your sound bar, wireless speakers and AV receiver with simple voice commands.
You can turn on your entire home theater setup by saying, "Alexa, turn on living room." Then, if you want to go from watching live TV to a movie loaded in your Blu-ray player without picking up the remote or getting off the couch, tell Alexa to switch inputs on your AV receiver.
Once your TV show or movie is playing, control the volume level on your sound bar with a simple, "volume up" or "volume down" command. You can even increase or decrease the volume by a set number or mute it completely.
Take a look at the full list of Amazon Echo voice commands here>, and be sure to check out the full lineup of HEOS-enabled wireless speakers, AV receivers and sound bars.
