Are you looking to set up voice controlled multi room audio in your home using Amazon Alexa and a ceiling speaker system?
With just a few simple steps you can easily control your music throughout your home using voice commands and even group rooms together in sync.
Whether you want to add voice control to a single room or if you’re planning to link multiple rooms together using Alexa’s multiroom sync feature this guide will outline what you need and how to set it all up.
You’ll need a Bluetooth ceiling speaker system compatible with Alexa, such as the Lithe Audio Bluetooth ceiling speakers or the Systemline E50 as well as an Amazon Echo device.
You can also use various other Bluetooth speakers such as the Edifier R1280DB active bookshelf speakers. Usually any Bluetooth speaker without a secure pairing or a PIN code will connect to an Echo device.
If you’re installing multiple ceiling speakers in different rooms for multiroom music then you’ll need an Echo device in each room.
Once this is all setup you’ll be able to use voice controls via Alexa to control music in each individual room, or you can group multiple speakers to play the same music.
How To Connect To Alexa
Connecting your ceiling speaker system with Alexa is relatively straightforward, here's a step by step guide on how to use Amazon Alexa for multi room audio connected to an external speaker system via Bluetooth.
For the purposes of this blog we’ll assume that you’ve already set up your Amazon Echo device and your ceiling speaker system is installed ready to use.
Step 1: Set Up Your Amazon Alexa Device
Before you can use Alexa for voice control & multi room audio you’ll need to have an Amazon Alexa device in the same room as the speakers.
This can be an Echo Dot, Echo, Echo Show, or any other Amazon Echo device that features Bluetooth.
Step 2: Connect Your Ceiling Speaker System To Your Echo Device Via Bluetooth
Once you have your Echo device setup you'll need to connect your ceiling speaker system to the Echo via Bluetooth.
To do this, follow these steps:
- Make sure your ceiling speaker system is installed and powered.
- Turn on the Bluetooth speaker and put it in Bluetooth pairing mode (make sure your phone doesn’t automatically reconnect).
- On your Alexa device, go to the settings menu and select the "Bluetooth" option.
- Select "Add a Bluetooth Device" and wait for your Alexa device to search for available Bluetooth devices.
- Once your Bluetooth speaker appears on the list of available devices select it and follow any additional prompts to complete the pairing process.
Your speakers are now connected to the Amazon Echo device and anything that plays through the Echo will now come through the newly connected ceiling speakers.
Give it a go, ask Alexa to play your favourite song or radio station.
Note that once you connect to the Echo to a Bluetooth speaker the sound comes only from the connected speakers, you can't play music through both the ceiling speakers and the Echo at the same time.
Step 3: Set Up Your Alexa Device For Multi Room Audio
Once your Bluetooth speaker system is connected to your Alexa device via Bluetooth, you will need to set up your Alexa device for multi room audio.
To do this, follow these steps:
- Go to the settings menu on your Alexa device and select the "Multi-Room Music" option.
- Select the "Add Group" option and give your group a name. For example, you could name your group "Living Room" if you are setting up a speaker in your living room.
- Add your external speaker to the group by selecting it from the list of available devices.
- Repeat these steps for any additional external speakers you want to add to your multi room audio setup.
Step 4: Control Your Multi Room Audio With Alexa
Once you have set up your Echo device for multi room audio and added all of your ceiling speaker systems to the group you can control your multi room audio with Alexa by using voice commands.
Note that you'll need an Echo + ceiling speaker system per room in order to use the multiroom feature.
Here are some examples of commands you can use:
- "Alexa, play [song/artist/genre] in the [group name]" - This will start playing the specified music in the group you have specified.
- "Alexa, pause music in the [group name]" - This will pause the music currently playing in the group you have specified.
- "Alexa, increase volume in the [group name]" - This will increase the volume of the music in the group you have specified.
Using Spotify With Alexa Multiroom
If you have a Spotify account then you can use it to play music on your multi room audio setup through your Alexa device using voice controls and Spotify Connect in the app.
To do this follow these steps:
- Link your Spotify account to your Alexa device by going to the settings menu and selecting "Music & Podcasts."
- Select "Link New Service" and follow the prompts to link your Spotify account.
- Once your Spotify account is linked, you can use voice commands to play music from Spotify on your multi room audio setup. For example, you can say "Alexa, play [song/artist/genre] on Spotify in the [group name]."
How To Disconnect From The Bluetooth Speaker
You may want to switch between the ceiling speaker system and directly connected to your smartphone or tablet.
This is easily done with a voice command.
Just ask Alexa to “Disconnect from speaker” and it’ll revert back to its built-in speaker and your Bluetooth speaker will be free to pair to.
When you want to reconnect it you can simply ask Alexa to “Reconnect to the last speaker” and provided nothing else is connected to it your Echo will then link back up again.
If you want to completely disconnect your Bluetooth speaker from your Echo device, you can do so by going to the settings menu and selecting "Bluetooth."
From there, select the speaker you want to disconnect and select the "Forget Device" option.
This will remove the speaker from your Alexa device's list of paired devices.
Keep in mind that you will need to pair the speaker again if you want to use it with your Alexa device in the future so in most cases you’ll simply want to ask Alexa to disconnect from it whilst keeping the pairing saved.
Conclusion
Hopefully you can now see how easy it is to connect Echo devices to our ceiling speaker systems and active bookshelf speakers via Bluetooth.
It’s a great feature for voice control and also for multiroom grouping.
I use Alexa to group my kitchen and garden together when we’re having a BBQ, you can also use it for open plan areas, kitchen & dining rooms etc.
If you need any further advice on which ceiling speaker system or Bluetooth speaker to go for with Alexa in mind then feel free to contact us by email, live chat or telephone.
