Anyone used Muso QB with a Smart Plug?

Wouldn't it be even better if Google Home could simply read your mind?

That would save you the inconvenience of having to speak.

No kidding.  I was listening to a Saturday afternoon program on the CBC called Quirks & Quarks.  They were interviewing a fellow from the University of Toronto, I believe, where researchers had developed a machine that could actually do just that, but in a very rudimentary way.  Still, it's start & I imagine very soon the U.S. military will be a partner...

haha Joe that would indeed rock, but i'll take what we can use given today's tech limitations!

I think eventually Naim would produce something that could do that without having to use a google home or alexa device, perhaps when the tech matures into a standard.

Hi. I don’t have a QB but I do have a Uniti Atom and a Google Home Mini and if I ask it to ‘Play BBC4 on Office Speaker’ it brings the Atom out of stand-by and streams BBC4 to the Atom. (The Atom, by the way, is in my office so I need to specify ‘Office Speaker’ to distinguish it from the Home Mini speaker.) I can also say ‘Play Dire Straits on Office Speaker’ and that also works - it streams the requested music from my Google Play Music account. What you can’t do yet is adjust volumes or stop music playing but I guess extra functionality may come in time. I guess if the Atom and QB share some firmware you may be able to do the same. 

Ah Ian, that sounds like what I'm looking for! So do you need a smart plug to plug the atom to or just directly to the mains? In the latter case that would mean google home can communicate with the atom directly?

Hi. The Atom is plugged directly into the mains - no smart plugs needed. It does need to be on the same network as any Google Home Devices. I actually came across the functionality by accident. In order to setup the Home Mini you download the Google Home app to your phone and configure it from there. The next morning I noticed the app asked me if I wanted to add the Atom to my Google Home network which I did. It asks which room it’s located in so that you can presumably distinguish it from other speakers. Incidentally, I missed the word ‘radio’ from my previous post - to play radio 4 you say ‘Play BBC Radio 4 on...’

The new uniti range have Chromecast inbuilt so that's why Google home can stream to them and turn them on. A smart plug won't be able to achieve this though it would only allow Google home to power it on/off. If Google home can control Spotify then it could perhaps stream Spotify to the Muso by Spotify connect or control some other upnp software but you might need to use some third-party solution as well like IFTT.

Looking it up Google home only supports Chromecast so you might be out of luck to do this simply and ifttt does not seem to be able to control Spotify connect. 

The Google Home app includes a screen where you specify the default music provider that’s used when you ask to play music. Not surprisingly Google Play Music is listed first but it does mention Deezer and Spotify as options. I’m away for the next week but I’ll try the Spotify option out when I’m back.

Ian Price posted:

Hi. The Atom is plugged directly into the mains - no smart plugs needed. It does need to be on the same network as any Google Home Devices. I actually came across the functionality by accident. In order to setup the Home Mini you download the Google Home app to your phone and configure it from there. The next morning I noticed the app asked me if I wanted to add the Atom to my Google Home network which I did. It asks which room it’s located in so that you can presumably distinguish it from other speakers. Incidentally, I missed the word ‘radio’ from my previous post - to play radio 4 you say ‘Play BBC Radio 4 on...’

thanks for the response Ian. I wonder though if that would work for my QB as that’s older than the atom. 

SimonPeterArnold posted:

Looking it up Google home only supports Chromecast so you might be out of luck to do this simply and ifttt does not seem to be able to control Spotify connect. 

Thanks for chiming in Simon! I was looking at the google home website and it does support Spotify connect, wonder if anyone has had luck with this and a QB.

If it does then it should just work. Its just working out how what the nomenclature is to tell it to connect to the QB for  output. Can the QB be brought out of standby by Spotify app or does it need to be on first to register as a Spotify connect device. The new Uniti can be brought out of standby by Spotify, Roon or Chromecast. if not then you would need someway to do this or use a smart plug to power it on. Sorry I dont know how the QB works from this point of view.

I appreciate the OP's interest is in Google/QB/Spotify, but in case it's of interest, my Google Play trial expired and I started a Spotify Connect trial instead. After switching my default music provider in the Google Home app, I was able to ask 'Play Sultans of Swing on Office Speaker' and that powered up my Atom and streamed Dire Straits from Spotify. Interestingly, the Home app has recently been updated and you can now ask to stop playing music and increase/decrease the volume on the Atom as well (neither option worked before).

One thing you might want to try is to install the Google Assistant app on your phone - that accepts voice commands just like a real Home Mini device and might allow you to validate whether or not you can voice control your QB using Google before buying a Home device. I suspect you'll need to install the Google Home app as well and configure your Google/Spotify account settings first.

Ian Price posted:

I appreciate the OP's interest is in Google/QB/Spotify, but in case it's of interest, my Google Play trial expired and I started a Spotify Connect trial instead. After switching my default music provider in the Google Home app, I was able to ask 'Play Sultans of Swing on Office Speaker' and that powered up my Atom and streamed Dire Straits from Spotify. Interestingly, the Home app has recently been updated and you can now ask to stop playing music and increase/decrease the volume on the Atom as well (neither option worked before).

One thing you might want to try is to install the Google Assistant app on your phone - that accepts voice commands just like a real Home Mini device and might allow you to validate whether or not you can voice control your QB using Google before buying a Home device. I suspect you'll need to install the Google Home app as well and configure your Google/Spotify account settings first.

Just downloaded google home and google assistant, unfortunately when I start google home it doesn’t show any possible devices to connect to. I guess that means the muso qb isn’t chrome cast enabled... maybe someone from naim would be able to advise definitively. 

It wont show up in Google home at all as you point out it's not chromecast compatible. You can however setup default music application to be Spotify and use home voice assistant to play it via Spotify connect to the Muso. What tbe exact wording to do this will be I don't know as I don't use home or voice assistant. Look up on Google home about playing via Spotify connect.

I still think that Spotify connect is not supported on home though as its not mentioned at all on the Spotify section only Chromecast.

To make this work i think  youll need to have used the Spotify app first to connect to your muso by connect. Then you can ok Google play music and it will control it. But if you close the app or likely leave home the connection will be lost and need setting up each time unless the app remembers it. I just tried it on my phone and  it worked but you might as well just use the app. Looking more into it there is no voice command to tell Spotify connect to connect to specific devices for home or Alexa. Somebody whoever has created a skill to do it on Alexa but it's unofficial and supported by Spotify and some what clumsy to use.