Works with Alexa Devices Now Feature Alexa-Preferred Speaker
DTS, a global leader in high-definition audio solutions and a wholly owned subsidiary of Xperi Corporation (Nasdaq: XPER) (“Xperi”), is pleased to announce that consumers worldwide can now utilize DTS Play-Fi powered devices as their Preferred Speaker for an Alexa Smart Home Group (SHG).
The new Preferred Speaker feature gives users the convenience of selecting a specific DTS Play-Fi powered device in their home to become the default music playback speaker for their Echo, Echo Dot, Echo Spot, Echo Show or other Amazon Alexa device. Once a Preferred Speaker has been designated in the Amazon Alexa App, the user no longer needs to refer to the device’s name in order for music to play on the preferred device. Voice commands as simple as “Alexa, play top-40” to a linked Echo device will initiate playback on the associated DTS Play-Fi speaker. This functionality is available today on all certified “Works with Alexa” DTS Play-Fi products.
“We are excited to share this feature through the wide breadth of DTS Play-Fi powered devices,” said Dannie Lau, general manager, DTS Play-Fi. “With this new ability, customers worldwide now have a simpler way of playing their music on their preferred speakers throughout their Alexa smart home.”
In addition, “Works with Alexa” functionality is now available worldwide on select DTS Play-Fi devices. Expanding beyond the previously announced regions of the United States, United Kingdom and Germany, “Works with Alexa” functionality through DTS Play-Fi is now available everywhere Alexa is, including France, Canada, Australia, Japan, Italy, Spain, Mexico and India.
Thirty-seven DTS Play-Fi devices, with more to be announced soon, are now “Works with Alexa” certified including:
- Ace Audio Aerix Duet
- Anthem AVM 60, MRX 1120, and MRX 720
- Arcam rPlay
- Definitive Technology W Studio Micro sound bar
- Klipsch The Three and The Capitol Three Special Edition, Gate, PowerGate, RSB-14 sound bar, RSB-8 sound bar, and RW-1
- MartinLogan Bravado, Cadence sound bar, Crescendo X, Forte, Motion Vision X, and Unison
- McIntosh MB50, RS100, and RS200
- Onkyo P3 Smart Speaker
- Paradigm PW Soundbar, PW 300, PW 600, PW 800, PW Amp, and PW Link
- Phorus PS10 Smart Speaker
- Pioneer Elite F4 Smart Speaker
- Polk Audio Omni SB1 Plus
- Rotel T-14
- Sonus Faber SF 16
- Soundcast VG10
- SVS Prime Wireless Speaker System and Prime Wireless Soundbase
DTS Play-Fi technology enables lossless multi-room wireless audio streaming on any supported product from the world's most popular music services including Amazon Music, Deezer, iHeartRadio, Juke, KKBox, Napster, Pandora, Qobuz, QQ Music, SiriusXM, Spotify and TIDAL, thousands of Internet radio stations, as well as personal music libraries. In addition, DTS Play-Fi features advance streaming functionality like wireless surround sound, stereo pairing, music station presets, and audio/video synchronization.
The DTS Play-Fi ecosystem features the largest collection of products in the whole-home wireless audio space, with more than 200 interoperable speakers, sound bars, set-top boxes, and A/V receivers from the top names in premium audio including Aerix, Anthem, Arcam, Audiolab, Definitive Technology, DISH TV, Elite, Integra, Fusion Research, Klipsch, MartinLogan, McIntosh, Onkyo, Paradigm, Phorus, Pioneer, Polk Audio, Rotel, Sonus faber, Soundcast, SVS Sound, and Wren Sound.
For more information about DTS, please visit www.dts.com or connect with DTS on Facebook, Twitter (@DTS) and Instagram (@DTS).
About Xperi Corporation
Xperi Corporation (Nasdaq: XPER) and its brands, DTS, FotoNation, HD Radio, Invensas and Tessera, are dedicated to creating innovative technology solutions that enable extraordinary experiences for people around the world. Xperi’s solutions are licensed by hundreds of leading global partners and have shipped in billions of products in areas including premium audio, automotive, broadcast, computational imaging, computer vision, mobile computing and communications, memory, data storage, and 3D semiconductor interconnect and packaging. For more information, please call 408-321-6000 or visit www.xperi.com.
DTS, Xperi and their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of affiliated companies of Xperi Corporation in the United States and other countries. All other company, brand and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.
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Comments
Jared Foster 03-05-19
Is there something going on with the Play-Fi skill or alexa integration? Up until shortly after this prefered speaker update everything worked fine. Now, none of my alexa controlable playfi devices will actually play anything from Alexa. Ive disabled the skill, signed out of all the speakers, deleted the speakers, then reinstalled everything, to no avail. Some support would be great, it cant be just me being neither of my devices will play from alexa.
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DTS Play-Fi 03-06-19
Hey Jared,
That sounds pretty strange. If you’d like to send in some more details to support@play-fi.com, we’d really want to take a look into this for you.
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Craig G 03-07-19
I cannot seem to find this Preferred Speaker setting in the Alexa app. What is the path to find it? Thanks!
Any chance this will let you set a group as the preferred speaker? I have 2 Play-Fi speakers grouped “Upstairs” that I’d like to have as the default.
Is allowing Play-Fi speakers and Amazon Echo speakers play synced multi-room music on the potential future feature list?
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DTS Play-Fi 03-07-19
Hey Craig,
Basically to set it up, you create a group including an Echo or Dot from the Devices tab in the Amazon Alexa app, then you go into that group, and you can set what the preferred playback speaker is from the available Works with Alexa audio products on your account. More details can be found here from Amazon directly:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201749250
Group playback isn’t supported just yet, but hopefully this will come in the not-too-distant future.
As for synced playback between Echo speakers and Play-Fi speakers, this too is a possibility, and something we’re currently investigating along with Amazon.
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Craig G 03-10-19
Thanks! Apparently this Preferred Speaker feature hasn’t made it’s way to the Alexa app on Fire OS devices or Amazon’s web app in the browser. That Amazon updates Alexa for their own devices after they do for Android and iOS seems hard to imagine, but I’ve seen it happen with other features too.
Anyhow, I was able to set it up in Alexa on an Android device and it’s working great. Cut the number of words to great music in half.
Thanks for the updates on music group support. I’d definitely like to see more/better synced music group support with Alexa and Echo devices. Also, it would be nice to see some stereo receivers and mini systems that support Play-Fi’s Line-In broadcast functionality.
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Frantz CONQ 01-09-21
Hello, still no Group Playback possible from Alexa, I try every month hoping an update.
It’s almost two years you were saying ‘not-too-distant future’, but nothing has been done.
As Play-Fi ils a multiroom solution, it’s a must have to be able to play music in every room at the same time from Alexa.
Do you have some news around this important feature?
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Michael A. 03-27-20
I just installed DTS Play-Fi on my Windows 10 PC. I my Alexa Dot can’t detect my Windows 10 PC on my LAN. I even connected my PC via WiFi as a test (even though Ethernet has better network performance). Do I have to upgrade DTS Play-Fi to Premium for this to work?
What’s the trick to get my Alexa devices to see my Windows 10 PC with DTS Play-Fi running.? My Windows 10 PC currently has the best sound system in my home.
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