Re: TTS and how to do it?

["Stuart Booth" <stuart@xxxxxxx>]

On 14 Jun 02, at 8:40, Kenneth Watt wrote:

> I'm thinking on TTS to make announcements around the house etc.
TBH,
> I've been thinking on it for a while but I need some pointers I
think.

This the sort of thing I'm pondering the most at the moment too.

> I will, eventually, have a separate audio system in each room of
some
> shape and form which will be capable of receiving whole house
audio,
> so that's not an issue.

I've been meaning to pop into my local HiFi shop to inquire if the 
chap there knows about any multi-zone amplifiers as I'm thinking of 
just installing some stereo, or perhaps just mono, flat panel 
speakers in the upper corners of each room, then (at some point) 
running cheapo speaker cable back to an amp somewhere. But 
that wouldn't achieve selectively zoned output. I don't know about 
doing that yet as I haven't got all that very far.

> The is how do achieve voice announcement
> around the house, *without* powering up all the systems in the
home?
> 
> My initial thought was to use just a PC (the server) which is
running
> anyway 24/7 for HA/security cams/MP3 and various other bits 'n'
bobs
> and just to use the sound outputted from that.

My thoughts entirely. It's the only thing that I fully expect to leave 
on 24/7. It's got a pair of older processors in it, so ought to be up to
the job of several tasks. If it isn't, I'll upgrade it.

> However, I don't know
> that I could do that and if, say, I wanted the volume to go down
and
> chop of certain rooms from receiving announcements at night, how
would
> I do it?

I always thought I'd install some sort of ambient noise level 
detector along the lines of a humidty/temperatures sensor. This 
could be used tune the volume level depending on time, light 
status, and background noise (so it's louder if I'm blaring the HiFi, 
and then backs down when I mute it).

If I could find a way of selectively sending audio to multiple 
channels where each channel is a room in the house, the software 
side should be easy.

Stuart


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