The Speaker Client is a separate application that works with HomeSeer. This application is used by HomeSeer to control all audio functions, such as speaking, playing WAV files, and accepting voice input for voice recognition. The Speaker Client can be run on the computer on which HomeSeer is running or on any number of remote computers. Events in HomeSeer can send audio to a specific computer, a group of computers, or to all computers currently running the Client. If a computer contains multiple sound cards then multiple instances of the Client can run on that computer; each instance of the Client can control a different sound card.
(The instance name defaults to "Default" - to provide a specific instance name, please visit the Starting The Speaker Client topic.)
Event actions and Scripts for the Speaker Client contain an optional parameters named Host. This parameter can be used to specify the Client to which the audio will be sent.
The format of the parameter is host:instance, where "host" is the host name or IP addresses of the computer running the Client and "instance" is the instance name of the Client, for those computers running multiple instances. When the Client is first run, the instance name is set to "default". To send the audio to all the Clients running on all the computers, leave the Host parameter blank or use an asterisk (*) for the instance.
Examples:
MyPC
MyPC:default
MyPC:*
To send audio to the specific PC named "myserver":
myserver
To send audio to the specific instance named "soundcard1" on the PC "myserver":
myserver:soundcard1
When you wish to send audio to several speaker instances that are in a distinct list and you cannot use the asterisk, use several designations using the examples above separated by commas.
To send audio to any instances running on the Kitchen and Office PCs:
Kitchen:*,Office:*
To send audio to the Night instances on the Office and Bedroom PCs only:
Office:Night,Bedroom:Night
The HomeSeer Speaker Client includes a default voice for speaking. Additional voices that sound more human than the default voice can be purchased from the HomeSeer website and installed on each computer that's running the Client.
Various options for the Client can be set in the Speaker Options screen.