Continuing the Alexa integration trend, Yamaha has officially announced that Australian consumers will be able to use the device to control their MusicCast line of products. This announcement comes as a follow up to the recent release of the Smart and Custom Skills on the Australian Alexa Skills store.
MusicCast is an app that communicates with multi-room Yamaha sound systems and is already installed on a broad range of their products, such as AV Receivers, Stereo Receivers, Sound Bars and Wireless Speakers.
For owners of Yamaha MusicCast products this means you can now use a large range of voice commands to control your equipment, including voice commands like: “Alexa, ask MusicCast to shuffle all songs in the study”.
So long as you have the most recent firmware update on your sound systems and an Amazon Alexa-enabled device, you will be able to start using the product as of right now.
To celebrate the release, Yamaha is offering a free Amazon Echo Dot for customers who buy the AVENTAGE Series 9 AV Receivers from authorised dealers within Australia.
Shaun McMahon, Assistant Marketing Manager for Yamaha Music Australia commented on how much of an achievement this new integration is, saying “The big breakthrough for us is that, as far as I’m aware, we’re the first audio brand to feature Custom Skills in addition to your standard Smart Skills.
“This makes more sophisticated commands possible with voice.”
Yamaha plans a slate of product releases to follow up this announcement, emphasising wireless technology and more voice controlled devices.
MusicCast50 and MusicCast 20 speakers will be available in Australia in a fortnight, in sync with the release of MusicCast wireless rear functionality, allowing for the new speakers to operate in surround sound configuration with the new range of MusicCast BAR products.
Those MusicCast Bar products are new as well, and we can expect to see a MusicCast BAR 400 sound bar and sub combo, MusicCast BAR 40 sound bar and a MusicCast SUB 100 network sub all land in Australia some time next month.
