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Voice / AI infrastructure

  • Mission (decided): distributed voice communication system, not a sound system — high-quality voice in/out only. Target functions: (1) nearest-unit answering — the satellite closest to the speaker replies (presence sensors may serve as tiebreaker); (2) broadcast/announcements to all speakers or predefined groups (alarms may override volume/mute — policy TBD); (3) room-to-room intercom ("connect me to the master bedroom" → talk → reply). Consequence: every satellite is also an announcement output point.
  • Unit vocabulary (decided): two one-word terms, used everywhere — documents, diagrams, discussions. A satellite is the full voice unit (far-field mics + speaker): an interaction point (wake word, nearest-unit answering, intercom) and, like every unit, an announcement output. An announcer is an output-only unit: a speaker that plays announcements/alarms, no interaction expected — for circulation/utility spaces. The wall provision is physically identical for both (principles below); the term marks the intended role — "satellite provision" vs. "announcer provision".
  • Cat6 to every room — already planned — satellite drops home-run to the server room patch panel; PoE assumed, power budget solved centrally.
  • Satellite positions (provisioning decided, ≈8 positions):
  • Living room — 2: a dining satellite near switch position 3.3 (west wall) — the dining zone is small, a single unit covers it — and one at 3.1 (entrance), in the 3.1 switch frame.
  • Kitchen — 1: in the 2.1 switch-height frame — back-to-back with living-room 3.2, facing the island from the east.
  • Pavel's office — 1: in the 5.2 desk-side row (north wall between the window-wall and the small window, facing the room).
  • Boudoir — 1: at 12.2, in the two-socket section above the desk at the east end of the south wall.
  • Master bedroom — 1: inside room 14, at east bedside 14.3 — a hallway placement at 13.3 was rejected because the corner leaves part of the small (~4 × 4 m) bedroom acoustically shadowed.
  • Master bedroom hallway — none (decided): no satellite/announcer provisions anywhere in the hallway, the master-bathroom door included.
  • Kid's bedroom — 1: not at entrance 17.1; exact in-room placement TBD with the designer.
  • Ekaterina's office — 1: at 18.2, in the horizontal 3-position socket frame around the middle of the west-wall desk; not at entrance 18.1.
  • BBQ zone — no satellite/announcer provision (decided).
  • Announcer provisions (decided): placed deliberately, room by room. An empty provision is not free — a blind-cover position uses wall space and changes the look — so provision enough for announcement coverage but skip marginal spots. Decided so far:
  • Back hallway — none (small hallway, a provision there is overkill).
  • Guest-toilet entry passage — none (the same marginal-spot call).
  • Corridor — none: the south corridor is ringed by satellite rooms (kid's bedroom, Ekaterina's office, master suite) whose satellites are announcement outputs — closed-door night announcements are the bedroom satellites' job anyway (positions).
  • Laundry room — none (11.1).
  • Dressing room — none (16.1).
  • Provisioning principles (decided):
  • Provision = deep flush box + Cat6 (+ KNX bus looped in parallel where cheap), Jung blanking plate on top — same build for satellite and announcer provisions; keeps every hardware option open (PoE/ESPHome satellite, KNX device, SIP endpoint, nothing).
  • Height: switch level, in or adjacent to the switch frame cluster — deliberate design compromise. Seated/lying speech (dining, sofa, desk, bed, kids) dominates and sits at or near this height; a blanking plate at switch level disappears visually, anything at 1.8 m doesn't. Accepted residual cost: standing speakers project over the mic; furniture masking matters more at low height.
  • Horizontal position is the placement lever: choose the frame that faces the speech zone unobstructed (bedside over by-the-door for lying speech; away from hoods/AC outlets/ComfoSpots; not in corners; mind future furniture — headboards, sofa backs).
  • Joinery/ceiling-void termination stays a per-position option where millwork offers a better-facing spot, not a rule. Boudoir 12.2 is a decided room-specific placement outside the switch cluster: a satellite provision in the three-position electrical section above the desk (two mains sockets + blind-covered deep box); mounting height TBD.
  • Hardware: TBD — bench test planned. Selection criteria: far-field mic array + hardware echo cancellation (must hear over ambient and while itself speaking); full-duplex capability / SIP support (intercom is the demanding requirement — half-duplex relayed-message v1 acceptable, TBD); TTS speaker judged on speech intelligibility, not fidelity; wake/response latency; fully local processing (no-cloud rule); hardware mute + visible "listening" indicator — non-negotiable, especially bedrooms/boudoir; PoE; mountable at switch level.
  • Open policy decisions: alarm override behavior vs. mute (mute-mic-only vs. mute-everything); broadcast group definitions (all / per floor / time-conditional); kid's-room intercom policy (announce-in vs. listen-in — baby-monitor/surveillance boundary).