Promising easy voice control of your home entertainment via Logitech Harmony and Amazon Alexa, the skill is now available to us in Australia and New Zealand.
Logitech's popular Amazon Alexa Skill for Logitech Harmony is now available Down Under, letting you "enjoy voice control of your home entertainment experience using any Logitech Harmony hub-based product with any Alexa-enabled device such as Amazon Echo, Echo Dot or Echo Plus".
We're told that with this new skill, "you can power on and off your favourite Harmony Activities, hands free, using only your voice. Simply say 'Alexa, turn on the TV', or 'Alexa, turn on Netflix' to start or stop your entertainment devices or favourite channels".
Rory Dooley, head of Logitech Smart Home, said: “Enjoying and getting more out of your home entertainment control experience is important to us.
{loadposition alex08}“Whether you can’t reach the remote or you don’t feel like getting up from the couch, using your voice with Harmony and Alexa makes controlling your TV entertainment more simple. We’ve seen the power of this integration in the U.S. and other countries around the world, and are excited to now deliver this to Australia and New Zealand.”
Logitech said that "with Harmony Activities, different actions can be combined to control more than 275,000 devices, bringing an entire scene to life".
"For example," explains Logitech, "with a Good Morning Activity, you can turn your TV on and tune it to your favourite Morning Show – all with one voice command to Alexa. Additionally, you can enjoy directly changing the channel, turning the volume up or down, or changing to a favourite channel such as CNN just using your voice."
We are then advised that "these updates are delivered for free and over the air to our remotes", with Logitech stating its "users can rest assured that a purchase today will also deliver the key features they will want tomorrow".
So, how do you take advantage of the Logitech Harmony Alexa Skill when your Alexa-powered Echo speaker arrives?
You need to launch the Alexa app on your smartphone, and select Skills from the left-hand navigation menu, then search for "Harmony".
Any Logitech Harmony hub-based product, such as the Logitech Harmony Elite, Logitech Harmony Companion and Logitech Harmony Hub, and an Alexa-enabled device such as Amazon Echo or Echo Dot, are required.
Additional info on using Logitech Harmony remotes with Amazon Alexa is here.
