Homebridge – OwnTone – Virtual Radio

If you are viewing the npm README please navigate to the GitHub repository to observe changes and notes that do not affect the package.

IMPORTANT - BBC Radio Playlists URLs Have Changed

If the plugin has stopped working with the example BBC playlist it will be because after September 2023 the BBC has changed its radio streaming service. You do NOT need to update the npm package, simply replace the playlists in OwnTone with the new ones in this repo, and then reboot Homebridge twice to rectify the accessories. Hopefully such a wholesale change will be rare.

What Does It Do?

• It creates virtual 'Radio' devices that can be placed in appropriate rooms, and activated via Siri
  • It links these radio devices to the OwnTone compatible outputs you desire
• It automatically creates switches to change the radio station by matching a track's genre field in OwnTone

Why?

• Because many live radio services are not available on HomeKit devices
  • Some are also only available via 'Personal Requests' with Siri, which is not suitable for most households

How Do I Use It?

• Install OwnTone and link some outputs (please check these work first)
• You will need to know the address/hostname, port, and protocol of your OwnTone server
• You will need the exact names of your outputs (speakers) - which you can get via the plugin, read on
• Install this Homebridge plugin
  • Open the plugin and check the 'OwnTone Server' section is all correct, leave 'OwnTone Output Reporting' checked
    • Restart Homebridge and look in the log for the "OwnTone Output Report:"
      • Use these exact names to configure the radio outputs in the plugin settings
  • You will need to modify the track genre field of tracks you wish to generate switches for; adding a tag in the genre field
    • You will need to input these tags in the plugin settings
  • You may turn off 'OwnTone Output Reporting' in the 'OwnTone Server' section of the settings if you want it gone
  • You may view a verbose log of everything the plugin is doing by turning on 'Homebridge Debug Mode -D' in the 'Homebridge Settings' panel (top right ⋮)

How Do I Tag Tracks?

If you are viewing the npm package please first navigate to the GitHub repository and then look in the '/misc/Example Radio Playlists' directory for example BBC Radio playlists with tag examples.

For an .m3u playlist your genre field will be '#EXTGENRE:' and within this field you should add your tag, as below:

#EXTINF:-1, BBC Radio - Four
#EXTALB: Live Broadcast
#EXTGENRE: Live Radio [hovr] <--- THIS IS THE GENRE TAG - USE BRACKETS AND UNIQUE TAGS TO AVOID FALSE MATCHES
http://urlhere

The default tag is [hovr] (Homebridge OwnTone Virtual Radio) when setting up tags in the Homebridge plugin.

You may devise as many tags as you wish, and each tag added in your plugin settings will be searched for. This means a playlist's tracks can each have different tags for different purposes. DO NOT use multiple matching tags on the same track, as this will cause multiple switches to be generated for a single track.

By using multiple tags you can have groups of tracks that will show up depending on the plugin settings. For example you may have a [UKRadio] tag and a [USARadio] tag, or a [bbc-on] and a [bbc-off] tag, allowing you to include/exclude these track groups via the plugin settings. This allows you granular control within Homebridge for very large playlists by simply editing the playlist tags to match those defined in the plugin settings.

You do NOT need the -off variant tags such as [bbc-off], I have used them as an example of a non matching tag that can be edited easily into a matching tag. To ignore a track simply do not add any matching tag to its genre field.

If you wish to use these example BBC Radio playlists you can simply drop them into OwnTone, and add the tags [bbc-on] and [bbc-local-on] in the plugin settings. Make sure to use the 'BBC Radio International' playlist if you are not in the UK.

To view the genre field within OwnTone click on the vertical ellipsis icon on a track '⋮' and you can view all the track details.

Keep in mind that if you tag non-stream tracks, they will not loop or do anything clever, they will just play out and the OwnTone track queue will move on.

Using Defaults, What Are The Siri Commands?

Virtual Radio Switch Control

While in the same room (to affect that room only):

Hey Siri turn [on]/[off] the Radio

Hey Siri switch [on]/[off] the Radio

While anywhere (to affect a named room only):

Hey Siri turn [on]/[off] the Radio in the [named] room

Hey Siri switch [on]/[off] the Radio in the [named] room

While anywhere (to affect all switches):

Hey Siri turn [on]/[off] the Radio everywhere

Hey Siri switch [on]/[off] the Radio everywhere

Radio Station Switch Control

While anywhere:

Hey Siri turn on Radio Six Music

Hey Siri switch on Radio Six Music

DO NOT SAY: (NOTE that using 'to' is not valid)

Hey Siri switch to Radio Six Music

NOTE: saying 'BBC Radio'+'anything' causes all of my Apple devices to play 'BBC Radio Stoke from tunein' and I have no idea why – this is why my BBC playlists don't have track names prefixed with 'BBC', if you were wondering.

Limitations

With Homebridge / HomeKit

• Homebridge can only manage a maximum of 150 devices unless you run multiple bridges; keep this in mind when adding station switches
• Each station button must be a stand alone switch device in HomeKit due to the way sub-accessories are handled with Siri - I hope at some point they can be combined and work cleanly with Siri commands, but for now It does not seem possible

With OwnTone

• Only one radio station will play on all outputs (If anyone wants multiple OwnTone server support please say)
• Anyone with access to OwnTone can change what is playing, the linked outputs will not disconnect dependant on media source
• OwnTone 'hogs' an output; if you play something else on the output, it will be immediately replaced by OwnTone again. Turn the output off in OwnTone (via the virtual radio) to stop this
• Paired HomePods do not behave in the way you would expect with OwnTone. They will show as two outputs, and their physical volume buttons send a pause/play command
• Pause/Play, Next/Previous commands do not behave as expected with OwnTone. Pause/Play will work when the delay between them is short. Next/Previous will not work correctly

Anticipated Questions & Answers

• Q: Can I use this to make OwnTone on/off switches for my rooms, then use the web UI to play anything I want?
  • A: Yes; You can name the 'Virtual Radios' anything you want and use them only for OwnTone output control
• Q: Can I use these BBC Radio playlists from outside the UK?
  • A: There is an international playlist in the examples directory. Please let me know if it does not work from outside the UK. Note that it is lower quality than the UK streams.
• Q: Does this mess up my OwnTone queue?
  • A: It should not, if it does please report it to me. It places the stream track in the next queue slot and skips to it, so it should not cause issues
• Q: Can you add playlist/artist/genre/album stations?
  • A: Yes, but due to the limitations on device numbers and lack of natural language input I have not yet coded it. Let me know if you want it
• Q: Why not use playlists?
  • A: I wrote a basic version of this with playlists a while ago, but quickly hit limits and needed granular control of station switch generation. Just my BBC Radio playlists total 60+ stations, and most of them I do not want day-to-day, so I moved to a tagging system
• Q: Why are you not using room prefixing to indicate the room?
  • A: I was, it stopped working at some point during christmas 2022. Now I just name the switches 'Radio' and print the room details within the Serial Number
• Q: Will this play a stream forever, wasting my bandwidth?
  • A: No, when you turn off an output there is a check for other active outputs. If nothing is receiving then the stream is paused
    • Note if outputs have been selected by you, and they have no link to a virtual radio, then they will never be affected by this plugin and the stream may play forever
    • Note the HTTP stream is not an output and will be paused if there is no active output

Device Management

Virtual Radio Switches

To identify a Virtual Radio Switch, in HomeKit (Home App) view the 'Serial Number' of the device.

You will manage, configure, add, and remove these via the plugin settings.

Radio Station Switches

To identify a Radio Station Switch, in HomeKit (Home App) view the 'Serial Number' of the device.

Your radio station switches are NOT managed in the plugin settings; They are automatically generated by the plugin platform.

The plugin searches for 'genre tags' in your OwnTone library. To add or remove a station switch you should edit the track to add or remove the genre tag, or activate/deactivate that tag within the plugin settings.

You can add additional tags to search for, or edit the tags, in the plugin settings.

To avoid frustration and avoid losing HomeKit device settings, such as exclusion from favourites or views, you will want to avoid changing tracks, as when they are changed a fresh device will be created, with all default settings.

To understand how the plugin platform automatically manages your station switches you must first note the GUID structure:

GUID structure: {track.id}.{track.artist}.{track.title}.{track.time_added}

A new switch will be made upon a Homebridge restart when

• A tagged track with a new GUID is found
• If you change any of the track fields that make up the GUID; this will be seen as a new track needing a new switch, the old one will be removed

A switch will be restored upon a Homebridge restart when

• An existing switch GUID matches a found tagged track

A switch will be removed upon a Homebridge restart when

• An existing switch GUID does NOT match any found tagged track

No switch management will be done upon a Homebridge restart when

• Your OwnTone server is down; the plugin should abort and not affect your devices

If you wish to remove all switches without removing the plugin

• Press the red bin icon at the bottom left of the plugin settings and then press save; all switches will be removed upon a restart, the plugin will no longer run, but it will remain installed

If you wish to remove everything

• Uninstall the plugin and restart Homebridge