Pulseaudio Binding

This binding integrates pulseaudio devices.

Supported Things

The Pulseaudio bridge is required as a "bridge" for accessing any other Pulseaudio devices.

You need a running pulseaudio server with module module-cli-protocol-tcp loaded and accessible by the server which runs your openHAB instance. The following pulseaudio devices are supported:

• Sink
• Source
• Sink-Input
• Source-Output
• Combined-Sink

Discovery

The Pulseaudio bridge is discovered through mDNS in the local network.

Binding Configuration (optional)

The Pulseaudio binding can be customized to handle different devices. The Sink and Source support is activated by default and you need no further action to use it. If you want to use another type of device, or disable the Sink/Source type, you have to switch the corresponding binding property.

• sink: Allow the binding to parse sink devices from the pulseaudio server
• source: Allow the binding to parse source devices from the pulseaudio server
• sinkInput: Allow the binding to parse sink-input devices from the pulseaudio server
• sourceOutput: Allow the binding to parse source-output devices from the pulseaudio server

You can use the GUI on the bindings page (click on the pulseaudio binding then "Expand for details"), or create a <openHAB-conf>/services/pulseaudio.cfg file and use the above options like this:

binding.pulseaudio:sink=true
binding.pulseaudio:source=true
binding.pulseaudio:sinkInput=false
binding.pulseaudio:sourceOutput=false

Thing Configuration

The Pulseaudio bridge requires the host (ip address or a hostname) and a port (default: 4712) as a configuration value in order for the binding to know where to access it.
A Pulseaudio device requires at least an identifier. For sinks and sources, you can use the name or the description. For sink inputs and source outputs, you can use the name or the application name. To know without hesitation the correct value to use, you should use the command line utility pactl. For example, to find the name of a sink:
pactl -s <ip-address|hostname> list sinks | grep "name:"
If you need to narrow the identification of a device (in case name or description are not consistent and sufficient), you can use the additionalFilters parameter (optional/advanced parameter), in the form of one or several (separator '###') regular expression(s), each one matching a property value of the pulseaudio device. You can use every properties listed with pactl.

Channels

All devices support some of the following channels:

Channel Type ID	Item Type	Description
volume	Dimmer	Volume of an audio device in percent
mute	Switch	Mutes the device
state	String	Current state of the device (suspended, idle, running, corked, drained)
slaves	String	Slave sinks of a combined sink
routeToSink	String	Shows the sink a sink-input is currently routed to

Audio sink

Sink things can register themselves as audio sink in openHAB. MP3 and WAV files are supported. Use the appropriate parameter in the sink thing to activate this possibility (activateSimpleProtocolSink). This requires the module module-simple-protocol-tcp to be present on the server which runs your openHAB instance. The binding will try to command (if not discovered first) the load of this module on the pulseaudio server.

Audio source

Source things can register themselves as audio source in openHAB. WAV input format, rate and channels can be configured on the thing configuration. (defaults to pcm_signed,16000,1) Use the appropriate parameter in the source thing to activate this possibility (activateSimpleProtocolSource). This requires the module module-simple-protocol-tcp to be present on the target pulseaudio server. The binding will load this module on the pulseaudio server.

Full Example

pulseaudio.things

Bridge pulseaudio:bridge:<bridgname> "<Bridge Label>" @ "<Room>" [ host="<ipAddress>", port=4712 ] {
  Things:
    Thing sink          multiroom       "Snapcast"           @ "Room"       [name="alsa_card.pci-0000_00_1f.3", activateSimpleProtocolSink=true, simpleProtocolSinkPort=4711, additionalFilters="analog-stereo###internal"]
    Thing source        microphone      "microphone"         @ "Room"       [name="alsa_input.pci-0000_00_14.2.analog-stereo"]
    Thing sink-input    openhabTTS      "OH-Voice"           @ "Room"       [name="alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1f.3.hdmi-stereo-extra1"]
    Thing source-output remotePulseSink "Other Room Speaker" @ "Other Room" [name="alsa_input.pci-0000_00_14.2.analog-stereo"]
    Thing combined-sink hdmiAndAnalog   "Zone 1+2"           @ "Room"       [name="combined"]
  }

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