Location Location Location

[migdalorguy]

Just received my Echo. I am concerned about location. If I place it relatively near where it would be hearing the output of the tv whenever it is on, might that be problematic? It's not likely to hear the keyword. Perhaps it's not an issue at all. After all, I have a Moto X and it's always listening in the background. Just wondering if I'm putting too much of a demand on the Echo if it is often listening while my tv is on.

[jwlv]

The Echo is always listening for the wake word (Alexa or Amazon).  If it's quiet in the house, it can hear you from two rooms away, even when speaking softly without yelling. If you put the Echo on the opposite side of the TV, it will still be listening for the wake word so you're not putting any extra demand on the Echo. The only thing that could affect the Echo adversely is if the TV's sound/noises is interfering with the Echo's ability to hear the wake word or understand the question you ask afterwards. Imagine four people talking in a room right next to the Echo. You call out "Alexa, what time is it?" The Echo will probably not hear you.

In the Echo app, you can look at the history of what the Echo has heard. Tap the little play button to hear a recording of what it heard. Surprisingly on my Echo, even when it's relatively quiet in the house, the playback still contained a lot of background noise.

[fnowling]

I was streaming the TV show Defiance recently, and my echo activated when the someone said 'Alak', which is the name of one of the characters on the show.  My TV is about 8 to 10 feet from the Echo.  As the TV dialog continued, the Echo would not respond to my command to cancel.  I had to pause the TV and once mine was the only voice, the Echo responded correctly to me.

In general I think the Echo should be in the kitchen. Mine sits on the counter that separates the kitchen and the living room.

Frank

[dspeers]

Ours is in the dining room which is open to both the kitchen and living room so Alexa can hear us pretty well - except when playing anything with high volume, so we have to yell or use the remote.

[ScarlettPhoenix]

We have two. One is located in the master bedroom and one in the kitchen. Very convenient. The one in the kitchen serves great purposes-updating shopping lists, to do lists, last minute calendar  quips and such. Also- when people come over for dinner, she's just out of the way enough to play music without being obtrusive.
The one in our master bedroom functions as an alarm, clock (I'm too lazy to turn my head to look at the time), music, traffic, weather & sports.
Both settle lots of arguments that we would normally would have had to fire up our computers or look on our smartphones for. I love both of them.

[alot2do]

My kitchen, dining room, and living room are L shaped, with the dining room connecting everything. I've turned the dining room into my office, and the Echo does quite well there. (I have a small house with only two bedrooms)

[Local Man]

I have mine in the bedroom, but mainly because I have a long-term guest living in the living room of my 1 bedroom apt so I spend almost all of my time in my bedroom.  When he's gone in a few months, I may move it out to the Kitchen/living room area.

I often have the TV on, and I have not had an issue with the Echo reacting to the TV.

[ScarlettPhoenix]

I have mine in the bedroom, but mainly because I have a long-term guest living in the living room of my 1 bedroom apt so I spend almost all of my time in my bedroom.  When he's gone in a few months, I may move it out to the Kitchen/living room area.

I often have the TV on, and I have not had an issue with the Echo reacting to the TV.

You're a kind person. I hope that long term guest is helping out with rent, groceries, etc...

[Monty]

I also have my Echo near the entertainment center. While I have not yet had it activate from any TV show, I usually forget to turn her off when I watch a YouTube video of some Echo demo...it is really confusing for a few seconds until I realize my Echo is responding to the video commands, LoL.

Other than that, the other problem is when I am streaming music and the volume is up in the 5-7 range; Alexa can't hear normal voice command to pause/stop, etc. I either have to significantly raise my voice or wait until the song has a break or ends.

They need to do some work on the audio normalization; my news flash audio is all over the map in volume level and i have to either adjust it manually or verbally command it vol up or dn.

The Echo does pretty good in my setup with a fair amount of background noise, but with the TV/Soundbar/Subwoofer going strong, I have to mute it momentarily to use Alexa. I keep experimenting with moving it around, as the omnidirectional mics do really well throughout the living room area, so am trying to find a sweetspot where Alexa can hear me with normal voice level but still have the TV going.

Monty

[ScarlettPhoenix]

I have to mute my TV as well because Alexa just can't distinguish my voice over the other voices she hears. You might want to play around with where you want to put the Echo. I put mine in my master bedroom and the other in the kitchen. Our house is rectangular and they are spaced very far apart. One really doesn't hear the other unless I'm into my Jewish yelling mode. Then, everyone in the neighborhood hears me. 

[Jeff29]

They need to do some work on the audio normalization; my news flash audio is all over the map in volume level and i have to either adjust it manually or verbally command it vol up or dn.

Hi, I've documented this and started the process of educating Amazon to get them to recognize this is a significant oversight in delivering a paid subscription audio service.

Please take a look and notice you can help:  http://www.echotalk.org/index.php/topic,2430.0.html