Amazon is allowing users of its FireTV and Echo products to combine them and create a home theater solution. It’s exactly what I wished that Google would do with Chromecast Ultra and its Google Home smart speakers.

“Home Theatre System allows you to create a home theatre system for your Fire TV device by using your Echo Devices as speakers,” an Amazon staff member writes in the firm’s UK-based forums.

As you might expect, this requires some of Amazon’s more modern devices. On the Fire TV front, it requires Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K, Amazon Fire TV (3rd Generation), or Fire TV Cube (2nd Generation). And on the Echo side, you need an Echo Dot (3rd Generation), Echo (2nd or 3rd Generation), Echo Plus (1st or 2nd Generation), Echo Dot with clock, or Echo Studio. You can also pair an Echo Sub with any of the above Echo devices, Amazon notes.

You also need to know about the supported speaker configurations, which include:

– 1.0 (one Echo device working as an external speaker)

– 1.1 (one Echo device working as an external speaker with Echo Sub

– 2.0 (two Echo devices working as external speakers, one as left audio and one as right audio)

– 2.1 (two Echo devices working as external speakers, one as left audio and one as right audio, and on Echo Sub)

Configuration occurs in the Alexa app: Navigate to Devices > “+”  > Set Up Audio System > Home Cinema. After setting it up, you can then manage your Home Theatre settings directly from Fire TV.

This sounds like an excellent idea, pardon the pun. But seriously, Google. You need to do this, stat.

Tagged with Alexa, Amazon Echo, Amazon Fire TV