Audio & Video Systems Automation

[FrantzM]

Hi

I find this to be one extraordinarily frustrating area. One would think with all these talks about the IoT, it would be very easy to automate some things in the home .... Not yet: Audio Video Systems are for the most part hard to operate. Operating these are usually left to the more tech-inclined or savvy members of the family. To the extent that most of the time only one person operates them, usually Home Theater afficionados or audiophiles, usually men. I came to that realization when my fiancee wanted to watch a movie with some friends on the big screen .. She had to call me... She had to "simply" turn off the TV set, move the input to the BluRay/Streaming/smartapps Player, turn off the lights, wait for the subs to turn on, turn on the speakers, and now use the Blu-ray player remote to watch !!! I decided to devise a simple automation system based on Logitech Harmony hub which at least turns on some components for me an lower the screen... If I wanted to dimmer the lights and to turn on and off the subs and my powered speakers .. It became a treasure hunt ... which power outlet to use, which one is compatible with Logitech and how do we still push a button to turn off or dimmer the lights (yes there is the Logitech POP but ..) .. At this point in time we still have to waltz through multiple remote to do simple things. The lack of integration is disheartening. There are some poor alternatives ( Logitech is one of those companies trying ..) there are better alternatives (Crestron, AMX, Control4, etc..) but they cost often more than the AV system itself... People can cobble DIY stuff using a computer and "smart' device. The reality is stark: We remain in the dark ages when it comes to Home Automation. The IoT may be upon us but it is not serving us that well so far.

How do I get to this. Use the Logitech harmony and its app. They control my AV rather well .. then add light control ( not the brutally expensive Philip is Hue), power my speakers on and off? I am looking specifically for Power outlets that are controllable with the Logitech Harmony.
Thanks in advance

 

[pozz]

Yea. It's nonsense. I decided never to go for anything complex in the living room after messing with those remotes and then moving... and then abandoning reprogramming the automated sequence.

 

[pkane]

Hi

I find this to be one extraordinarily frustrating area. One would think with all these talks about the IoT, it would be very easy to automate some things in the home .... Not yet: Audio Video Systems are for the most part hard to operate. Operating these are usually left to the more tech-inclined or savy menebers of the family. To the extent that most of the time only one person operates them, usually Home Theater afficionados or audiophiles, usually men. I came to that ralization when my fiancee wanted to watch a movie with some friends on the big screen .. She had to call me... She had to "simply" turn off the TV set, move the input to the BluRay?Streaming/smartapps Player, turn off the lights, wait for the subs to turn on, turn on the speakers, and now use the Bluray player remote to watch !!! I decided to devise a simple automation system based on Logitech Harmony hub which at least turns on some components for me an lower the screen... I I wanted to dimmer the lights and to turn on and off the subs and my powered speakers .. It became a treasure hunt ... which power outlet to use, which one is compatible with Logitech and how do we still push a button to turn off or dimmer the lights (yes there is the Logitech POP but ..) .. At this point in time we still have to waltz through multiple remote to do simple things. The lack of integration is disheartening. There are some poor alternatives ( Logitech is one of those companies trying ..) there are better alternatives (Crestron, AMX, Control4, etc..) but they cost often more than the AV system itself... People can cobble DIY stuff using a computer and "smart' device. The reality is stark: We remain in the dark ages when it comes to Home Automation. The IoT may be upon us but it is not serving us that well so far.

How do I get to this. Use the Logitech harmony and its app. They control my AV rather well .. then add light control ( not the brutally expensive Philipis Hue), power my speakers on and off? I am looking specifically for Power outlets that are controllable with the Logitech Harmony.
Thanks in advance

You can make it all a little more integrated if you're willing to let Amazon or Google listen in to your living room with Alexa or Google Home devices, combined with the Logitech hub

 

[FrantzM]

I find the idea of always shouting at Alexa or the other thing while listening or watching a movie .. strange...

I have an activity on the Harmony hub that turns the AVR, lower the screen, turn on the PJ, choose the proper input , turn on the Bluray/Streaming player and present a physical remote where I can push play, turn volume on and off ... fast forward reverse ... I could if I wanted to use the Philips (BRUTALLY expensive) Hue LED bulbs , dim and create scenes ... At this oint in time I want to simply turn some things on and off... and include this with the activity.. It shouldn't be that hard. i refuse to delve into an Arduino or Raspberry-Pi type of control and the cobbling , programming and Rube Goldberg-esque contraption that will result. I believe that there would be more sales if manufacturers made their systems simpler to operate. For the most part , these are not easy. None of those things fit the notion of appliance. Stuffing more features and buttons in AVR will not make them sell more, except to a very subset of the market. I wouldn't mind that a professional hook the HT in your house/home.. Should you call a professional , every time a normal Human needs to operate it? No wonder people are listening to their phones more and more.. you plop the earbud and press play from an app. Problem solved.. Try that with a HT... Show of hands: Aside from you, how many people in your household operate your HT?

 

[pkane]

I have Alexa integrated with my lights, (microwave -- don't ask!), AVR, TV, cable, streaming, etc., and the rest of the stereo equipment through Logitech hub. I also have a Harmony remote control that controls most of the A/V equipment with single button presses. Alexa app on the phone lets me turn on or off entire scenes (eg, family room) or individual devices. It's all pretty simple. I had the Harmony remote long before I got Alexa.

When I added Alexa, I also added Logitech hub, which simply re-used the existing remote configuration, making it control all my AVR equipment. I installed a few non-brand-name dimmer light switches that are WiFi enabled and support Alexa. So, now I can shout at Alexa or use my phone from anywhere, or use the remote in front of the TV/stereo. All devices are controlled this way. Downside? I have Alexa microphone disabled most of the time

 

[nightfishing]

I use smartthings with my harmony hub to control everything.

I.e. when I turn my turntable on it switches on my phono preamp, switches my avr to the proper input and changes my sub settings.

When I launch roon on my tablet it turns on my system and switches to the proper inputs.

I have buttons to launch audio in other rooms (kitchen, bathroom, workout room etc)

I can do all this with voice commands also but find switches, buttons and tablets more comfortable.

 

[FrantzM]

Hi

I have made some progress and would like to use this thread to document my findings , hopefully helping those who need to go on similar projects. It took me a while, had me spend some money that I could have saved.. then again the path to discovery is not free, even if not money, one would need to spend something, sweat, intellectual energy, ... some .. thing
My system is composed of:
An AVR
3 Powered (LCR) speakers
2 Powered rear-surround speakers
3 Powered subwoofers
2 Passive , on-ceiling Atmos speakers
1 Apple TV 4K streamer and quite importantly, as it turns out, Apple Homekit hub
1 Samsung BD Player
1 BenQ PJ
1 Electric IR 100 inch screen
1 Logitech Harmony Hub and its companion, very basic but useful RF remote (Not IR, you don't hav to point it and works miles away from the remotes and components )
Of course, various, IR remote.

I had gotten to the point where Harmony would control the system , up to a point. Pressing the "Movies" button would have it:
Turn on the AVR and switch it to the appropriate input.
Lower the screen.
Turn on the PJ
Turn on the Apple TV 4K (Kind of always on/sleeping, etc) but you get the point...

A bit of background. I am quasi off-grid. I am on Solar and batteries and when they are really depleted or need AC (these past few weeks, every DAY!!), Diesel Generators. Energy consumption, of things, counts for me. So..

I needed, the speakers to turn off when not in use. They are not signal sensing, although, Class D amplifiers. They consume at idle, 4 to 5 watts each. that is 25 watts for most of the day, just for the speakers, not playing for 18 hours per day.. Nothing in the big scheme for people with cheap AC Power, say, at the US average of $.12 per Kwh, but a huge deal for any person on batteries... Thus started my foray in Home Automaton... I wanted also the session of movies watching, always on PJ in the HT to dim the lights too ...
I started a search for power outlets and dimmers that could be controlled by Logitech Harmony.. They might exist but they weren't that common.. Harmony, prefers to control things with IR. They do or did have an item called the "Logitech Harmony Hub Extender" that allows the Harmony hub to control Zigbee and Z-Wave systems, to do more but .. while you can find this on Amazon, Logitech doesn't talk too much about it and it might even be discontinued... I was frustrated but not entirely discouraged. I use Apple things, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, so I think I should go down the Apple walled-garden path and Apple seems a bit more concerned about privacy than Google who don't give a fxxxq about people's privacy, heck they make money off that or Amazon, ( perhaps less so than Google but .. still in the ballpark of not giving a piece of excrement out of people privacy either..) thus Logitech and Apple HomeKit it would be.
I will spare some details but here what I found:

In Home Automation you basically have 4 standards for communications:
WiFi
Bluetooth
Zigbee
Z-Wave

WiFi and Bluetooth are well known, except. Bluetooth doesn't go far, Wifi consume power, lot of it, and the more devices you have on your network, the worst it performs.
Zigbee and Z-Wave were made for that kind of things, automation in the home or office or buildings. They are mesh-technologies , the more devices, the more robust the network becomes, the greater the likelihood of good communications... all things being equal and within reason. They are not speed demons , perhaps 200 Kb/s, more than sufficient to exchange a few kilobytes of information... 40 feet device to device in Zigbee, up to 65,000 devices on one network ... Z-wave is 330 feet but "only" 230 devices or so ... They are low power to the extent that either can run off smallish buttons batteries for years...
Zigbee and Z-wave often require a "Hub", a gateway of sort to talk to the Internet, to other things and their servers. It is not always easy to choose the right ones and most often you will have to use at least 2 hubs... Samsung SmartThings Hub is close to Universal but ... You need to be careful: In Zigbee, a hub assigns an ID to a device in a quasi-permanent fashion. Once a Hub "grabs" a device, it becomes attached to that hub, even if the companion hub is introduced later, it may not recognize the device... that create all kinds of issues with controlling the device. e.g . SmarThings will recognize a Philips Hue lamp and assign it an ID, but, most of the functionalities of Philips Hue lamps are achievable only with its companion app through the Philips hub, if a different non-Philips hub grabbed a hub, thus you have a lamp with limited functionalities... to enjoy all that the Hue bulbs can do, you need the Hue Bridge, their hub

This is not to be a primer on Home Automation , I am not an expert.

What is working for me after many hours of research and much hair-pulling (the little, I have left ). I found out an interesting solution, open-sources of sort called HOOBS. (HomeBridge Out Of Box). It can run from any computer, PC or even and in my case fortunately, on Raspberry Pi. As a matter of facts, they have a turnkey solution based on the Raspberry Pi. They have 3 flavors
Download the software and run it on a PC, mac or Raspberry Pi, free with a suggested contribution of $7
Purchase an SD Card with the HOOBS software for $19.99 , worldwide shipping included, and use your own Raspberry Pi, ancillaries and fire away,
Buy the Turnkey HOOBS device, tested and ready for $170.

I chose option 1. I had several Raspberry Pi version 1B laying around. If you go that path, I suggest you grab one of the latest Pi, the 3 at least. HOOBS has a good depository of plugins for the more popular brands and ecosystems

I can just say, my system works so far as intended. Press a button (Or asking Siri to turn On Movie): screen lowers everything is on. Lights go off, specific spot light goes on. If you press or shout off movies, screen retracts, speakers shut off, lights turns back on. etc... I am pretty happy. I haven't gotten to the dimming part but I a confident I will have it work or multi-rooms

To be continued later today.. I have to go find ways to pay those bills

 

[FrantzM]

Hi

Here the things one needs to retain:

3 Tech Giants: Amazon, Apple, Amazon are in a fight for the Home Automation market. They try as they can to build their walled gardens. They each have their ecosystems and those are mostly incompatible. There's Samsung however playing the outsider and their SmartThings ecosystem is as universal as you can be, in these new, muddied waters. I like the simplicity of the Apple interface but prefer the quasi-universality of Samsung SmartThings. Apple, Samsung or both made sure that there ecosystems are incompatible... but .. there are ways to make these play nice with each other. On of these is the IFTT cloud-platform. Rant ON!!! R-A-N-T .... O-N!!! You have been warned
For a website/cloud service that purports to help us automatize things in our lives... that is one complicated, difficult to get to the bottom or to use Interface/Website/UI !!!! You can do practically anything you would like in term of automation with that service but DARN!!! Really, REALLY! do they have to make it so obtuse and complicated? Do you need to read and research so much to perform simple tasks? Visit their site and let me know what you think... Rant OFF!!!
The other option is what I chose, HOOPS. It presents the various ecosystems/services/Devices/Accessories to Apple Home Kit ( I have't read it all but it seems you can use whatever ecolsystem and UI form the big 3. you please) in a almost interesting way. It has a bit of a learning curve but reasonably easy for someone with computer literacy, a very subjective evaluation, but .. eh!!
So far I do have what I wanted. It works reliably... a press of the "watch movies" button on my Harmony remote triggers a series of events, lights included ... etc...

But and that is a big "But"... The reliance on the Cloud/Big3 (5?) annoys me. I'd rather have something. home-based and self-contained to automate my house, with, of course, cloud back-up and that... is not easy or widely available.

Conclusion. I will pursue Home Automation, it is fun and potentially useful, so far, but it is not mature, nor well rounded. I can describe it as a tedious, work-in-progress, endeavor. It is , in fact , programming but the tools and language are not clear or standardized.

 

[Neddy]

Thanks for the great overview!
It's something I've been peaking around the edges of, and early on concluded that the 'universality/integration' of voice control automation was likely pretty much as you described...thanks for verifying - saves me a lot of wasted effort.

Also, I'm not at all impressed with the 'action' model (Watch TV, etc) that Harmony uses, as having a mixed PC/BR player media system means that I rarely 'engage' the system for specific uses (might fire up the TV to search the web on the PC, or watch YTubes, etc...).

However, having remotes for environmental controls IS of interest...mostly lighting and perhaps shade controls, but I also have a large powered window curtain and solarium vent motors I'd like to 'get at w/o getting up' someday.
For the time being, I'm going to try using the Lutron Caseta controllers (which claim to also support shade motors)...but haven't gotten around to actually installing the hub yet. (I do like their little dimmer remotes.)

 

[Trouble Maker]

So, HOOBS is the software layer above everything, you still need a device with the z-wave and zigbee radios working below it right?
We already have a SmartThings hub. It does fine.... but I feel like the interface and capability could be better. I also feel like I'm pinned into a relatively small eco system of devices. Sometimes a solution exist but is not 'works with Smart-things' approved. It's nice for controlling a few lights or the temperature with basic automation, but unless I'm missing something it feels like that's all you get without adding other custom software pieces which makes it no longer plug-and-play.

 

[somebodyelse]

There are alternatives to HOOBS - FHEM and OpenHAB spring to mind, but there are many more. Most have a wide, but slightly different, selection of supported devices including brand-name A/V gear, and they often enable interoperability far beyond that supported by manufacturers. The big advantage to my mind is reduced reliance on cloud services, removing multiple potential failure modes. They have varying levels of friendliness to non-technical users though. As for non-cloud based voice activation, Mycroft is heading that way but I don't think it's there yet. Asterisk's voice menus are technically an option, but would have you reaching for the remote out of frustration with the interface.

Anything relying on cloud services is a failure waiting to happen, from internet connection failures through server outages to dropped support for model or whole product line.

 

[Thomas savage]

@amirm this is your wheelhouse.

 

[FrantzM]

So, HOOBS is the software layer above everything, you still need a device with the z-wave and zigbee radios working below it right?
We already have a SmartThings hub. It does fine.... but I feel like the interface and capability could be better. I also feel like I'm pinned into a relatively small eco system of devices. Sometimes a solution exist but is not 'works with Smart-things' approved. It's nice for controlling a few lights or the temperature with basic automation, but unless I'm missing something it feels like that's all you get without adding other custom software pieces which makes it no longer plug-and-play.

Well this is what I have gathered the past few weeks since I have been on that exploration:

Think of HOOBS as a gateway that performs a bit of translation. It presents ecosystems A' "accessories" to ecosystem B as , native accessories. Notice the quotation marks. The terms are loosely used. The syntax is not uniform, an "activity" or a "routine" could be presented to a given ecosystem as an "accessory". it can used in its .. well ... activities or routines or schedules... In your specific exemple, you use Samsung SmarThings, which uses the Zigbee and ZWave but is not compatible, native with Apple's Homekit... by that I mean that SmartThings accessories cannot directly be included in Apple HomeKit . With Hoobs , however there is a plug-in that allows SmartThings.. things, to be seen as accessories to HomeKit. Be they lights, sensors, Thermostat, etc. Then Siri can summon them: If you have SmarTIngs lights in your kitchen ... Siri can, with Hoobs in the background , see them as its own accesories , thus turn them on... , without the HOOBS, they wouldn't be seen by HomeKit at all. I am using an early Raspberry Pi and cannot yet tell, but I also believe that the HOOBS' Hue plugin presents, Hue's "Routines" to HomeKit as accessories too.. Although Hue ecosystem is Apple Home Kit compatible, its "routines/automations" are not seen by HomeKit as anything, certainly not as "Automations", Homekit syntax for "routines"... They live their separate lives to a great extent...There exis Apps/Interfaces that help devising sequnces/automatons.. They vary in usefulness and reach. Some apps/UI, are better than others but none are truly "universal". I am playing with Eve and it works rather well, my expertise with any of these is limited .. so take whatever I say with a grain of salt or more
If that sound complicated .. well, in truth, it is.
Home Automation is programming your Home. You are devising algorithms to perform certain tasks, which the human mind doesn't perceive as such due to their triviality: Wake up , turn on a series of lights in a given sequence, turn the coffee machine, then... can be thought and written as an algorithm, The little variations of daily lives can make of it a complicated series of events that requires intensive alterations to the original algorithm: Wake up, if headache then take your blood pressure, if normal then take a pill , if not, take medication , then turn on series of light and ... renew subscription to online/VR gym training sessions ... Trivial, but not simple in term of programming such . It requires planning, forethought, structured logic. Most people don't want to. In fact the purpose of automating your home is to leave that thinking to ... something, not you, not your brain .. that is where A.I. comes in, however we may despise the concept of an artificial intelligence, or of big Tech watching over us ... None of what we see performed so simply and admirably would have come to be. Intoning "hey Siri! Music" and music starts playing in the Spekaer pod in the room where it was heard is seriously complicated, in term of programming/algorithm... Siri manages to turn on the Living Room Homepod , not the entire houses homepod.. because it is where it heard the command ...Try to program that!... Yes!.. TRY! Possible, but, would you want to? Is it easy? Even for programmers? So just turning music on becomes a chore ? with hundred of line of codes...?
A.I. to the rescue!
All these ecosystems , relie on AI... and the AIs, at this point in time do not talk to each other and their masters don't want them to (Do we?), syntax is not universal.. etc.. All the signs of a technology in its infancy.

I am only beginning to play with Home Automation. It is in our future but... darn! We, the early adopters, have a lot of learning to do.. It won't be easy but the little bit that I have done for my HT is most satisfying. I have ordered a recent Raspberry Pi and as soon as it comes , will update my findings. For now with HOOBS, my HT does what I want to the extent that my girlfriend uses the HT ... Pressing a button on the Harmony remote and just move the cursor to a movie and press play.. she can Siri a movie and she likes that more... Can I automate my HT even more? I am sure, and I'll share my findings.

Peace

 

[superczar]

There are alternatives to HOOBS - FHEM and OpenHAB spring to mind, but there are many more. Most have a wide, but slightly different, selection of supported devices including brand-name A/V gear, and they often enable interoperability far beyond that supported by manufacturers. The big advantage to my mind is reduced reliance on cloud services, removing multiple potential failure modes. They have varying levels of friendliness to non-technical users though. As for non-cloud based voice activation, Mycroft is heading that way but I don't think it's there yet. Asterisk's voice menus are technically an option, but would have you reaching for the remote out of frustration with the interface.

Anything relying on cloud services is a failure waiting to happen, from internet connection failures through server outages to dropped support for model or whole product line.

Indeed - Cloud based automation will always be a bit of a hit & miss.
I started with an All LAN implementation using domoticz as the core sometime around 2014 although moved to Home Assistant recently

I eventually had to make concessions for Voice control via Alexa/ Homepod but even today, with over 80 nodes on the system - All processing excluding voice interpretation happens on my LAN

 

[FrantzM]

Hi

Not advocating one approach over the other. Home-based automation will also be a hit or a miss whether you ar cloud or home server based.... It depends.
I understand the desire to keep things at home but ... How would a home brew system a command such as "Hey AlexCortSiri, Living room lights on at 35%"? Think about the amount of programming steps that would be required for such? And the cost and upkeep of a home-based server with enough horsepower to perform those mundane tasks that, nonetheless, require , voice recognition, Word patterns recognition, context recognition, location with respects to sensors.. etc... OTOH, we are at a point in time, where Internet is an "utility"... A house should have Electricity, water and Internet. If one of these go off, well you rely on back-up, temporarily. I think that for many folks, in-house automation would be as back-up. I use RV/Solar. I have batteries, several. large banks, . Their maintenance is non-trivial. so are their cost. Commercial, Utility power would have cost me less and less issues but it's not reliably avilable ( about 6 hours a day .. some times. some time months without any ) . The same could be said of a non-technical person with in-house server. In my opinion, things like HOOBS running on a Raspberry Pi, in a quasi-appliance fashion, plus the power of the Cloud remains the best way to do Home Automation for, even the most technically-minded persons.

 

[somebodyelse]

How would a home brew system a command such as "Hey AlexCortSiri, Living room lights on at 35%"?

That's why I mentioned Mycroft - most/all the required components are there to run it on your own hardware I think, but it's in the 'major assembly work required' phase that the home automation projects were some years back, and the hardware requirements are close to a gaming PC. It's not somthing I'd do, but I know some who run similarly powerful servers at home 24/7 so it's not implausible for enthusiasts. Give it a few years and a) the hardware will have become mainstream and cheaper to run, and b) it'll be packaged up similar to HOOBS. Given the current tradeoffs I can live without voice activation - not everyone's choice I know.

My issue isn't with the use of cloud services, it's reliance on cloud services. There's no good reason for your thermostat to stop working when your internet connections drops, the manufacturer forgets to update the ssl certificate etc. Network connected switches should be able to work on the local network, not rely on a message going out to the manufacturer's cloud service and back. This sort of thing is rarely obvious at point of sale.

 

[FrantzM]

That's why I mentioned Mycroft - most/all the required components are there to run it on your own hardware I think, but it's in the 'major assembly work required' phase that the home automation projects were some years back, and the hardware requirements are close to a gaming PC. It's not somthing I'd do, but I know some who run similarly powerful servers at home 24/7 so it's not implausible for enthusiasts. Give it a few years and a) the hardware will have become mainstream and cheaper to run, and b) it'll be packaged up similar to HOOBS. Given the current tradeoffs I can live without voice activation - not everyone's choice I know.

My issue isn't with the use of cloud services, it's reliance on cloud services. There's no good reason for your thermostat to stop working when your internet connections drops, the manufacturer forgets to update the ssl certificate etc. Network connected switches should be able to work on the local network, not rely on a message going out to the manufacturer's cloud service and back. This sort of thing is rarely obvious at point of sale.

On that I agree 100%.

 

[superczar]

That's why I mentioned Mycroft - most/all the required components are there to run it on your own hardware I think, but it's in the 'major assembly work required' phase that the home automation projects were some years back, and the hardware requirements are close to a gaming PC. It's not somthing I'd do, but I know some who run similarly powerful servers at home 24/7 so it's not implausible for enthusiasts. Give it a few years and a) the hardware will have become mainstream and cheaper to run, and b) it'll be packaged up similar to HOOBS. Given the current tradeoffs I can live without voice activation - not everyone's choice I know.

My issue isn't with the use of cloud services, it's reliance on cloud services. There's no good reason for your thermostat to stop working when your internet connections drops, the manufacturer forgets to update the ssl certificate etc. Network connected switches should be able to work on the local network, not rely on a message going out to the manufacturer's cloud service and back. This sort of thing is rarely obvious at point of sale.

You could always set it up in a way that cloud services are invoked only for the aspects that greatly rely on Machine learning namely voice interpretation.
If you really do not need voice activation, you don't even need that.
But after several years of extensive tinkering, I can comfortably say that without voice, home automation remains somewhat gimmicky and used largely by the geek-in-chief of the household only.

In the event of an Internet Outage or any other service issues , you still retain the option of firing up a local app or browser to control your endpoints.

Take a look at this project which does exactly that - https://hackaday.com/2020/07/13/home-automation-covers-everything/

 

[waynel]

Finite state machine based remote controls are the problem. I use a Harmony hub and it works most of the time:
Watch a movie: turns on my receiver, turns of the preamp and activates HT bypass mode, turns on TV , Xbox and receiver, selects input on receiver and TV.

The problem is the harmony hub needs to know the state of all devices and if anything is out of sync its a problem. Out of Sync can happen by a missed remote code, using a dedicated remote, auto power off, etc...

Regardless of the devices remote interfaces all devices should have a set of remote control codes that do the following regardless of state.

ON - separate command from off - if already on - stay on
Off - Separate command from on - if already off - stay off
Input - each input should have a dedicated code - no toggling
Volume up - always turns volume up regardless of menu state
Volume down - always turns volume down regardless of menu state

None of these should be affected by menu state. Using dedicated codes would prevent the harmony hub from getting out of sync. Consumer electronics manufactures please listen!.

 

[somebodyelse]

You could always set it up in a way that cloud services are invoked only for the aspects that greatly rely on Machine learning namely voice interpretation.
If you really do not need voice activation, you don't even need that.
But after several years of extensive tinkering, I can comfortably say that without voice, home automation remains somewhat gimmicky and used largely by the geek-in-chief of the household only.

In the event of an Internet Outage or any other service issues , you still retain the option of firing up a local app or browser to control your endpoints.

Take a look at this project which does exactly that - https://hackaday.com/2020/07/13/home-automation-covers-everything/

If you're rolling your own, sure - as you, I and many others have done. I'm complaining about companies big and small doing things like writing apps that can't work on the local network when there's an outage, and whose target market wouldn't have a clue about hackaday. At least when Honeywell's backend went down for a week they didn't fail entirely and you could still use the physical buttons.