BeoGateway: Indigo Server Plugin for Bang and Olufsen AV Systems

Please note this plugin is not endorsed or affiliated with Bang & Olufsen in any way

Introduction

Plugin for the Indigo Domotics Home Automation software allowing integration and control of Bang and Olufsen AV systems. The plugin provides the following functionality:

• Defines an Indigo AV Renderer device type with state monitoring of
  • Current Source ID and Source Name
  • PlayState
  • Current Channel/Track Number and Name
  • Volume
• Light and appliance control via Beo4/BeoRemote One LIGHT and CONTOL commands
• Native control of Apple Music via user defined audio source (N.MUSIC by default), using Beo4/BeoRemote One to control transport
• One touch activation of audio experiences via Indigo UI, any Indigo trigger, or Apple Home app. [^1]
  • If all sources are in standby, a single press starts a pre-defined default audio experience (RADIO by default)
  • If sources are already playing, a single press joins the current audio experience
• Send Home Integration Protocol commands to the gateway (BLGW only)
• State change reporting in the Apple Notification Center
• Protocol Monitoring and reporting of traffic on the Bang and Olufsen MasterLink network, including:
  • MasterLink packet information,
  • MLGW protocol data, and
  • Home Automation Protocol data

[1]: Via the HomeKit Bridge Plugin

Requirements

The code requires a MasterLink or BeoLink Gateway to run - it is untested with the BeoLiving Intelligence

Compatible with legacy DataLink (via 1611 converter), MasterLink, and modern NetworkLink products, including the BeoLink Converter ML/NL.

Basic Setup and Use

1. Install the plugin from the Indigo Plugin Store.
2. Configure the plugin providing the following information for your gateway:
   1. IP address,
   2. port,
   3. login and password
3. Select the default audio source for devices. You can toggle Apple Music control On/Off and assign it to a particular source
4. The plugin will download the configuration from the gateway and create AV renderer devices accordingly
5. Devices can only access sources defined in their config on the gateway and will recognise at least the channel/tracks included in their favourites lists. Some sources (e.g. NetworkLink sources) may recognise additional channels and track data.
6. Devices can be switched On/Off and toggled via the indigo UI

Advanced Functions

Plugin Events/Triggers

The plugin can respond to various events on the B&O network including:

• All Standby Events
• Light Commands
• Control Commands
• Beo4/BeoRemote One Commands to a Specific Source
• Virtual Button presses

These events can be found under the 'BeoGateway Plugin Event' list in Indigo's Create New Trigger dialogue

Plugin Actions

Indigo Events can trigger a number of actions on the B&O Network including:

BeoGateway Plugin Actions:

• Request BLGW Home Integration Protocol State Updates for all devices
• Send a BLGW Home Integration Protocol Command (only on BLGW - see below)
• Send Free Text Integration Protocol Command (for advanced users - see below)
• Send Virtual Button
• Post a Message to the Notification Centre (see below)
• Send All Standby Command

BeoGateway Device Actions:

• Send Beo4 Source Selection Command
• Send Beo4 Key
• Send BeoRemote One Source Selection Command
• Send BeoRemote One Key
• Request Device State Update

Protocol Monitoring

Network traffic monitoring to the Indigo log be toggled in the plugin config menu:

• Verbose Mode

A typical message is formatted as follows:

BeoGateway Plugin               
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    BLGW Home Integration Protocol: <--DATA-RECEIVED!-<< on 05/02/22 at 17:13:32
    ============================================================================
    Header: ['s Downstairs', 'Dining Room', 'AV renderer', 'BeoMaster 7000']
    Payload: ['nowPlaying=', 'nowPlayingDetails=type: Legacy; track number: 2',
	 'online=Yes', 'sourceName=RADIO', 'sourceUniqueId=RADIO:1790.1179011.2
	6002135@products.bang-olufsen.com', 'state=Play', 'volume=26']
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Zone: DOWNSTAIRS 
    Room: DINING ROOM 
    Type: AV RENDERER 
    Device: BeoMaster 7000 
    State_Update: 
        nowPlaying: BBC Radio 2 
        nowPlayingDetails: 
            type: Legacy 
            channel_track: 2
         
        online: Yes 
        sourceName: RADIO 
        source: RADIO 
        sourceUniqueId: RADIO:1790.1179011.26002135@products.bang-olufsen.com 
        state: Play 
        volume: 26

Apple Music Control

Apple Music control can be toggled in the plugin config menu:

• Control Apple Music

It will also report the current track information to the indigo log if 'post notifications' is toggled:

• post notifications

A typical track readout looks like this:

BeoGateway Plugin               
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    iTUNES CURRENT TRACK INFO:
    ============================================================================
    Now playing: 'Eh, Petite Fille'
                  by Clifton Chenier
                  from the album 'Bayou Blues'
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    ACTIVE AUDIO RENDERERS: Hallway Beolink Active

If the plugin is configured to map a source to Apple Music, selection of that source on your remote will initiate playback immediately, shuffling from the entire library. If other AV renderers join the music experience playback is unaffected. Apple Music will stop playing when all active audio renderers go into a Standby state.

The controls are mapped as follows:

Beo4 Key	BeoRemote One Key	Apple Music Action
Go	Play	Play
Stop	Pause	Pause
Wind	Wind	Scan Forwards 15 Seconds
Rewind	Rewind	Scan Backwards 15 Seconds
Step Up	P+	Next Track
Step Down	P-	Previous Track
Shift-1/Random	Random	Toggle Shuffle
-	Info	Produce Notification of Current Track Info and Print to Indigo Log
-	Guide	Print this table to Indigo Log
Green	Green	Shuffle Playlist 'Recently Played'
Yellow	Yellow	Play Digital Radio Stations from Playlist 'Radio'
Red	Red	More of the Same
Blue	Blue	Play the Album that the Current Track Resides On

State Reporting in Apple Notification Centre

State reports in the notification centre can be toggled in the config menu

• Post Notifications

It is also possible to trigger notifications via any Indigo event using the action: "BeoGateway Plugin Actions/Post Message in Notification Centre"

Home Integration Protocol Commands

The BeoLink Gateway (BLGW) provides a Home Integration Protocol for external automation services to communicate with devices on the B&O Network.

A copy of the documentation for the protocol is included in the plugin's Resources/Documentation folder, and the overview below is lifted from that document.

With the introduction of BLGW, there is a standard way of identifying resources and specifying activity and state in the connected systems. Such activity can be represented unambiguously in the form of a text string.

Home Integration Protocol allows external applications to directly interact with BLGW. This is done by means of a minimalist line-based protocol that directly transports the text representation of all activity.

A resource is uniquely identified by the combination of zone, room, type and name, and is represented uniquely in string form as a path with the form zone/room/type/name.

For example:

Guest house/Kitchen/AV_RENDERER/BeoVision/

An event or command is represented by a resource path followed by an action (event or command), optionally followed by attributes and values.

Example of a simple command, and a command with 2 attributes:

Guest house/Kitchen/BUTTON/Lights ON/PRESS

Guest house/Kitchen/AV_RENDERER/BeoVision/Beo4 command?Command=TV&Destination selector=Video_source

Example state change event, with 1 attribute.

Guest house/Kitchen/BUTTON/Lights ON/STATE_UPDATE?STATE=1

Example generic event matching all state updates (see documentation for generic programming):

*/*/*/*/STATE_UPDATE

The following commands are supported on HIP:

Command	Arguments	Description
c	Generic ID	Command, from client to server.
f	Generic resource	State filter request, client to server.
e	Code, message	Error code, server to client.
q	Generic resource	State query, client to server.
s	Specific ID	State update, server to client.
r	Specific ID	State response, client to server.

All commands from client to server take a single argument, which is an identifier for resources, commands or events.

A complete message consists of:

1. The command (1 character)
2. Space (ASCII 0x20)
3. The argument, which is an encoded string
4. Line termination, consisting of CR+LF (the server will also accept a single CR)

For example, to press all buttons in the installation, the client sends (do not try this at home):

c */*/BUTTON/*/PRESS" + CR + LF

Credits

The code draws heavily on the existing MLGW project by user Giachello, but is recoded for Python 2.7. His work underpins the decoding of raw MasterLink packets for the ML Command Line Protocol.