I’m looking for a better, more private solution to an intercom I have between the house and my barn. I have Ethernet run out there, and I currently use the “drop-in” feature on some Amazon echo devices. I’m looking to get away from the Amazon devices entirely (maybe implementing the pine speaker they announced?)

I don’t have a lot of requirements, though VoIP would be preferred over a radio style, since it’s a metal barn and blocks a lot of signals. I’m good with some self hosted solution, and ideally there’s a dedicated device, as I don’t want to use my phone or computer for it all the time. I’m probably missing some obvious solution, but figured I’d try to get some ideas together.

Thoughts?

  • Zoot
    link
    fedilink
    29 hours ago

    Look into Alphone, they have many different intercom products. I’m a low voltage electrician and could probably give you some actual companies to look into, besides Amazon.

    If you have an ethernet cable out there you have quite a few choices, you could get voice/video very easily, or you can twist a few pairs together and get just voice. Truly depends exactly what you want.

    Aiphone has a phone app, which can be run entirely locally which is what I prefer. Fuck cloud solutions.

    • @Nednarb44OP
      link
      18 hours ago

      I appreciate the info and the offer! I won’t be messing with the Ethernet since that’s used for networking. I was mainly looking to hook up an IP phone or something easy, but assumed I couldn’t just connect that to my network and needed something so the two phones would tie together.