---
id: ai-voice-pipeline
area: ai
level: 3
title: "Artefact — Voice pipeline · speech in and speech out"
claim: "Speech in on a custom wake word · local transcription · a cloned voice out · and music ducked under every announcement across eight endpoints."
confidence: running
period: "2020–"
tech: [Whisper, Piper, MiniMax, ESP32, Snapcast, Mopidy, Home Assistant]
metrics: [{label: "audio endpoints", value: 8}]
artefacts: []
public: true
last_verified: 2026-10-26
tags: [ai, voice, audio, artefact]
---

# Artefact — Voice pipeline · speech in and speech out

**Status: stub.** A short recording of music ducking under a spoken announcement lands in the optional voice phase. Text describes the chain until then.

## What the artefact is

The chain: an ESP32 device with a microphone detects the wake word and confirms with an LED, audio is transcribed locally with Whisper, the request goes through the gateway, and the reply is spoken through Piper or the MiniMax cloned voice over all eight Snapcast endpoints, with music lowered for the announcement and restored afterwards.

## What it proves

Voice treated as a system front-end with latency and reliability requirements — not a party trick bolted onto a chatbot.

## When it is delivered

Recording in the optional voice phase (Phase 7). The endpoint count and the ducking behaviour are from the evidence notes, sections 1 and 2.