HiveMind Satellite Overview

HiveMind supports multiple types of satellite devices that connect to the hub. Satellites can be configured based on device capabilities, privacy requirements, and network bandwidth.

All satellites use the standard OpenVoiceOS mycroft.conf for plugin configuration. Refer to the OVOS technical manual for plugin specific information.

Satellite Options

1. Voice Satellite (voice-sat)

  • Audio handling: Fully local (microphone, VAD, wake word, STT, TTS)
  • HiveMind role: Sends only text messages to the hub
  • Best for: Privacy-conscious devices, offline operation, low latency

2. Voice Relay (voice-relay)

  • Audio handling: Local microphone, VAD, wake word
  • HiveMind role: Handles STT and TTS via the binary plugin; streams only triggered audio
  • Best for: Medium-powered devices that can run wake word detection but not STT/TTS

3. Microphone Satellite (mic-satellite)

  • Audio handling: Only microphone and VAD locally
  • HiveMind role: All processing runs on the hub (wake word, STT, TTS) via the binary plugin; streams continuous or VAD-triggered audio
  • Best for: Low-resource devices, IoT microphones, centralized processing

Choosing the Right Satellite

Satellite Local Audio Hub Processing Typical Use Case
voice-sat Full audio stack Text only Privacy-first, offline-capable devices
voice-relay Wake + VAD STT & TTS Mid-range devices, minimize bandwidth
mic-satellite VAD Wake + STT + TTS Tiny IoT devices, fully centralized processing

Security & compatibility

  • All audio and binary payloads travel over HiveMind’s secure transport. The binary plugin uses the same encrypted transport as normal BUS messages, binary streaming is not a separate protocol.
  • The binary plugin on the hub loads OpenVoiceOS STT and TTS plugins, making HiveMind compatible with the existing OVOS plugin ecosystem (hundreds of available plugins).
  • Use the standard mycroft.conf to configure plugins; no special satellite-specific configuration format is required.

Troubleshooting & tips

  • High latency: check network bandwidth; prefer voice-sat if latency must be minimal.
  • Bandwidth concerns: prefer voice-relay (stream only post-wake) instead of mic-satellite.
  • Certificate errors: use --selfsigned for testing, but deploy proper TLS certificates for production.
  • Server setup: ensure your HiveMind core has the binary plugin enabled and has compatible OVOS STT/TTS plugins installed.