Amazon Echo

I just got an Amazon Echo for Christmas and love it. It would be amazing if Sonos and Echo could link up. It would truly be a Star Trek home. In particular I would love to be anywhere in the house where Sonos speakers are located and be able to ask Alexa a question or play music or turn on or off the television using voice command. Most useful would be the ability to use any Sonos speaker as a speaker phone just like I do in my car.

I imagine since the cell phone is connected via wi-fi to the Sonos system this should not be a huge leap in technology. If it can be done easily in the car, why can't this easily be done in the home?

I am sure the Star Trek home will be coming in the near future and Sonos will be behind if they don't jump on this wave sooner than later.

Careful you don't get beamed up.

BTW, I don't believe any of the Sonos units (Apart from the Play 5 Gen 2) have a microphone. And what if you want a private conversation? (Mr Spock, here are your STD test results"!)

I would be surprised if the microphones in a Play5 Gen2 could be used to add voice control very easily. I don't think the Play5 Gen2 has the horsepower needed to support voice control locally nor do I think Sonos has the cloud infrastructure resources to implement an Amazon type solution anytime soon. Unless there is already a private beta or a demo next week at CES I don't think Sonos could ramp up a voice control solution fast enough to be relevant.

Regarding the microphone concerns I would point out that any cell phone microphone can be exploited to monitor everything you say and represents a much greater risk than the microphone on an Amazon Echo. On the other hand, nobody knows what the allegedly dormant microphone on a Play5 Gen2 is really doing... are you certain they aren't already listening?

I just got an echo, I love my sonos system, after one voice command for echo to play something relaxing and it doing it I immediately yearned for it to control my sonos system. I really hope they get this set up, as like other posters, if amazon sets something up like this I'd probably ditch sonos

Amazon Echo now supports Spotify.

Another interesting user interface might be the Nucleus voice controlled Wi-Fi intercom:

http://nucleuslife.com/

wow - I bet some wish they could take back their posts on this one

or maybe I have a different view of things - sonos is nice but its no platform to base anything on other than listening to music or maybe a book - if you are willing to pay a ton of money for fake surround sound, add tv to the list

sonos has announced they are happy where they are - no support for surround sound - their target market is simplicity seekers - and its a valid market - simplicity does not offend me until I have to sacrifice function - but that is just me

I won't be expanding my sonos any more - but would like to use what I have with echo - and it can be done, but the process is clunky and less than elegant

seems to be two ways to interface products to echo - with 'skills', you would say 'alexa, tell sonos to...' or 'alexa, ask sonos to...' - it might sound like a small thing, but its the camel's nose under the tent - the goal is to know what to do using a casual speaking style - not formulaic structures to listen to your sonos - I suspect 'skills' are hosted on amazon

my home automation interfaces without using skills - 'alexa turn off the family room lights' does turn off all the lights in the family room without 'alexa tell izzy to turn off the family room lights' - but 'alexa set the den lights to off' works - and many other iterations of the phrase - ecobee has taken this path too for its thermostats

I look at electronics with an eye to their ability to seamlessly integrate with other electronics - I started down the sonos path after learning it could be integrated with my home automation, even though it was somewhat clunky - with echo, my focus has changed from basing life on my home automation controller to echo - some people are satisfied to have several 'apps' on smartphones and tablets - that is not George jetson - fact is, jetson was a nudist and had nowhere to stash devices - and most people don't pick up their phone when going to the kitchen for a beer - so the answer to 'what could be simpler than (walking to the speaker and) pressing a button?' is 'alexa play...'

echo is a very young product - and already has vendors in production and others working on it - one problem for integrating with sonos (or any sound product) is that blasting tunes on sonos might prevent echo from hearing your 'alexa stop' - or change sources - or grouping/ungrouping speakers - or lower the volume - until next week, I only have one echo - not sure how wedded multiple devices will be but if I am speaking to alexa in my bedroom, I'd like her to act on the speakers in my bedroom without saying 'alexa play blahblah in my bedroom' - not sure that is possible yet because echo might not know where she is (oh no - I hope she only responds locally when I talk to her and not on all the echos)

sonos should never install voice recognition into their devices - there are platforms better at it than them and more appropriate - the array of microphones are very good in the echo and no one wants to walk over to their speakers to use them - sonos said they will not dip into video even enough to support functions directly related to their product's purpose; producing sound - if they are wise, they would not venture into areas that are secondary to the purpose of their products - especially when others have invented that wheel and provide an easy interface into it

adding echo integration to their product would be a nice value added feature without requiring them to venture into technology outside their core products - echo is not trying to compete with sonos - any sonos customer would prefer to hear the quality sound sonos produces but might settle for the sound of echo in the kitchen rather than chasing down a phone or ipad to hear a few minutes of tunes while preparing lunch

amazon, google, etc. are big and rich because people want their products and services - and are willing to pay for them - nothing sinister in that - echo is not a device designed to screw you out of money by ordering products from amazon - nor is it an altruistic act designed to raise money for funding cancer research - no one has to hate sonos because they like the echo - I would bet sonos has discussed integration with echo - I would not be surprised to see at least a 'skill' if not closer integration - some people rule out products that don't integrate - I do - wish I found echo before I found sonos

my guess is that we will see sonos integrate with echo with limited functions initially - and expanding into a mature integration over time - there will be problems to solve ('alexa play Pandora...' over sonos or echo?) - but those can be overcome

(vizio has a 5.1 real surround sound soundbar that integrates will with vizio televisions - since vizio tvs DO pass surround over optical - and have for years)
((snicker - my little dig))

(((now we need an I/r blaster with wifi - simple integration to echo with that)))

tl;np;dr.

I'm trying to convince my wife to install speaker wire and multiple channels of sonos into our (already built) house. We just received an Amazon Echo, and now I can control my Insteon lights using it. My wife now no longer uses the sonos in the living room (we have an open floor plan so the system in the living room is basically the system we use for the kitchen) and instead uses the Echo to play music. Without Echo/Sonos integration, there's no way for me to convince her to spend thousands to put in wiring, speakers, and sonos. Even I would rather talk to the Echo than find our iPad, open the Sonos app, find what I want, and play it. I'd much rather say "Alexa, play dinner music playlist on sonos in living room".

I have the same challenges in my house. Echo is easy to use. Sonos is not just harder to use than Echo it is harder to use than it used to be. I am desperately trying to replace the failing CR200s and "family rejected" iPad controllers with used CR100s to try to win people back to Sonos but I don't know if it will work. I will probably end up keeping just a few zones of Sonos for when I want to crank things up but for day-to-day listening even I am drawn to the ease of using the Echo, especially as I get more comfortable using it to manage lights, read books, give me the news, etc. It's just a more natural user experience.

The implementation of an Echo control for Sonos would certainly be well received in my house.

This thread shows another example of Sonos users looking to expanding the possibilities of their speakers by integration with other solutions. Personally I can think of 3 or 4 integrations I would like to see without much thought. Home Automation or IOT is clearly the future direction of technology within our homes. The question is does Sonos realize this and will they be complacent or will they fight to maintain their leadership in the market?