Question

How do I use Sonos for video conferencing?

  • 9 November 2020
  • 2 replies
  • 1811 views
R

Hi, I have several Sonos devices (Original Playbar, BEAM, Sonos1, Sonos5 etc)

Since I work from home (particularly now we are in COVID lockdown) I average 5-6hrs a day video conferencing with customers. Headphone/earphones make my ears hot and itchy, so I prefer to play my audio out loud.

At the moment, I’m using an >15yo old amp and speakers for my computer audio as I can’t seem to get Sonos to play audio without a lot of delay. I’ve tried through audio jack, via optical/HDMI adapter (original playbar), and directly through HDMI (Beam). Nothing I’ve tried seems to alleviate the problem.

Since I think the delay is to be able to sync streaming music all over the house, and that’s a feature I never use, do you think it would it be possible for Sonos to include an option to turn off the delay? I’m pretty sure the CPU could do realtime audio since a teeny Raspberry Pi can run the whole videoconferencing.

Anyone got any other idead how I can get delay free audio without hacking the hardware to feed audio directly to the internal amp?

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2 replies

Chris
Userlevel 7
Badge +22

When you have direct connection to a digital input you shouldn’t have delay.

Example:  your HDMI to optical adapter into the Sonos should not give delay (if your getting delay in that setup it may be a setting in your computer).  There is also a delay setting in the Playbar settings to make sure it is set to minimum.

In summary - staying all digital bypasses the delay for that Sonos speaker - where yes it normally buffers for streaming to other speakers.   It does not do that for digital input to that specific speaker.

Respect the Queue (1)Move (2)Beam (1)ARC (1)SonosOne (1)Playbar (4)Play5 (4)Play1 (3)Play3 (1)Port (2)Connect (1)Connect:Amp (3)Sonos Amp (1)Sub + (9) Echo + Smartthings
controlav
Userlevel 7
Badge +23

As Chris says, digital is the preferred way to go but often tricky on PCs that lack the right outputs.

I use a Five for my PC audio (via 3.5mm cable), with the delay set down to the minimum of 75ms, works fine for Teams calls. Previously I used a Gen 1 Play:5.

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