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How do you add a secondary “household” when over 32 zones


So I have been working on my property and ended up with 47 zones and almost each one is hard wired. I have my man cave area which would be the ideal candidate to separate from the house zones to reduce a single household down to the 32 device limit. I’ve read there are ways to go about adding two systems or households on one network. How do you go about doing that? Desperate for some help as my devices keep battling for their positions on the network

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Best answer by ratty 4 July 2022, 11:59

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Setup a ‘new’ household using a second email address. That will keep the devices separate, yet allow them to use the same LAN.

I thought they could be set up on the same email. Isn’t that what a user does when he / she mistakenly sets up their speakers as separate systems and can’t figure out why they can only see one speaker at a time?  I would have though the Household ID itself was sufficient to keep the wo systems separate?

I am not totally confident about that, and their may be good admin reasons for using different email addresses.

@Andrew_Knudsen25 .  For ease of use, you really need different controller devices for the two households. I just mention FYI.  (If a Sonos app on a particular device that could connect to each of two systems that are both in range, you would not be able to control to which system the app would connect. (Although the app may ask for a button press on a speaker)

No second Sonos email required. The Household ID differentiates between the two systems. However controllers will indeed need to be dedicated to each system to avoid the infuriating Household roulette when a controller, registered to both HHs, starts up.

One other consideration: whilst most music streaming services consider the multiple players in a Household as a single device for their licensing purposes, a second Household using the same streaming account will likely cause contention issues. 

 

In case it wasn’t obvious, the players destined for the second HH will have to be factory reset and set up afresh on a newly reset controller.

It would be quite a nice feature to have in the Sonos App, to be able to easily switch between Households from a dropdown menu in the settings tab, that’s whether the user is logged-in with the same, or different, Sonos credentials, but that would be quite a bit of development work I guess and I assume there are far more pressing priorities for the developers, compared to those users who actually require remote control of more than one System.

Specifically, such an option would only benefit users with two systems at the same location, which must be a vanishingly small number of users

Specifically, such an option would only benefit users with two systems at the same location, which must be a vanishingly small number of users

Yes, the only time I’ve come across this here in the community is either with users who exceed the 32 device limit, or more commonplace, is when users want separate Sonos systems for their children, but still want some parental control. 

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Don’t forget that the 32 limit includes controllers as well as the speakers. This is due to the size limit on UPnP Event Subscriptions, as every speaker and every controller needs to subscribe.

Don’t forget that the 32 limit includes controllers as well as the speakers. This is due to the size limit on UPnP Event Subscriptions, as every speaker and every controller needs to subscribe.

 

It's 32 of each; 32 hardware units and 32 active controllers.

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Don’t forget that the 32 limit includes controllers as well as the speakers. This is due to the size limit on UPnP Event Subscriptions, as every speaker and every controller needs to subscribe.

 

It's 32 of each; 32 hardware units and 32 active controllers.

Has it always been like that? I could swear the controllers counted the same as speakers, at least many years ago when the diags pages would list the UPnP subscriptions?

Has it always been like that? I could swear the controllers counted the same as speakers, at least many years ago when the diags pages would list the UPnP subscriptions?

 

As far back as I go with the product, it’s been 32 and 32. 

Doesn’t each Sonos controller connect to an ‘associated product’ as listed in the ‘about box’ in the App, or am I misunderstanding that?

I thought you could have unlimited controllers attached to an HH, but only 32 ‘active’ at anyone time as they need to be linked to an associated device - but please don’t quote me.

I too thought/think it’s 32 actual products and 32 ‘active’ controllers.

I thought it was 32 and 32 too - but I probably picked that up from an @jgatie post about ten years ago so this does not constitute independent verification!

The Associated Product is just the Sonos device that first responds to a connection request from a controller, and then subsequently handles the communication with that controller.  I don’t think anything precludes a speaker acting as the AP for multiple controllers.

I always understood the limits to be 32 devices, 32 (simultaneous) controllers, 16 library shares. The support articles don't seem to call these out any more.

It's ages since such interesting stuff was user-accessible in the diagnostics. 

The Associated Product is just the Sonos device that first responds to a connection request from a controller, and then subsequently handles the communication with that controller.  I don’t think anything precludes a speaker acting as the AP for multiple controllers.

Thanks John, 🙏 I wasn’t too sure if each controller had to have a different associated product. It’s not something I’ve really ever taken much notice of. Anyhow, thank-you.👍