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Is AirPlay 2 more sensitive to wireless interference?


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When I play music directly to my Sonos speakers (using the Sonos app), I experience no drops. When I play using airplay 2 (to my sonos soundbar, which is then grouped in the Sonos app with my Play 1's), I experience no drops on music output from the playbar but intermittent (1-5 second long drops every minute) drops on some of my play 1's.

Is music played using AirPlay 2 more sensitive to wireless interference?
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Best answer by Ryan S 12 June 2018, 19:58

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This might be one for Ghostbusters! Some seriously spooky magic going on there if the Playbar is supporting AP2 ?
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Hi Akiryzon, I'd like to get a bit more confirmation about what you're looking at there. Airplay 2 isn't available on Sonos just yet, we're working on it and it'll be available in July for certain Sonos players (Playbase, Play:5 gen2, Sonos One, and Sonos Beam). Are you sending your Airplay 2 signal to a TV or other compatible device, and from there the Playbar gets it over the optical input and is sending it to your other players?

In short, Airplay 2 relies pretty heavily on your iOS device's wireless connection, vs playing music using the Sonos app from anything other than (This iPhone). If the phone has a poor network connection, it could drop audio streaming off of it. If you'd like to submit a diagnostic from your Sonos system and reply back with your confirmation number we can take a look at if anything is acting up for you.


oops! good point 😛 Yep I'm airplaying to an apple tv which is connected to the playbar. I'll wait till when AP2 is supported and then connect directly to the playbar and see if its any better.
Someone lacks fundamental understanding, and it is not John B. He is correct. When playing ATV to a Playbar or other Sonos TV device, Sonos will not be using a wireless connection, so therefore there is no way for either signal to be "stronger". The ATV sends audio to the Playbar via optical, not WiFi, so when playing from the ATV source, the Playbar's WiFi signal is essentially non-existent.
Airplay 2 on Sonos? Are you sure you are not just playing 'from this iPhone'?
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Hi Akiryzon, I'd like to get a bit more confirmation about what you're looking at there. Airplay 2 isn't available on Sonos just yet, we're working on it and it'll be available in July for certain Sonos players (Playbase, Play:5 gen2, Sonos One, and Sonos Beam). Are you sending your Airplay 2 signal to a TV or other compatible device, and from there the Playbar gets it over the optical input and is sending it to your other players?

In short, Airplay 2 relies pretty heavily on your iOS device's wireless connection, vs playing music using the Sonos app from anything other than (This iPhone). If the phone has a poor network connection, it could drop audio streaming off of it. If you'd like to submit a diagnostic from your Sonos system and reply back with your confirmation number we can take a look at if anything is acting up for you.
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This might be one for Ghostbusters! Some seriously spooky magic going on there if the Playbar is supporting AP2 ?

lol!
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oops! good point 😛 Yep I'm airplaying to an apple tv which is connected to the playbar. I'll wait till when AP2 is supported and then connect directly to the playbar and see if its any better.


Would the playbar know any different what protocol the ATV is using to stream? I’d assume all would see would be a stereo ‘signal’ over the optical connection. Playbar won’t have a clue you’re using Airplay to the ATV.
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oops! good point 😛 Yep I'm airplaying to an apple tv which is connected to the playbar. I'll wait till when AP2 is supported and then connect directly to the playbar and see if its any better.
The Playbar doesn't have the needed specifications to handle Airplay 2, but if you have Playbase, Play:5 gen2, Sonos One, or Sonos Beam, you can target one of them with your Airplay 2 stream and group it in the Sonos app with your Playbar to play that audio.

Would the playbar know any different what protocol the ATV is using to stream? I’d assume all would see would be a stereo ‘signal’ over the optical connection. Playbar won’t have a clue you’re using Airplay to the ATV.
That's correct, as far as the Playbar is concerned, "audio" is coming in. And it'll play that audio.
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Looks like you had a clarification here with regards to what you were playing to. Getting back to your original question, I’m not sure I would count on the protocol change from AP1 to AP2 to magically improve.
It sounds like the variable here is your Apple TV may have a stronger WiFi connection. Are you able to check your router/AP to check the signal strength between the Apple TV and Sonos? It may even be on 5Ghz.
You could also hard wire any one of your Sonos speakers which will create its own mesh network.
Looks like you had a clarification here with regards to what you were playing to. Getting back to your original question, I’m not sure I would count on the protocol change from AP1 to AP2 to magically improve.
It sounds like the variable here is your Apple TV may have a stronger WiFi connection. Are you able to check your router/AP to check the signal strength between the Apple TV and Sonos? It may even be on 5Ghz.
You could also hard wire any one of your Sonos speakers which will create its own mesh network.
The Apple TV and Sonos won't be communicating wirelessly
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Looks like you had a clarification here with regards to what you were playing to. Getting back to your original question, I’m not sure I would count on the protocol change from AP1 to AP2 to magically improve.
It sounds like the variable here is your Apple TV may have a stronger WiFi connection. Are you able to check your router/AP to check the signal strength between the Apple TV and Sonos? It may even be on 5Ghz.
You could also hard wire any one of your Sonos speakers which will create its own mesh network.
The Apple TV and Sonos won't be communicating wirelessly

That comment does not really help does it? I was implying the difference in signal between the Sonos and access point with regards to the Apple TV and access point. Try to be more constructive.
Looks like you had a clarification here with regards to what you were playing to. Getting back to your original question, I’m not sure I would count on the protocol change from AP1 to AP2 to magically improve.
It sounds like the variable here is your Apple TV may have a stronger WiFi connection. Are you able to check your router/AP to check the signal strength between the Apple TV and Sonos? It may even be on 5Ghz.
You could also hard wire any one of your Sonos speakers which will create its own mesh network.
The Apple TV and Sonos won't be communicating wirelessly

That comment does not really help does it? I was implying the difference in signal between the Sonos and access point with regards to the Apple TV and access point. Try to be more constructive.
Thanks for the advice. I'll try to be more helpful with the next 7000 posts. I am afraid I still don't know what point you are making, but you seemed to be implying wireless communication between ATV and Sonos, and I was pointing out that that was impossible. You may not have meant that, but it is what you said.
And the router will not be communicating with Sonos over 5GHz..
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Looks like you had a clarification here with regards to what you were playing to. Getting back to your original question, I’m not sure I would count on the protocol change from AP1 to AP2 to magically improve.
It sounds like the variable here is your Apple TV may have a stronger WiFi connection. Are you able to check your router/AP to check the signal strength between the Apple TV and Sonos? It may even be on 5Ghz.
You could also hard wire any one of your Sonos speakers which will create its own mesh network.
The Apple TV and Sonos won't be communicating wirelessly

That comment does not really help does it? I was implying the difference in signal between the Sonos and access point with regards to the Apple TV and access point. Try to be more constructive.
Thanks for the advice. I'll try to be more helpful with the next 7000 posts. I am afraid I still don't know what point you are making, but you seemed to be implying wireless communication between ATV and Sonos, and I was pointing out that that was impossible. You may not have meant that, but it is what you said.
And the router will not be communicating with Sonos over 5GHz..

another rude unhelpful comment. The ATV can use 5Ghz, the Sonos does not, and this a possible explanation to the interference. Please go troll somewhere else. You may not realize it, but you’re literally bashing helpful ideas while contributing nothing yourself - probably hiding a true fundamental lack of understanding of the situation enough to help.
Lol. You need to learn to write without massive ambiguity. A correctly constructed sentence here and there would help.
Someone lacks fundamental understanding, and it is not John B. He is correct. When playing ATV to a Playbar or other Sonos TV device, Sonos will not be using a wireless connection, so therefore there is no way for either signal to be "stronger". The ATV sends audio to the Playbar via optical, not WiFi, so when playing from the ATV source, the Playbar's WiFi signal is essentially non-existent.Indeed. Everyone except @nuclearxp has grasped that this was never an interference issue, and that the title of the thread was mistaken. If anything, the issue is that Airplay 2 seems as unreliable as the original Airplay.
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If anything, the issue is that Airplay 2 seems as unreliable as the original Airplay.
Or the app being used to stream to the Apple TV isn't yet set up to use Airplay 2, so it's still using traditional Airplay. Apps need to be updated to support Airplay 2 also... just having devices and operating systems that support it doesn't mean it will be used for everything.

Some apps are already updated... many aren't.
Fair comment. It is just one example for which there might be several explanations, none of them related to Sonos