Phillips Hue Automation and SonoS issues

  • 5 January 2023
  • 5 replies
  • 418 views
S
  • SiBl
  • Contributor I
  • 2 replies

Hi I'm a long time Sonos user with Arc, Sub, Play 1 surrounds, move roam, Play3 x 2, 3 x Play 5 and  Boost in general my system was stable until just before Christmas when I started to experience track skipping, speaker loss etc.

Using the support matrix I discovered that ALL my Sonos items were experiencing high ODFM ANI numbers i.e. wifi interference they were all Red!

After much messing about I realized that the issues only occured after sunset which is when I'd configured my Phillips Hue system to perform a Christmas lights show, in doing this I'd used dynamic scenes where the lights constantly change colour. The Hue hub constantly sends instructions to the lamps which all rebroadcast in a mesh system similar to Sonos (ZigBee rather than  Wifi B or G) .

Hue uses different channels 25 in my case and usually a very short ZigBee transmission (switch on, at x brightness and y colour) which causes no problems. Dynamic colour changing of 20 or so lamps appears to flood the network, possibly with STP traffic causing Sonos (and some other streaming devices) real issues.

I don't know if it's wifi related or core network but it's a very clear impact, I have now turned off the dynamic scenes in Hue (all lights are still on but now static I.e. not changing colour) and everything Sonos is Green with a couple of Yellow in the matrix.

Posting here hoping it may help others with similar implementations.

Btw all my speakers have static IPs and are running SonosNet WM:0 on a clear WiFi channel (apart from Roam and Move which are of course on WiFi), which resulted in previously good stability, thanks to the various folk who have posted advice re IP and channel setup.

 

5 replies

Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @SiBl 

Welcome to the Sonos Community and thanks for sharing your findings!

I don't know if it's wifi related or core network but it's a very clear impact, I have now turned off the dynamic scenes in Hue (all lights are still on but now static I.e. not changing colour) and everything Sonos is Green with a couple of Yellow in the matrix.

This indicated WiFi interference, but it may well have been a combination of interference and erroneous multicast packets that caused the instability. I assume with speakers and lights everywhere, it would be difficult to isolate devices physically. If any part of it was due to multicast flooding, however, then enabling IGMP Snooping/Filtering in the router’s settings may help, if available. If it’s not available, then a IGMP-capable, unmanaged network switch would do the job instead - install it between the router and the ethernet-wired hub/speaker.

If you’d like confirmation on the multicast flooding, please recreate the situation and immediately submit a support diagnostic. Reply here with the number given when convenient, and I’ll check for you. Thanks.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
J

Hi @SiBl .  Are you aware that Zigbee channel numbering is different?   Zigbee channel 25 is close to WiFi channel 11 and could cause significant interference.  What channel is your WiFi on?  And what channel width?  Width should be 20Hz not 40MHz and not Auto.

Edit - I see you are using SonosNet, so it is actually the SonosNet channel that is most relevant.

S

Hi @John B no I hadn't researched the channels but was aware that both are in same 2.4 range.

SonosNet is operating on channel 6 by 2.4 networks are on 13 and 11 currently and using 20hz width. 5ghz is using wide 36 but that's not relevant here.

I've arrived at these as that are locally the least congested and have probably tried all of them over the last few years.

Observations so far is that the short burst Zigbee transmissions don't seem to cause issues and are probably withing buffering and error handling capability of streaming, however the constant stream of dynamic instructions not surprisingly have a more significant impact.

Thanks for pointing out the channels thing, I'll look into changing Hue to further out of the range if possible.

Cheers

Simon

J

It is indeed possible to change the Hue channel.  I can’t remember how but it’s a simple process that you can Google.  You might try SonosNet on channel 1.  Also make sure that your Hue Bridge, router and wired Sonos device are well separated (preferably at least 3 feet away from each other).

S

Hi @John B, yes Hue Chanel can be changed, what I meant was would it be possible to find a non conflicting chanel.

I'm avoiding ch 1 as there are a couple of nearby AP's broadcasting on there. 6 is clear and where SonosNet is currently set.

I could move Hue to 11  (WiFi < 1) where it would have to compete with external/neighbours wifi, but not sure it's worth the hassel at this point.

@Corry P thanks for the pointers re flooding and IGMP I'll have a play around with that, Sonos is on its own AP (for the roam and move) with the boost hard wired into the same AP/router which is running DD-WRT which does support IGMP. Thanks for the offer of looking at diagnostic, I'll see where I get to over the next few days.

Thanks again for the thoughts and help.

Simon

 

 

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