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Setting up Echo Dot and Sonos

  • 2 December 2018
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I have a Sonos Play:One is a few rooms and have just bought a Sonos One (with Alexa) as a first step into bringing Alexa into our home.

My plan was to have a integrated unit upstairs and then add an Echo Dot into the kitchen and lounge over time. So far I have the Sonos One set-up (haven't played with it much yet) and added one Dot today but haven't got very far. I wanted to check what I intend to do is possible and seem to be having some trouble getting set-up.

1. Use Alexa to control music through the Sonos system - presumably this is possible and from reading it seems this should be the case with or without the Sonos One.

2a. When asking the Dot to play music (in the kitchen) it simply plays music through itself, not the Sonos and in some cases has kept playing the existing track on Sonos and a second track through the Dot - what do I need to ask/teach Alexa to do here? I don't want to play music through the dot, just control the music.

2b. As above but if I say play in the kitchen through Sonos it gets confused.

3. Can I use Alexa to add/remove Sonos speakers from a group (ie, stop playing music in the lounge) or is this not possible.

4. When I wake up the Dot, and say nothing, the Sonos system then pauses - this seems annoying/bizzare and wasn't happening with the Sonos One unit.

Just getting started here but hopefully I can get things running how I have intended with a little help!

Thanks

Scott
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Best answer by UKMedia 3 December 2018, 11:28

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2 replies

chicks
"Alexa, play ____ in the kitchen!"

Or, in the Alexa app, create a group with the Dot and the Sonos speaker, and set the Sonos as the "preferred" speaker.
UKMedia
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3. Can I use Alexa to add/remove Sonos speakers from a group (ie, stop playing music in the lounge) or is this not possible.

4. When I wake up the Dot, and say nothing, the Sonos system then pauses - this seems annoying/bizzare and wasn't happening with the Sonos One unit.


Hi Scott

In addition to the comments from chicks;

2, 2a & 2b. Make sure that you don't have duplicate device names. I use the naming standard of Room Name + Device Type. e.g. Kitchen Sonos, Kitchen Echo Dot. This enables to then create an Alexa Group called Kitchen containing your Kitchen Sonos and Kitchen Echo Dot and, as above, set the Kitchen Sonos as the Preferred Speaker within the Alexa Group. This means that replies to commands will come through the Echo Dot but Music will output through the Kitchen Sonos without the need to include it in the command. e.g. 'Alexa, Play soft Jazz' will output to the Kitchen Sonos, instead of having to use the command 'Alexa, Play soft Jazz on Kitchen Sonos'

3. At present it's not possible to add or remove speakers from a Sonos group using native Voice Control. Although if you have a Harmony Hub remote control then you can create Activities to create Sonos Groups and, if you have multiple Activities for different Sonos defined Groups, to switch between these different Groups via voice control.

4. This is standard Alexa functionality to enable the device to hear your command is called ducking. There are a lot of requests for changes to this functionality on the forums.
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