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rossco494
Contributor I
April 3, 2018
Answered

Alarms, Alexa Spot and Sonos One

  • April 3, 2018
  • 4 replies
  • 5662 views
Hi folks, sorry if this has already been answered elsewhere but I’m thinking about buying a Sonos One and am interested in finding out more about how it will integrate with an existing Echo Spot.

For example, I currently set an alarm in the morning via the TuneIn skill on the Echo Spot, so I get woken up to the radio and it plays through the Echo Spot. If I want to play the radio through my current Sonos PLAY:1, then I have to stop the radio playing through the Echo Spot and then tell Alexa to play the radio (“Alexa play Radio 2 in the bedroom”). If I get a Sonos One then is it possible to do the same thing through the Sonos, or would I have to keep doing it through the Spot and have the radio playing through the Spot?

Also I’m wondering if there’s any issue with commands, i.e. currently if I say “Alexa play some Bruce Springsteen in the kitchen” then it will shuffle songs on the Sonos PLAY:1 in the kitchen. What happens if I have a Sonos One in the same room as the Echo Spot now, how do I distinguish between devices and make sure that the music would always be played through the Sonos One?

Any help much appreciated!
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    Best answer by Ken_Griffiths
    There are two types of alarms available to you when you buy a Sonos One... there are Sonos Alarm features and Amazon Alexa Alarm features... you can pick either the Sonos App or the Amazon Alexa App to set an Alarm ... both will play the Radio station of choice via the Sonos One in-built main Speaker.

    The Spot will probably work fine with the Sonos One in the same Room, but it does depend which device picks up your commands first... if wanting to play music on the Sonos One each and every time I would add the room name to the end of your instruction.

    So if Sonos was was setup as a room called 'Kitchen' then the voice command would be .. “Alexa, play music in the kitchen” just as a simple example.

    But I would heed and take note of Stuart_W's advice and call the spot something else that won’t confuse things ... just call it 'Spot' perhaps.

    If you were to miss off the name of the room in your Alexa instruction, the device that will play your music will be the one that hears your instruction.

    In my own personal experience where I have a Sonos One and an Echo Dot nearby ... my echo Dot is usually the device that hears and responds to my voice commands... the Sonos One microphones (in my case) seem to not be that sensitive, by comparison.

    4 replies

    Stuart_W
    Stuart_W
    World-Class Superstar
    April 3, 2018
    For your alarm question. I'm not really sure I understand what you are saying about having to stop Alexa playing the radio on the Dot and then tell Alexa to play in the bedroom (Sonos).

    The Sonos app allows you to configure alarms to play on any of your Sonos units and you can play radio stations. So you can cancel your Alexa alarm in your bedroom and set up an alarm in Sonos for your bedroom speaker.

    As to the question about having a Sonos:1 in the same room as an Alexa spot firstly I'm not sure why you'd want 2 Alexa enabled devices in the same room. But if you go down that road make sure they have different names. So call the Sonos "Kitchen" and the Alexa "Kitchen Spot" for example to avoid naming confusion.
    Arc + Sub (Gen 1) + 2 x Play 1/ Stereo Play 3s/ Era 100 Stereo in Kitchen, One Stereo in Bedroom, Play 1 stereo pair in Study, Play 1in Bathroom, Sonos Move 2
    rossco494Author
    Contributor I
    April 3, 2018
    Thanks for the reply, much appreciated. Sorry if I wasn't clear - I meant that if the alarm goes off on the Echo Spot and the radio is playing for long periods through the Echo Spot, sometimes it's easier to stop the Spot and then start the radio playing through the PLAY:1 as the sound quality is much better.

    The only reason I would upgrade the PLAY:1 to a Sonos One and have it in the same room as the Echo Spot would be for the superior sound quality; I wasn't sure about the integration and how they'd work together, hence my initial question to try and see how it might work.
    Ken_Griffiths
    Ken_GriffithsAnswer
    April 3, 2018
    There are two types of alarms available to you when you buy a Sonos One... there are Sonos Alarm features and Amazon Alexa Alarm features... you can pick either the Sonos App or the Amazon Alexa App to set an Alarm ... both will play the Radio station of choice via the Sonos One in-built main Speaker.

    The Spot will probably work fine with the Sonos One in the same Room, but it does depend which device picks up your commands first... if wanting to play music on the Sonos One each and every time I would add the room name to the end of your instruction.

    So if Sonos was was setup as a room called 'Kitchen' then the voice command would be .. “Alexa, play music in the kitchen” just as a simple example.

    But I would heed and take note of Stuart_W's advice and call the spot something else that won’t confuse things ... just call it 'Spot' perhaps.

    If you were to miss off the name of the room in your Alexa instruction, the device that will play your music will be the one that hears your instruction.

    In my own personal experience where I have a Sonos One and an Echo Dot nearby ... my echo Dot is usually the device that hears and responds to my voice commands... the Sonos One microphones (in my case) seem to not be that sensitive, by comparison.
    rossco494Author
    Contributor I
    April 3, 2018
    That’s a really helpful response, thank you
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