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SmartHomeUser
Trending Lyricist I
May 5, 2018

Alexa and ducking feature

  • May 5, 2018
  • 16 replies
  • 2589 views
Its been over 7 months where people have been asking for a fix. How about not ducking sonos players that arent in the same room as the alexa being asked? Is it really that hard that you guys can't do an IF THEN code in the software? The solution of telling people to disable the skill is the same thing as saying yeah go buy a different speaker other than sonos.
PLEASE FIX THIS!
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      Chris
      Chris
      Lead Maestro
      June 2, 2018
      I don’t think the ducking should suck in rooms grouped. Only the one associates to the alexa.
      Respect the Queue (2)Move (3)Beam (1) Era100 (2)ARC (1)SonosOne (1)Playbar (4)Play5 (4)Play1 (3)Play3 (1)Port (2)Connect (1) Roam (2) Ace (1)Connect:Amp (4)Sonos Amp (1)Sub + (9) Echo + Smartthings; (2)Play)
      Ken_Griffiths
      Ken_Griffiths
      June 2, 2018
      I don’t think the ducking should suck in rooms grouped. Only the one associates to the alexa.
      Chris,
      So anyone who has two stereo 'pairs' in a lounge/living room will only be able to duck the one pair, whilst playing/listening to music on all four speakers? I’m not sure that will satisfy many users.

      I think 'ducking' all four would be better, when they are grouped. So we may have to agree to disagree on that one, me thinks.
        Chris
        Chris
        Lead Maestro
        June 2, 2018
        They way be able to specify more than one speaker linked to alexa.
        Respect the Queue (2)Move (3)Beam (1) Era100 (2)ARC (1)SonosOne (1)Playbar (4)Play5 (4)Play1 (3)Play3 (1)Port (2)Connect (1) Roam (2) Ace (1)Connect:Amp (4)Sonos Amp (1)Sub + (9) Echo + Smartthings; (2)Play)
        Ken_Griffiths
        Ken_Griffiths
        June 2, 2018
        Yes, I’m happy with that Chris, as long as the end-user can have some method of controlling, what does and does-not get 'ducked' by Alexa and that the process is reasonably 'simple' and 'flexible' for a majority of end users.

        If I have a Kitchen/Diner with two speakers in the Kitchen area and another two speakers in the adjoining Dining Room and I have an Echo Dot in both of those two adjoining rooms, then when I am playing music just in the Kitchen only area, I just want Alexa to duck the Audio just on my two Kitchen speakers.

        But if I decide to open the Sonos App and group the Kitchen Speakers and Dining Room Speakers together, to fill the entire 'open-plan' room with music, then when I start talking to my Alexa echo Dot in my Kitchen, or in the Diner, I think they should each now duck the audio on all four 'grouped' speakers, just because I have chosen to group them.

        Whichever way Sonos and Amazon decide to go about this, they need to think of the 'real world' situations in which people use their speakers and make the audio duck in a simple and effective way that will please the majority.

        I think only ducking the audio in just one nearby room, for example, and not having any flexibility to include other user-chosen 'grouped' rooms would be a missed opportunity.
          tommy8o8
          Contributor I
          January 2, 2019
          As far as I can see no update for this, or am I missing something?
          John B
          January 2, 2019
          As far as I can see no update for this, or am I missing something?Yes you are missing something. Sonos now supports Alexa groups, which has resolved the issue.

          https://en.community.sonos.com/amazon-alexa-and-sonos-229102/an-overview-and-explanation-of-the-new-support-for-alexa-grouping-6817788/index1.html#post16299934
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