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Best answer by PPaulp
Hi All, I have a solution and it works well. It takes some setting up but its worth it.

The added benefit is that you can prefix defferent volumes for each speak whn it becomes a group. This is great for mivies etc.

Download the Yonomi app (free) and set up a command list that plays 5 seconds of silence on all of teh speakers that you want to group. It will then group all the speakers together after the silence finishes. Its important to add the command ‘set repeat to off’ and ‘set shuffle to off’ for each speaker , after the silence (this prevents Sonos from moving to the next song in your playlist library).

FYI, you can find short recordings of silence on line with just a google search. You can also add it to Sonos as a ‘favourite’ by uploading the silence to soundcloud and synching your Sonos and sound cloud account.

44 replies

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abr
Lyricist I
December 27, 2018
@UKMedia that was a massively helpful post, thanks. One peculiarity I've noticed - if I say Alexa, play radio 4 (or any other radio), it plays on the controlling device (echo dot in my case) and not the preferred Sonos speakers. If I say Alexa, play Radio 4 in the [group name] then it uses the preferred speakers. Meanwhile the preferred speakers work fine if I say Alexa, play [song name].
UKMedia
UKMedia
December 27, 2018
@UKMedia that was a massively helpful post, thanks. One peculiarity I've noticed - if I say Alexa, play radio 4 (or any other radio), it plays on the controlling device (echo dot in my case) and not the preferred Sonos speakers. If I say Alexa, play Radio 4 in the [group name] then it uses the preferred speakers. Meanwhile the preferred speakers work fine if I say Alexa, play [song name].

Yes, I've noticed that too, I think it's because it defaults to the BBC skill. If you say 'Alexa, Play Radio 4 from TuneIn' it should output to the Preferred Speaker.
Remember: Sometimes Red Wine helps :)
Jon Betts
Contributor I
December 29, 2018
I’ve found a couple of glitches in the way in which Alexa controls Sonos. I don’t mean just general problems. I know that there are features that have yet to be enabled. I mean glitches.. things that work if you do them one way .. but not another.. but with no logic. For example .. if the kitchen and office speaker are grouped and nothing is playing .. and you ask Alexa to play Jamiroqui in kitchen .. it will just play in kitchen. If music is already playing in this group and you male the same request then the group does not split and the new music plays in both rooms. There is another glitch ... which relates to what is open on the Sonos app at the time an Alexa request is made.. ill come back to that..
UKMedia
UKMedia
December 29, 2018
I’ve found a couple of glitches in the way in which Alexa controls Sonos. I don’t mean just general problems. I know that there are features that have yet to be enabled. I mean glitches.. things that work if you do them one way .. but not another.. but with no logic. For example .. if the kitchen and office speaker are grouped and nothing is playing .. and you ask Alexa to play Jamiroqui in kitchen .. it will just play in kitchen. If music is already playing in this group and you male the same request then the group does not split and the new music plays in both rooms. There is another glitch ... which relates to what is open on the Sonos app at the time an Alexa request is made.. ill come back to that..

My understanding is that this is working as designed. There is a level of complexity that I'm still discovering between the same Use Case and different start states. Players grouped with non-preferred players with music playing, No grouped players and No music playing, all have a different outcome but are consistent.
Remember: Sometimes Red Wine helps :)
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