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dmcaloney
Contributor I
October 4, 2017
Answered

Alexa Integration - change source input?

  • October 4, 2017
  • 14 replies
  • 6986 views
Hi there, Just playing around with the new Alexa integration - I have Play 1's dotted around the house, and a Playbar / 2 x Play 1 surround setup in my living room connected to the TV. No problems on the single Play 1's dotted around but have a problem with the TV surround.
Normally the source input would be 'TV' and would play the sound from there, and when I say 'Alexa play *band name* in the living room' it happily switches to music from my Amazon Music account. All good so far.
However when I say 'Alexa stop music in the living room' it stops the song, but leaves the song it was playing as the source input, so I cannot switch back to the TV volume without physically selecting it in the Sonos app. This obviously defeats the purpose of voice command control.
Is there a specific command I should use or something I can do to rectify this using a voice command?
Thanks in advance.
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Best answer by Skelton
My understanding is that the ability to use voice control for input changing is not yet available.

14 replies

Airgetlam
Airgetlam
October 4, 2017
Do you have autoplay line in setup on the PLAYBAR?
Bruce
SkeltonAnswer
Prodigy I
October 4, 2017
My understanding is that the ability to use voice control for input changing is not yet available.
    Airgetlam
    Airgetlam
    October 4, 2017
    Sorry, typed that without looking at the controller app. In at least the Mac client, it's called "TV Autoplay". It's under room settings/TV Setup.
    Bruce
    dmcaloneyAuthor
    Contributor I
    October 4, 2017
    Yes I have 'TV Autoplay' checked in the settings. I wasnt sure what that did other than choosing the TV audio when the TV is first switched on. When I am playing music the TV remains on, but obviously the audio source switches to my music.
    dmcaloneyAuthor
    Contributor I
    October 4, 2017
    My understanding is that the ability to use voice control for input changing is not yet available.
    I was hoping that wasn't the case. Makes the voice control for TV surround systems effectively pointless. 😞
    Airgetlam
    Airgetlam
    October 4, 2017
    Ah I thought you were turning on the TV, and it wasn't switching from music to TV. I'm in Skelton's camp on this.
    Bruce
    Skelton
    Prodigy I
    October 4, 2017

    I was hoping that wasn't the case. Makes the voice control for TV surround systems effectively pointless. :(
    Less valuable. I'm still going to use the heck out of it.
      Keith N
      Keith N
      Sonos Staff
      October 4, 2017
      Hi there, dmcaloney.

      Thanks for the question on getting Alexa to get back on TV audio. At the moment, there is not currently a voice command for Alexa to get back to TV Audio. This will have to be done through one of two ways: through the Sonos application or (if you have Autoplay turned on) turn the TV off and back on.
      Building community is like building a garden. You build the frame, till the ground, plant the seeds, feed the plants & sometimes you gotta pull the weeds.
      Cchris
      Enthusiast II
      October 5, 2017
      Hi there, dmcaloney.

      Thanks for the question on getting Alexa to get back on TV audio. At the moment, there is not currently a voice command for Alexa to get back to TV Audio. This will have to be done through one of two ways: through the Sonos application or (if you have Autoplay turned on) turn the TV off and back on.

      Yet the ability to switch audio sources (as well as group, ungroup and much more) has been available in the amateur coding community for over a year. How on earth do Sonos release with less functionality than the freely available community offerings on github?

      If people want to switch inputs, group, ungroup, use spotify and much more then just have a read of these:

      https://github.com/rgraciano/echo-sonos
      https://github.com/jishi/node-sonos-http-api

      Sonos and Amazon could do worse than look at what they offer and just copy/buy it, as it offers VASTLY more than the official release we waited over a year for.

      Actions supported by jishis method as of today:


      play
      pause
      playpause (toggles playing state)
      volume (parameter is absolute or relative volume. Prefix +/- indicates relative volume)
      groupVolume (parameter is absolute or relative volume. Prefix +/- indicates relative volume)
      mute / unmute
      groupMute / groupUnmute
      togglemute (toggles mute state)
      trackseek (parameter is queue index)
      timeseek (parameter is in seconds, 60 for 1:00, 120 for 2:00 etc)
      next
      previous
      state (will return a json-representation of the current state of player)
      favorite
      favorites (with optional "detailed" parameter)
      playlist
      lockvolumes / unlockvolumes (experimental, will enforce the volume that was selected when locking!)
      repeat (on/off)
      shuffle (on/off)
      crossfade (on/off)
      pauseall (with optional timeout in minutes)
      resumeall (will resume the ones that was pause on the pauseall call. Useful for doorbell, phone calls, etc. Optional timeout)
      say
      sayall
      queue
      clearqueue
      sleep (values in seconds)
      linein (only analog linein, not PLAYBAR yet)
      clip (announce custom mp3 clip)
      clipall
      join / leave (Grouping actions)
      sub (on/off/gain/crossover/polarity) See SUB section for more info
      nightmode (on/off, PLAYBAR only)
      speechenhancement (on/off, PLAYBAR only)
        Roscoe Gobbles
        Lyricist I
        February 11, 2018
        Well this is disappointing. Was excited that Alexa integration into my home Sonos network made so much sense. I just experienced this today when I connected it for the first time. Major user experience flaw.
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