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twuk
Enthusiast II
November 16, 2017

Playbar (And surrounds) no longer lower volume when invoking Alexa

  • November 16, 2017
  • 7 replies
  • 739 views
When the integration was first released, my playbar in the lounge would lower volume when my echo dot heard the wake word. It still works this was in another room, but has stopped working in the lounge.

I've tried disabling the Sonos skill and re-enabling, to no avail. Has anything changed in the way this should work? Has anyone else experienced similar?
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7 replies

JAYHOVAH1
Lyricist I
November 19, 2017
I purchased two of the ones to add for surround sound with the Playbar but did not activate Alexa feature on those because I have a echo plus in the living room. Now it will only lower the volume on the tv if I activate Alexa on the ones (surround). However, the echo lowers the volume for every other speaker throughout the house except the Playbar. It drives me mad because I do not like the annoying tone the one makes when Alexa begins listening but my echo cannot understand me if I use that with the tv at a decent volume. I wonder if this was a software update due to the release of the Alexa enabled one. I could use some help with this one also.
twukAuthor
Enthusiast II
November 20, 2017
It's very odd... I do have two Play:1's (as surround) and a Sub linked to the Lounge which of course all show as one logical 'player' but I'm sure the volume was lowering on these when the integration was enabled. I'm not sure at what point it stopped working, but it's the one room I really need it to work in!

In contrast, the volume lowering works 100% of the time in the bedroom (Play:5 also used for TV out).
Ryan S
Ryan S
Retired Sonos Staff
November 20, 2017
The volume dropping feature, called Ducking, doesn't apply to Sonos home theater devices when playing TV audio. If they were playing music, it would duck. When the Sonos One is set up as a surround speaker with a PLAYBAR or otherwise, they room will duck for the Sonos One, but that's the only time.

We're still working on ducking with the Alexa team, so there will be some changes down the road.
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NOB4
Lyricist I
November 21, 2017
So to confirm, the issue is the source of the sound. Since the TV is providing the sound via Optical out, unless Alexa is controlling the TV and the volume from that device, Sonos/Alexa cannot adjust the volume.
twukAuthor
Enthusiast II
November 21, 2017
I can confirm the behaviour matches what Ryan has described. It sounds a bit like Sonos are reserving the 'correct' functionality for the Sonos One. Considering most of us are not going to run out and replace Play:1's with Sonos One's, it's unfortunate if that's the plan (and as an aside, I can't see why people are going to want multiple Sonos One's in the same room as surround units).

In contrast, Sonos does NOT behaving this way in the bedroom where I have a Play:5 connected to a TV (admittedly by analog rather than optical, but it's still effectively 'line in').
UKMedia
UKMedia
November 21, 2017
I can confirm the behaviour matches what Ryan has described. It sounds a bit like Sonos are reserving the 'correct' functionality for the Sonos One. Considering most of us are not going to run out and replace Play:1's with Sonos One's, it's unfortunate if that's the plan (and as an aside, I can't see why people are going to want multiple Sonos One's in the same room as surround units).

In contrast, Sonos does NOT behaving this way in the bedroom where I have a Play:5 connected to a TV (admittedly by analog rather than optical, but it's still effectively 'line in').

The lack of ducking relates only to Playbar's and Playbases's when outputting TV audio, if they are outputting music from Amazon for example, then they will duck as normal.
Remember: Sometimes Red Wine helps :)
bockersjv
bockersjv
Local Superstar
November 21, 2017
I can confirm the behaviour matches what Ryan has described. It sounds a bit like Sonos are reserving the 'correct' functionality for the Sonos One. Considering most of us are not going to run out and replace Play:1's with Sonos One's, it's unfortunate if that's the plan (and as an aside, I can't see why people are going to want multiple Sonos One's in the same room as surround units).

In contrast, Sonos does NOT behaving this way in the bedroom where I have a Play:5 connected to a TV (admittedly by analog rather than optical, but it's still effectively 'line in').

It's not a ploy to get people to by Ones but an issue with how ducking works on Alexa, and as Ryran says a solution is being worked on. The play 5 will duck because it is not a home theatre device playing from optical source. If it was linked to a Playbar/base and playing as surround it would not duck.

This is a case of one option working well for some and not for others. Personally I don't want to TV to duck, as I have a dot next to my armchair. I can see in your instance you need the ducking. Let's hope the solution is switchable 😃
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