Answered

AirPlay and Bluetooth sharing with Roam + Play:1

U

Hi, I have a pair of Sonos Play:1 speaker which have been of limited use due to limited connectivity (no AirPlay support and requirement to get premium plans on Spotify/ and other streaming services via Sonos App)

With the new Roam and AirPlay and/or bluetooth support - can I :

  • AirPlay from iphone to Roam which then pairs & relays to Play:1
  • Connect fireTV to Roam (bluetooth) which then relays to Play:1

Option 2 is to use Sonos S1 instead of Roam - with the downside that S1 does not gives you the portability of Roam

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Best answer by GuitarSuperstar 20 April 2021, 14:00

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14 replies

G
Userlevel 7

Yes, the Roam will allow you to use AirPlay or Bluetooth to play audio to your Play:1s.

"Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you." - Rashi
bockersjv
Userlevel 7
Badge +21

It’s also worth noting that you can use the Free Spotify Version with Sonos now.  That was changed over a year ago.

melvimbe

Your reference to S1 is for the Sonos One speaker, correct?  Not the S1 operating system?  The Roam will not work on the S1 operating system.

 

Also, although you you should be able to connect FireTv to Roam via bluetooth, and then group with your play:1, the resulting audio will be buffered for multiroom audio.  In other words, they audio you hear will be delayed and not match the video on your TV.

Danny
U

Thanks @melvimbe  : Correct, I was referring to Sonos One SL.

 

Is the same lag expected if using Sonon One SL with Play:1?

 

melvimbe

Thanks @melvimbe  : Correct, I was referring to Sonos One SL.

 

Is the same lag expected if using Sonon One SL with Play:1?

 

Yes.  Sonos is a multiroom audio system at it’s core, so you will always get a buffering delay of audio to accomodate this.  Sonos does make the Beam, Arc, and Amp specifically designed for TV use that will play the audio right away to match video, but other Sonos room grouped to the TV playing room will be delayed.

Danny
akadri

I just received my roam. I cannot bluetooth share with my Play:1s. It works fine with Sonos One but not Play:1. The apps shows that it’s grouped properly and sharing but there is no audio coming out of my play:1s. 

G
Userlevel 7

@akadri Do you hear Bluetooth audio from your Play:3 grouped with the Roam?

Try unplugging the Play:1s from power for about a minute.

"Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you." - Rashi
akadri

@GuitarSuperstar I experimented a little bit more and this is what I noticed:

  • it works fine with individual play:1, play:3, play:5, One, Move, Arc
  • it doesn’t work with stereo paired play:1s. I managed to get it to work sporadically but it mostly doesn’t work.  No sound comes out of either speaker but the app shows that it’s grouped and playing properly.
Airgetlam

It might be worth reproducing the issue, then submitting  a system diagnostic within 10 minutes, and calling  Sonos Support to discuss it.

There may be information included in the diagnostic that will help Sonos pinpoint the issue and help you find a solution, or at least have some hard data from your system that would help them track down what is going on.

Bruce
airforceteacher
Userlevel 6
Badge +15

So, one of the first things I tested with my Roam was grouping and delay, because that Bluetooth bridge capability was one of the primary reasons I purchased the Roam.  There is no discernable delay.  I just tested it with an iPad Pro playing Amazon Prime Video, Bluetooth connection to the Roam, and grouping in a Play:1 stereo pair.  I cut the volume to the Roam to zero so I only hear the Play:1s, and mouth / voice is in sync as best I can tell.  If there’s a delay, it’s imperceptible to me.

 

I’m pretty sure the reason is that Bluetooth is a digital transmission method, so there’s no A/D conversion as there’d be on a Line-In.  Without this conversion, buffering for sync is much less necessary, so the delay is shorter to non-existent.

 

Tl;dr - you can absolutely do this with your Firestick

akadri

@airforceteacher are your play:1s grouped a stereo pair through the app? I have 3 play:1s and I tried different combination of stereo pairs and audio shares fine between the roam and play:1s (stereo pair) over wifi but there is no sound coming out of the play:1s when the audio is shared over bluetooth from the roam.

I spent 2 hours with the hotline yesterday and they couldn’t fix the issue. I sent no less than 10 diagnostics.

I spoke to a level 2 tech support agent who told me to book an appointment with their support engineer. I will report back after that.

What’s weird to me is that it works fine with my Arc+2 Ones+Sub set up but it just doesn’t want to work with my 2 play:1s stereo pair.

This is the number one reason I purchased the roam as well. Since airplay kind of sucks as is apple only. There used to be no way to get audio onto the system other than the Play:5 line-in or Port which are both very expensive.

airforceteacher
Userlevel 6
Badge +15

Yes, they’re grouped as a normal stereo pair.  One is series A200, one is series A101, so can’t even suggest system age as a difference. 

akadri

I figured it out this morning. I had a Sonos Boost plugged in and for some reason that caused the stereo pair not to play any sound. Things started working flawlessly after unplugging it. Still a mystery as to why it worked fine with my Arc+Sub+2 One’s setup and with the rest of my speakers but not with the stereo pair.

I used to have terrible wifi at my old apartment but since moving to mesh networking and to a new house I haven’t had as many issues so I don’t really need the boost. It seems like in this case, it did more harm than good.

U

Thank you for everyone’s feedback. 
Here is a quick feedback on my experience with Roam in the last 1 week. 
 

  • upgrade everything to S2 system (and app) before hand. My play:1 system was on S1 and it was a pain trying to pair them to Roam 
  • s2 app required multiple app resets for it to work with all the devices 
  • Alexa feature is not really useful - but Realised I could have connected my Play1 with Amazon Alexa Dot even before getting Roam… which was as surprise. 
  • Enabling Bluetooth pairing mode is an absolute nightmare. It took at least 20 attempts to get the process sequence of steps. 
  • Amazon Alexa Dot does not recognise Roam when trying to setup ‘Home Cinema’ with firetv. 
  • Managed to connect Roam  with FireTV (over Bluetooth) and then relayed audio on play:1. I think there is a slight audio lag - you won’t always notice it. 
  • AirPlay mode from iOS to Roam (and then onwards to play1) works well - tried it on various apps like YouTube /Amazon Music. There is some lag in play/pause and switch to another track - Rather annoying but I am not sure if it’s an airplay issue or something specific to sonos.
  • Side note : realised the brand name SONOS is a palindrome and an ambigram.… couldn’t figure out which is the right way to place the speakers. :)



     
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