Party Mode is a problem. We need ability to create multiple groups of rooms!


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We spend a lot of time grouping and ungrouping rooms. The issue is stems from my wife's use of Party Mode. She likes to use Party Mode while she is cooking. I ungroup the outside speakers so as not to offend the neighbors. I ungroup the upstairs when the kids go to bed. I turn everything off and then create a new group to set the morning alarm. In the morning, I create a group in the kitchen and family room to read the paper. There has to be a better way! Why can't we just create groups of rooms and label them something easy to remember like "Cooking", "Kids in bed", "Alarm" or "Morning Coffee"?

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I am about to add a system with about 20 zones, on the recommendation of our audio installer,  and I can't believe you can't specify multiple groups. Some speakers are indoors, others outdoors.  So groups would be "First Floor", "Second Floor", "All Inside Speakers", "Patio and Pool", etc.

Please add this functionality.
+1

This is an absolute must have.  User friendly room presets are such a major part of multiroom audio that I really can't believe the feature does not already exist.
Please build this feature.Its a must and so obvious.
I think this goes deeper than just preset room configurations - what it also needs to is adjust the source for the configurations. I have a soundbar and subwoofer hooked up to my tv. When I'm watching tv I would love it if there was one button I could push that would switch off all other components and switch the living room to "TV" -In this way. the presets would be more than just room configurations - it should also control what gets played. For instance a preset called "morning coffee" might switch certain units to a particular radio station or playlist. A party one might turn all the units on music library and start playing a random selection from another playlist. 
This would be a great feature to have. I have six players and adding a seventh, and routinely switch between configs on a daily basis between listening to music, vs. watching TV, vs. just a few players in the kitchen. It's a bit of a pain to keep adjusting the volumes on each player to get the right settings when I need to regroup, or ungroup, them.

Also, I'd love to have the TV watching surround sound mode go back to the previous config. once the TV is turned off. It's nice to have the TV go to surround sound when the TV starts. If this feature exists, then if someone could let me know that would be great!

There's another thread that talks to the ideas in this thread very well. I believe these discussions should be joined together: https://ask.sonos.com/sonos/topics/presets-or-audio-scene
What happened to Sonos?   This feature hasn't been added and I'm having same problem.   Did their engineers go to sleep?  Get it ADDED NOW!
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demanding
This is a definite necessity!
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This is the place for communication.  I see it as a nice feature but I don't see it as a basic feature.
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If you have iOS, check out sonosequencr on the App Store - you can create custom macros to create groups / ungroup along with many other functions
It needs to be classified in such a manner that it gets DONE Chris.   Do you know that classification?  It's a desired/needed feature and has been for years.  That's the point Charles is making.  And yet no movement on it that I see.  Pathetic.
This is a definite necessity!

Creating multiple groups was the first thing i wanted to do, and i only have 3 speakers. But i don't want to permanently regroup my speakers. 
I still don't understand why there is no focus on such a feature. And taking a look at the features of 5.4 is only more confusing. 
Userlevel 1
This is a definite necessity!

Shouldn't be a basic feature? Sonos is supposed to be a multi-room system, and the one thing it can't do is decent grouping in multiple rooms. I'd say it should be the very foundation...
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This is a definite necessity!

I fully concur. This is a feature that has been requested repeatedly over many months, and it just doesn't seem to me like something that would be difficult to build.

Would be great to be able to switch from ios8 widgets in the notification centre too.

Come on SONOS, all it takes is to tell us you are working on it.
+1
I've been adding to my Sonos collection and I assumed I'd be able to add speakers to multiple groups - "Ground Floor", "First Floor", etc. - when I couldn't figure it out I asked Google and this thread was the first result. It seems strange to me that this feature doesn't exist already.
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I have to think this is the most requested feature and quite surprising that Sonos did not have it from the beginning. It is such a no brainer that I have to believe there is some technical reason Sonos hasn't added it.
Wow. I'm in the process of installing a whole house audio system and had decided on Sonos because I was told (by sonos) this feature exists. I'm shocked it doesn't, since every competitor has it. Can someone confirm it's been delivered and works? If not, I'll not purchase the dozen Sonos units i need (and was purchasing this week). Specifically...
1. You can pre-create custom named zones/groups of devices
2. A device can exist in multiple groups/zones
3. Custom groups/zones are shared across my devices (logged into my sonos account)

If Sonos isn't providing the above, they are no longer a serious competitor in this market.

Looking forward to the answer, and being pleasantly surprised that I simply stumbled across a page with outdated info and I can proceed with my purchase and not start shopping all over again.

Regards...
Every time this question comes up I ask this obvious question that nobody wants to address: If a speaker is in more than one group and both groups are in use playing something different from each other which program are you expecting to hear from that shared speaker?
That's a simple question of software design. Frankly I don't care if they do something silly like having the first alphanumeric by group//zone name take precedent,or simply pop an error (trapped of course) if you try and play a zone where a device is active (at which point you'd probably exclude it). But I'm not sure it's a practical use case unless you had an unholy complex layout, and users who stomped on one another's usage. Most use cases I've seen on the forums aren't overlapping zones but the basic need to group N number of devices into a permanent zone with a custom name and be able too treat them as a single output. Synchronizing them across devices is just a method to ensure devices aren't double-assigned. It's a basic feature that I verified, through Crutchfield, exists in most systems. I'm demo'ing a legrand system this evening and they do this, as well as managing (including ripping!) your music very well.

That all said, perhaps they could follow Apple and simply look at what competitors do in that situation and copy what works.

I wish Sonos would be clear that a zone is simply a device unless you permanently pair things like a surround sound system. Their approach is basic, and I suppose not terrible. But it seems to me it's a tad misleading. Again, it would be great if a sonos employee would take the time to address this question in detail. After all, maybe I'm just plain wrong.
it is an obvious feature. just do it, where is the problem?
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I need this added as well. Seems like a no-brainer now that I have more than one speaker. I don't want to have to constantly ungroup and regroup speakers.
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Bump, this is needed.
I just bought 2 Speakers. I have one in my bedroom and one in the living room. I want both speakers to start in the morning when my alarm goes off. I was so convinced that this was possible that I spent 20 minutes trying to find out how to do it. I think it'd be great if you could save groupings and use a group when you set an alarm.
I think that the USD 35 a pop Chromecast solution has now solved this problem, one aspect of the user interface where it isn't inferior to Sonos. Group creation is a one time action which survives a power off/reboot as well, and created groups show up in the choices for selecting where the music is to be casted to.

Given this, one would expect to see Sonos address this requirement with some urgency.
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I'm not sure they see this feature as a necessity for some reason. I have 4 speakers in 4 different rooms and I don't want to constantly group and ungroup them depending on what's going on.