The Sonos Brexit and pragmatic ways past it - ADVANCED APPROACHES



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I PM’ed Ryan about this over 8 hrs ago … nothing in return

 

It’s 7:30 a.m. in Santa Barbara, California. :slight_smile:

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@arcadelt : My internet provider isn't talking of any event in May 2020.

Trust me, it will happen when you least expect it and when it is most inconvenient. Without the Internet, not only will the voice assistant fail, but you will even not be able to use the Alexa app to control anything. Anyway, as I said, better to be prepared, so unplug your Internet and see how the system holds up.

I know what will happen in that rare event and I have back ups in place that do not need the net. Or even WiFi and the mains power.

 

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Thanks!

Lol. I have a UPS backed up by a DG set. And there are memory heavy handhelds filled with streaming service downloads for offline listening that I use on the road, easily attached to Sonos Line in jacks, so there would never be silence, even if Sonos went completely bust and their servers went offline, or my ISP went down. And at the end of the day...or night assuming doomsday, there is always the acoustic guitar:-).

These are doomsday scenarios; all are far more remote possibilities than events triggered by Sonos, or their going bankrupt. But this Brexit is a good thing, it has allowed me to take even that bankruptcy possibility into the design of my music delivery systems.

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I’m not talking about Sonos being a problem, but the Echos.

Sonos have found a way to play streaming services music without the internet?

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Are you being deliberately obtuse? Sonos will work locally on a network without the Internet, but Amazon and Google devices will not.

I still completely fail to see what point you are making. Perhaps I am stupid, perhaps English is not my native tongue. Sonos will work, but limited to music that is available locally. But with 90% of users - per Sonos - now using Sonos for streaming services, it will not work for these 90% minus the internet.

Amazon devices follow the thin client approach as opposed to what Sonos does, and in doing so, rely on reliable internet service being available in support of that approach; and even in India where I live, these are now reliable enough to make use of thin clients without losing any sleep over doing so.

Is it different in your country? If yes, then Echo is not for you. 

Moving on...because this is now off topic.

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Hardly off-topic. Your original post and this one were both about trying to find pragmatic approaches to dealing with the what you are calling Sonos Brexit. I am merely pointing out that by introducing any Echo or Home device into your setup you are introducing a weak link, because it will not work when the Internet goes down. You have introduced these into your setup.

That will be a problem for some people, including myself (if you want an example why, I’m happy to provide it), and I am just pointing out an issue within the context of the topic why yours is NOT NECESSARILY a pragmatic solution to the declaration of legacy devices for those that do not wish to spend anymore with Sonos, but would like the same outcome.

However, my point appears to not be understood, so I will move on.

Interesting; what you seem to be suggesting is that my solution that involves Echo devices is not pragmatic because it needs the presence of the internet for the solution to work. 

To that, I have no argument to present. For some one that is either unwilling or unable to rely on the availability of the internet, Echo/Google is not a solution, pragmatic or otherwise. Agreed, 100%.

And of course those that want the present outcome of Sonos working in local mode from a NAS to continue, there is really no need for a solution if Sonos is to be believed in what they now say: that if anything in legacy systems will be affected short of hardware failure, it will be streaming services functionality - which such people are not using anyway if they are not relying on the internet, so there isn't a need for any solution.

A question for those with Raspberry experience: Suppose I were to copy a subset of my existing NAS to a SSD USB stick of 128 Gb, and park that stick in the Raspberry, directing the mymedia for Alexa to scan the folders on that SSD stick for serving Echo devices. Will that work well? That way, I do not need to power up my main NAS that is used for Sonos, everytime I want to use Echo devices to play that subset of NAS music which sees use more often than the many tracks on the main NAS that I never listen to.

This isn't a Sonos question - Sonos will remain pointed to the main NAS. It is a Echo+mymedia for Alexa+Raspberry 3B+ question.

And hopefully, this sentence will allow the post to make it past the spam filter.

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Here’s a follow up to my posts about controlling sonos speakers with an O2 Joggler touchscreen.

I’ve now got the US version of the Joggler working - in fact this is actually a Cisco Energy Monitor with front facing internal speakers.  Little used so the screen protector film is still in place.

(If only Amazon would implement dlna/upnp  for the Echos ….)

 

  

Yes thanks @Ryan S
I will copy/paste only the latest conversations from the PM with @castalla , now that Ryan has restored our filtered out thoughts.

@castalla said this: 

Get it working on the Mac first.
Setting up a Pi is relatively straightforward ... if you have a standard NAS setup. What is your NAS?

My response:

WD My Cloud NAS, a 2016 model. I doubt it can host the application and make it work. Hopefully Pi won't have a problem to access the music files that sit on it.

@castalla : in terms of features and outcomes, how is this different from Echo for streaming/Echo via mymedia for NAS?

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Here’s a guide - but it assumes you have already setup and have your pi running …

 

https://www.raspberrypi-spy.co.uk/2014/05/how-to-mount-a-usb-flash-disk-on-the-raspberry-pi/

I hope to have the Pi device up and running by middle of next week, using the simplest way to get that done - via a USB keyboard+mouse and using the HDMI socket equipped TV for a GUI much like the one on the Mac. 

If that GUI is in place, and then mymedia is downloaded to the Pi as I did with the Mac, then the mymedia dashboard should work in a similar way, allowing a path to the USB stick in the Pi port to be visible?

My test USB stick with a folder that contains some music is ready; once that works I will buy the 128 GB stick and replicate the process for all the music I want to access via the Echo - if the folder in that stick is given the same name, I expect to be able to switch USB sticks in the Pi, repower it and get mymedia to run a rescan; nothing more should be necessary. I don't need to access all 19000 or so tracks that are in the main NAS.

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It’s using Logitech to access and stream to devices (includes local library).  Echos don’t have upnp/dlna access so they are essentially a closed system.

Here’s a view of Albums and Playlists

 

 

@Kumar  … I wasn't sure if I should add this here, or in the other “pragmatic” thread, but thought you and others may be interested in a video by Mr. Darko half a year ago that I just stumbled across. Mentions, off-hand, a number of devices covered here and elsewhere (and references a previous video he did that I’d already seen quite some time back on network streamers other than - and in relation to - the Sonos Connect) and is otherwise a good watch.
 

 

The present status on the Mymedia is that I am able to have Echo Show play with artwork the sample media that is downloaded into their app, that is hosted on my Mac. So proof of concept is established for local music. Now we have to see if this can be extended to music that is sitting on the NAS.

If Sonos via a controller hosted on the Mac can access and play music from the NAS, logically this also should be possible. Except that I have found that there are so many twists and turns that are not in plain sight where networking is concerned, that apparent logic is easily defeated.

Awaiting response from mymedia support...email sent to them.

@castalla

See the screenshot for how the Finder looks like: the Sonos controller is pointed to WDMyCloud and thence to the last SharedMusic folder - nestling inside that are more folders, all that contain music files. Sonos does not care about that arrangement, it just accesses all music tracks that are in the various folders within the SharedMusic folder.

But in the MyMedia dashboard, I cannot see the WD in this fashion.

 

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In mymedia dashboard, under Watch Folder’ option  what is listed? 

Here’s what I see for Pi:

 

It looks similar, with some more line items.

But there isn't one that says WDmycloud.

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How about a screenshot?

Here it is, and folder names look unfamiliar!