Airplay 2 - iOS 11.4

I asked a while back what was felt to be the reason that Airplay 2 has these requirements. Other than accepting it must be true I don't recall an actual reason. The CPU and RAM in all existing devices manages to support in sync audio across 32 devices so not sure what's so demanding above this for airplay 2.

"AirPlay 2 works in a similar way. The computing platforms and software architecture in some of the older Sonos players like Play:3 and Play:1 simply don’t have the horsepower to support AirPlay 2. The original Play:1, for example, has about 1/16th the processing power of its modern equivalent, the Sonos One. But by taking advantage of newer Sonos hardware, we’re able to make AirPlay 2 content available throughout the house on speakers old and new."

I don't understand this sentence... Not enough power but "we’re able to make AirPlay 2 content available throughout the house on speakers old and new." .. :? So Will it work with sonosplay:1 or not ? It seems that "Older Sonos speakers will not support AirPlay 2 on their own due to processor limitations, but they can be paired with the Playbase, the Play:5, or the Sonos One to enable AirPlay 2 functionality. A Sonos Play:1 grouped with a Sonos One, for example, will support AirPlay 2." (source from this article : https://www.macrumors.com/2018/04/25/sonos-airplay-2-compatibility/ )


I look at it this way. Every sonos speaker/zone/room can be grouped with another sonos room right? That's basic functionality. It doesn't matter what the source of the music is. However, a play:1 can't listen to airplay 2 sourced music on it's own, but a sonos one can. So once the sonos one gets the music, it can share it (group) with the play:1.



I've been working on retro engineering of the first version of airplay, the CPU consumption is insignificant, I don't think that the sync functionality implemented in airplay 2 require so much CPU use. I think that the CPU PowerQUICC MPC8314VRADDA contained in the play:1 could be able to manage airplay 2 but it has a cost to implement it on this old hardware that sonos don't want to invest... and it allow to sell more new devices ;)

I think you're trying to treat a general document designed for the general public as if it's a technical detailed document. I know the document specifically talks about processing power, but I don't think that necessary means the speed and capability of the cpu only. The issue could very well be with other hardware in the unit, or something else about the CPUs capabilities. Perhaps Sonos isn't giving more details since it will go other the head of many customers and they don't want to really announce the hardware makeup of their units to the public.

In terms of cost to implement, I would image that the software on each type of unit is as similar as can realistically be. In other words, I wouldn't think there would be much additional cost to develop on the older units over developing the new units....but that's pure speculation.

As far as the idea that Sonos is faking the whole thing in order to sell more units, that really doesn't seem to fit Sonos MO. Even if there was no history of Sonos operation to fall back on, I'd argue that airplay2 isn't enough of a feature improvement to sell a new model, and could easily push customers to other competitor products instead. In other words, it's a bad risk that I don't think Sonos would take voluntarily.

Schmurtz

I'm not sure you will find a community user who can answer all your questions with any authority, unless they work for Sonos, or Apple, that is. Even then, I don’t know how you would truly verify their reply.

Here are my own personal thoughts...

The old Airplay v1, used audio that came through/from the Airplay controlling device, such as an iPhone, or iPad etc. The iDevice streamed the audio and had to be connected to the same local network. So you couldn’t start music on your iPhone at your party and then take the phone out the premises and pop down the street, for example, to go buy another crate of beer as the music would stop as the phone lost its local connection.

You could often only transmit the audio to a single device, although there are Apps like WHAALE that allows a user to play an audio source to a maximum of 6 separate Airplay devices in 'manually controlled' sync.

In Airplay-2, the protocol apparently supports either 5.0/5.1 surround audio, or 2.0/2.1 channel stereo.

The iDevice itself is possibly now a 'simple controller' (remote) and the AirPlay speaker/device itself manages the audio connection direct and it’s subsequent distribution to other speakers in perfect sync with each other and with any playing video on the iDevice controller. I assume this is where and why the higher hardware requirement is needed.

It means though we can perhaps pop out to the store with our phones to buy that other crate of beer... the audio will still continue to play in sync with video on screen.

This is just my personal early understanding, but the Sonos Blog describes the old Play:1 as having 1/16th of the power of the Sonos One ... that sounds to me like the legacy speaker was just not upto the job of being an AirPlay controller to sync with video and distribute audio to other Sonos Rooms, but by itself it has enough power to play a stereo audio AirPlay source received from a more powerful device like the Sonos One.

I asked a while back what was felt to be the reason that Airplay 2 has these requirements. Other than accepting it must be true I don't recall an actual reason. The CPU and RAM in all existing devices manages to support in sync audio across 32 devices so not sure what's so demanding above this for airplay 2.
Since iOS11 compatibility with 64-bit is mandatory (extends to Airplay2 also), and 'first generation' units were shipped with 32-bit chipsets built in.

https://developer.apple.com/library/content/qa/qa1971/_index.html

First generation units of what shipped with 32bit chipsets? And source.
If you're suggesting it's because the Play 1, PlayBar etc. have 32 bit chipsets then I don't believe that to be the case and if it were, Sonos could say that the chipsets were incompatible. Incontravertable and less woolly than the 1/16 the power reason.
In fact, if that were the case then i assume Sonos couldn't have done the work many claim they must have done in trying their best to get it working if it were as black and white as a 32bit/64bit issue.

I suppose, Sonos have tried to put it in a non-technically way, that's all.

What I'm not quite grasping is whether playing Apple Music from your phone's Music app to Sonos speakers with Airplay 2 is replicating the Sonos app connecting to the service by itself or will it be like streaming what is playing on your phone... My concern is battery use and the phone's proximity to the Wi-Fi router.

I was looking forward to using the Music app for controlling Apple Music on Sonos but if it drains your battery, then I guess it makes more sense to continue using the Sonos app. I would think that playing something like the BBC iplayer or YouTube would work like streaming whatever is on your phone (it has to actually be playing on your phone) but I'm hoping for streaming music it's like the Sonos app (the speaker is connected to the service). Anyone have a clear idea of how this aspect works?

I suppose, Sonos have tried to put it in a non-technically way, that's all.You suppose what? You said the reason is a requirement for 64 bit and early hardware shipped without this. As it was an 'answer' and not a guess, I'm asking what you're basing it on. i.e. how is Apple mandating 64bit hardware/software relevant? What shipped without this architecture?

What I'm not quite grasping is whether playing Apple Music from your phone's Music app to Sonos speakers with Airplay 2 is replicating the Sonos app connecting to the service by itself or will it be like streaming what is playing on your phone... My concern is battery use and the phone's proximity to the Wi-Fi router.

I was looking forward to using the Music app for controlling Apple Music on Sonos but if it drains your battery, then I guess it makes more sense to continue using the Sonos app. I would think that playing something like the BBC iplayer or YouTube would work like streaming whatever is on your phone (it has to actually be playing on your phone) but I'm hoping for streaming music it's like the Sonos app (the speaker is connected to the service). Anyone have a clear idea of how this aspect works?

According to the article below, airplay 2 will stream through the phone, not establish a connection between Sonos and the streaming service.


https://www.theverge.com/2018/5/29/17403684/airplay-2-ios-114-stereo-homepod-available-now

It's not like the Alexa integration. When you make a command on an echo dot, for example, to play music on Sonos, you aren't streaming from your dot to Sonos, it's just passing the command on to Sonos.

That makes it clear. Too bad.

Although they say this :
"We’ll also have to see how AirPlay 2’s multiroom streaming works with Sonos, which has been promising support. I suspect there’s going to be some weirdness here."

They don't support what they mean by weirdness. Guess we'll have to wait and see.