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Contributor I
March 19, 2013

Easily accessible group & volume scenes

  • March 19, 2013
  • 17 replies
  • 1355 views
It would be great if you could store "scenes", i.e. predefined groups and associated volume levels. They should be as easily accessible as the 'Sonos favorites'. An example would be "party" which could group all units in the house and sets the volume at the right levels between the units. Or "watching movie" which only turns on the playbar and associated Play:3 or Play:5's in the tv room, a the right volume level and turns off all other sonos units in the house. Or "OFF" which degroups all units and puts them all on mute.
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    17 replies

    Lyricist I
    October 24, 2013
    This is such a great idea. We recently built a home with 24 different sonos zones. Volume management is a bit crazy. It would be FANTASTIC to have some volume presets to help manage it all.
    Trending Lyricist I
    April 28, 2014
    This is a really good idea! I would very much like to be able to choose "Pool Party" or "Rock out in the Kitchen" and have the groups and inputs switch at once.

    FWIW the way my swimming pool controller does the setup for their equivalent is very simple and clean (and from memory the Philips Hue lighting works the same way). You just set everything to the way you want it - the case of Sonos that would be setting the groupings, what is playing on each group, volumes, etc - and then hit one button save a snapshot of all those settings as a "scene" which you name. This avoids needing to clutter the user interface with any specific editing/customization of the scene at all, just simply all that needs to be exposed is the (1) a button with ability to take a snapshot of the whole system and prompt the name of the scene, then (2) a selectable list of saved scenes which when one is selected sets everything back to that saved set of settings again. After that of course, you can just add any other zones, change volumes, change inputs, etc as normal.
    Avid Contributor I
    October 8, 2014
    This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled sound scenes.  I have to admit I'm quite surprised that Sonos hasn't done one of the
    most simple things that would elevate them into the level of Crestron or Savant. simple audio scene or volume recall!!

     It would be incredibly easy for you to create custom presets that allows you on your numerous  sonos zones to set volume levels across all the zones just like a scene...  
    So when I come home I can hit a scene called "party" and actually have my favorite station or set list playing and all 12 of my Sonos amps fine-tuned volumized for that event..  instead of everytime i come home having to individually adjust a massive amount of volumes depending on what i want to do.
    I can't understand why it hasn't been done yet
    Trending Lyricist I
    January 19, 2015
    would be great to get the option to choose between mode/scene 1 ( playbar with sub & 2 play 3) for tv and mode/scene 2 ( play 3 & sub) for music ( all players are in the same room)

    i guess that i am not the only one who would like to separate TV & music sonos experience by putting the playbar aside if not watching TV - esp. as the PLAY 3s & sub are "covering" the whole room!

    its currently anoying to separate the rear chanels first, then pair them as a stereo setup , then disconect the sub from the playbar and re add the sub to the play 3s ( & don t forget to fullfil the sub setup each time!) - would be easy if both setups were done once and then saved....
    Lyricist I
    January 27, 2015
    Same sort of problem 1 room using multiple speakers in different combinations. One group focused on TV viewing with bar and rear. The other group 4 play ones around the room for music so no specific focus required Come on support team this should not be too hard to implement
    Contributor I
    September 25, 2015
    It's really surprising that this needs hasn't been recognized and solved by now. The Sonos products are otherwise so elegant.

    It's a massive pain in the butt to have to use the clunky grouping UI and fiddle volume levels over and over again to get things balanced and enjoyable. Every day using the Sonos requires this.

    To add to the good ideas above regarding "snapshotting" the current settings, there should be an iOS notification screen extension that let's you recall such scenes even from the lock screen. Then you don't have to go to all the steps just to get to the various UIs for setting volumes and groups. (A precedent for this is the Lutron lighting control app.)

    The slow pace of app innovation at Sonos is disconcerting. The app IS the user interface to the system... we would expect to have this refined monthly and not have to wait years for features like this. There are many ways that Apple, Samsung, Google and even Amazon could lap Sonos. It's feeling like a matter of time before they will.
    Avid Contributor I
    September 20, 2016
    Add audio scenes (set volume levels for zones) and zone lock our abilities ( for the kiddies to not turn on dads master bedroom by accident )
    So simple and already available on numerous simplified home controllers like hue etc. come on ! 😞
    Trending Lyricist I
    October 28, 2016
    +1 this would increase the functionality of Sonos for me 200%. I like my Sonos system, I have a dozen components, but having alarms that turn on scenes (group speakers, select source, adjust volume) would make me LOVE LOVE LOVE it.
    Trending Lyricist I
    November 29, 2016
    I need this so bad! Please make it happen Sonos... I want to be able to lock "Volume ratios" so that my 1´s are always a tad lower then my 5...
    Lyricist III
    January 9, 2017
    I concur! This is a very fundamental feature for usability. I currently have to uses rules in OpenHAB home automation to make this happen. Saving settings as snapshot presets seems rather simple from an implementation standpoint.