Sonos Group Coordinator question.

Forum|Forum|8 years ago
March 9, 2018
17 replies
3133 views

I saw this posted in another topic and rather than confuse things there thought I'd ask in a new topic.

https://en.community.sonos.com/wireless-speakers-228992/flac-vs-mp3-bandwidth-limitation-6803936/index1.html#post16214383

When Sonos is working through SonosNet, the data flow works as follows:

Router -> BRIDGE )) Group Coordinator )) Rest of Group

The Group Coordinator is the room that you group all the other rooms to. This player acts as the chief player that will sync the data and then send it to every speaker in the group. In most cases, you want the Group Coordinator to be wired. This reduces the amount of interference that Sonos will have to combat before getting the data to the rest of the Sonos group.

I wasn't able to find much on this Group Coordinator topic searching support but it raises an interesting questions for my setup.

Since I have a Boost and several Plays (of various types) and two Zone Players all wired with the remaining units wireless would it make sense for me to select a wired component at the first member of any grouping I do to cut back on the wireless data transfer requirements?

If I have wireless and wired components in a group and drop the initial (Group Coordinator) from the group does Sonos select the second system I added to the group or a wired member of the group as the new Group Coordinator?

Did I miss any documentation on how this all works?

Group Coordinator

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Best answer by Keith N

Hey there, Stanley_4. Happy to help clear this up. There isn't much documentation on Group Coordinator as it only appears in the diagnostic information. This is, however, important to be aware of. In general, using a wired player as your Group Coordinator will reduce the amount of data needing to be transmitted from the source to players.

A handy way to determine what is the Group Coordinator is to look in the Rooms Tab and see what room is listed at the top of the group. If the Group Coordinator is removed from the group, Sonos will automatically handoff to another player in the group. The way it selects this player has changed a bit in the past (alphabetical by MAC address) and will likely continue to change as we make improvements to the software.

Let us know if you'd like us to build an FAQ or write up an in-depth post about the finer details of Group Coordinator. I'd be happy to get that ball rolling.

Show previous replies

Stanley_4Author

Grand Maestro

They make some very nice flat or 2mm diameter Ethernet cables these days, hiding either is a lot easier than fat Cat 5.

C

craigski

Local Superstar

I have a follow on question with regard to the GC. I have extended my Sonos system, still using SonosNet, I have added a Sub and a stereo pair to a 'room'.
If I select that 'room', will the sonos software automatically use the wired device in that room as the GC? ie can I run a Ethernet cable to Sub (easiest) and sonos software will use the Sub as the GC for that room?

ratty

A SUB is never the GC. In a pair (with or without a SUB) the left unit is the GC of that bonded set. (A bonded set is a special type of group.)

Where a pair (again with or without a SUB) is part of a group of rooms it gets a little more complicated. In that case:
- if the room is the first one in the group, its left unit is the GC of the group
- if the room is not the first, then each channel (and the SUB) takes a feed from the GC elsewhere

In your case wiring the SUB will mean that the pair are most likely to make a SonosNet connection to it. Since it's presumably short range it should be a strong link. Choosing that room as the first in the group will make the left unit the GC. Whether it will make a connection to other rooms via the wired SUB or directly depends on the circumstances.

melvimbe

Where a pair (again with or without a SUB) is part of a group of rooms it gets a little more complicated. In that case:
- if the room is the first one in the group, its left unit is the GC of the group
- if the room is not the first, then each channel (and the SUB) takes a feed from the GC elsewhere

Huh, I always assumed that in the case where multiple speakers make up the zone, One of the speakers (left unit or playbar/playbase) sort of acted as the spokesman (spokeswoman..spokesit...whatever) for all the speakers in the zone. If the zone is not the CG, then the spokesman receives the audio (left and right audio) from the CG. It then forwards on the right channel audio to the right speaker, and the bass to the sub. If the zone is a 5.1 setup, the playbar/playbase will always be the one communicating to the other units in the zone. That especially made sense to me since the 5.1 zone units are communicating over 5.0, not 2.4.

Overally, I guess I assumed it was more object oriented in that manner. Zone A didn't really need to know anything about the speakers in Zone B or communicate with them. I can see where it would be more efficient to allows speakers to communicate directly with each other regardless of zone.

Danny

ratty

In the case of PLAYBAR/BASE I believe you're correct, since the PB applies band-pass filters and EQ for the surrounds. (Those areas of the internal diags are now inaccessible so I can't recheck.)

With everything else, both channels (and SUB) subscribe individually to the stream from the GC, then apply a channel map at their end.

C

craigski

Local Superstar

Thankyou ratty. So In my situation, it would be best to cable the L speaker, rather than the Sub?

If I cable Sub it will flow:

Ethernet --> Sub -SonosNet-> L (GC) -SonosNet-> Sub

If I cable L speaker instead it will flow:

Ethernet --> L (GC) -SonosNet-> Sub

I have mostly Apple Lossless on NAS, and want to minimise the SonosNet traffic.

ratty

If wireless bandwidth is a concern and you're able to wire the L speaker then, yes, that would be the best option.

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