"Long-awaited" alarm features in 8.2 - Is progressive volume configuration still missing after years of repeated requests?

  • 18 November 2017
  • 2 replies
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An often requested feature, on the community forums and the beta forums, has been progressive (gradual) volume configuration for alarms. There are tens of threads that have been posted in the past, each with more than a few users voting or commenting; it seems likely that if the interest were aggregated there would be a clear majority of community users that want this feature to be configurable. This thread alone is five years old: https://en.community.sonos.com/controllers-software-228995/please-add-an-option-to-adjust-the-fade-in-and-fade-out-time-for-alarms-and-sleep-4441758/index1.html#post15977567 and there are others.

The definition of this feature is to take a start volume, an end volume, and a ramp time and progressively increase the volume over the ramp time from start to end volume. In releases prior to 8.1, the ramp time was locked at a small number of seconds. In Sonos's competitor's products, ramp time is very flexible - in fact this was a feature in the Squeezebox before it was acquired by Logitech, and a very compelling one.

If the start time is 8:00, the ramp time could be set for everything from a minute to 20 or 30 minutes, allowing a slow, smooth wake up, with volume incrementing over the ramp time. So at 8:01, if the start volume is 10, "end volume" is 50, and the ramp time is at 30 minutes, the volume would progressively move up until reaching the user's declared end volume, e.g, volume moving up by ~1.33 every minute.

The ramp time should be able to be set in minutes and seconds.

This cannot be a difficult feature to implement, given the power and capability of the Sonos.

Can it be added, if it isn't already in 8.2? My Sonoses are packed for a move but this would be great to get in the queue soon.

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2 replies

The alarm ramp up feature appears to be a difficult request for the Sonos team recieve. I've read MANY request and many denials/justifications, "the alarm does ramp up". I'd love to have the ramp up feature. After an update it's the one feature I look for or care about.
I simply want the ability to disable the volume ramp. I wake up in the morning listening to morning radio news, then quickly make a playlist with my favorite podcasts to start playing when I get in the ahower and then walk around the house. There are series that start their stories or reporting immediately. I don't hear any of that initial podcast over the sound of the shower or in other rooms for a good 30 seconds to a minute (however long it is) because the volume is slowly increasing from inaudible to where I actually want it. I simply want it to start playing at the volume I requested immediately.