Sonos ZonePlayer Airplay 2 Support


Will Sonos ZonePlayers have Airplay 2 support?

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No one knows for sure, but we can have a bit of guessing, based on the way Sonos works now.

1) They won't be able to act as "receivers" for the signal, since the hardware isn't likely to already be in the Zone Player that would connect.

2) They should, however, be able to stream if you have another player that can act as a "receiver". I believe at some point the Sonos One was indicated to be one of the "receivers", and there's a possibility that the PLAYBASE might be as well, although we're not sure. Kind of like the way you can stream to a zone player from a line in currently, many of us are assuming.

3) Sonos won't tell us until they're ready to actually release it. Since Apple hasn't officially released AirPlay 2 yet, except in beta, it's unlikely that Sonos has put a lot of effort into it, since it's likely been changing frequently. Once Apple officially releases it, I'd guess that Sonos will take 3 5o 6 months in order to code it, test it, beta it, and release it. That's a complete guess. It might be longer, it might be shorter. We will know when Sonos is ready to talk.
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MacObserver reports that Sonos has officially announced which products will have Airplay 2 capability. Sonos One, Play:5, and PlayBase will be the only existing products that will gain Airplay 2 compatibility. Still no more details about how this will be implemented, i.e. will any non-compatible Sonos products that happen to be grouped with Airplay 2 compatible products be able to play together over Airplay 2? https://www.macobserver.com/news/tmo-scoop/sonos-airplay-2-details/
So, you skipped over the sentence that says " Sonos will allow AirPlay 2 to work on any speakers that are actively grouped with an AirPlay 2-compatible speaker."? Or perhaps they changed the article after you read it?
I'd also encourage you to read Sonos' own information, which probably is less filtered than through a reporter, although I'll bet that both legal and marketing folks had a run through on it :)

https://blog.sonos.com/en/airplay2-coming/
In the one Sonos article, it states you can watch a YouTube video or similar Airplay2 supported App on an iOS device, such as an iPad for example ..and have the audio in perfect sync over grouped Sonos Airplay2 supported speakers. I wonder if that will also work for their Apple TV?... How good would that be for watching streaming films and music videos etc.

I’m quite surprised at that claim... is Apple Airplay2 going to be that good, I wonder?
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Besides how good it may be, how does that sit 'legally' with Google? People here keep saying Sonos can't allow YouTube sound on Sonos as it's against the T's and C's of the service to split the video and audio in this way. Does turning the device display off stop the audio with Airplay 2?
Besides how good it may be, how does that sit 'legally' with Google? People here keep saying Sonos can't allow YouTube sound on Sonos as it's against the T's and C's of the service to split the video and audio in this way. Does turning the device display off stop the audio with Airplay 2?

Well I presume it must be legal as the SonosTube App lets you play YouTube on Sonos nowadays anyway... I’ve not seen anything that has tried to put a stop to that App. If that counts for anything?
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@Airgetlam, I didn’t skip over that point. I just didn’t feel that was info from Sonos and it seemed like the author’s speculation to me. I now see the official statement from Sonos thanks to your link. It is what we all hoped to hear.
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Not sure. Hundreds of times people ask for it and are shot down saying Sonos can't do it as it's against the terms of service etc. and a large company are very different to a 'bedroom' coder etc. Maybe things have changed as you say. Maybe technologically it's doing something different. Maybe it stops the audio if you close the display. Or maybe it was just easier to defend Sonos' stance and inaction by saying they weren't allowed to do it. I'm interested to know what's changed as Sonos are bigging up this new functionality.
Maybe now all those 'freeloaders' can now listen to YouTube to their hearts' content on their Sonos system.
saldog, no worries at all. And, in fact, I've seen articles change after posting with no "edit" moniker. On the web, there's no guaranty that what I see is the same thing that you saw. 🙂 Happy to provide the "official" link. I tend not to actually follow Sonos' blog, I get most of my information here in the boards.
Not sure. Hundreds of times people ask for it and are shot down saying Sonos can't do it as it's against the terms of service etc. and a large company are very different to a 'bedroom' coder etc. Maybe things have changed as you say. Maybe technologically it's doing something different. Maybe it stops the audio if you close the display. Or maybe it was just easier to defend Sonos' stance and inaction by saying they weren't allowed to do it. I'm interested to know what's changed as Sonos are bigging up this new functionality.
Maybe now all those 'freeloaders' can now listen to YouTube to their hearts' content on their Sonos system.

Yes, It certainly looks like both YouTube and Netflix 'synced' audio/video via Airplay2 will be possible, sometime later this year on the iPhone and iPad, according to the claim, but I also hope that experience will extend across to Apple TV.

These things do certainly make the Sonos One, Play-5 and Playbase 'very attractive' components to buy for the novice, or to attach to an existing Sonos legacy system to get these extended features.

I’ve recently purchased a Sonos One with my CR100 voucher and added that to my system, so it will be nice if these things do turn out to be the case. I hope so.
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Whatever happened to the supposed "new" Connect people were talking about based upon FCC documents - anyone think this could be part of a new Connect device?
I am extremely disappointed to learn that the older Sonos models will not have the airplay 2 feature that Sonos announced months ago. In the original announcement Sonos made no mention of the fact that certain models that are currently on sale would not have the feature. I purchased two Play 1s last week and will be returning them.

Sonos' explanation for lack of Airplay 2 support for these speakers is even more disturbing. Sonos said: "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." This is a surprising description of models that are still in Sonos' product lineup and are for sale on Sonos' website and in stores. Why is Sonos still selling such underpowered and obsolete technology, and why are the prices for this old technology so high. The Playbar (which Sonos characterizes as old technology costs the same as the Playbar (which Sonos claims is the "modern" version). Likewise the Connect and the Connect Amp, are very expensive for outdated players. I think Sonos has done tremendous damage to its reputation by failing to update these players so that people who purchase them have "modern" technology. Even worse, Sonos never disclosed to purchasers that these players had outdated technology and would not be able to use new features added to the Sonos system, including the much hyped Airplay 2 compatibility.

I can certainly understand why old models that are no longer for sale might not be able to use new features. However, I do not understand why models that are currently on sale cannot use new features. At the very least, that fact that a these speakers have outdated technology should have been disclosed to potential purchasers so they could choose the model they wanted. I would have purchased the Sonos One instead of the Play 1 if I had been told that the Play 1 had outdated technology.
[...] Sonos' explanation for lack of Airplay 2 support for these speakers is even more disturbing. Sonos said: "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. [...]
With the release of iOS 11 and macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 apps (and therefore supposedly third-party Airplay2-enabled devices too) MUST support 64-bit technology. Older units like the Play:1 presumably are lacking the ability to fit this requirement.

https://developer.apple.com/news/
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I am extremely disappointed to learn that the older Sonos models will not have the airplay 2 feature that Sonos announced months ago.

I can certainly understand why old models that are no longer for sale might not be able to use new features. However, I do not understand why models that are currently on sale cannot use new features. At the very least, that fact that a these speakers have outdated technology should have been disclosed to potential purchasers so they could choose the model they wanted. I would have purchased the Sonos One instead of the Play 1 if I had been told that the Play 1 had outdated technology.


Totally agree. I'm just about to outfit my home audio system with two play bars. I guess that's off the table now. What about Sonus Connects?
Totally agree. I'm just about to outfit my home audio system with two play bars. I guess that's off the table now. What about Sonus Connects?
Outfit your home with two Playbases instead.
I am sure that there is a valid reason why the oder players cannot support Airplay 2. My issue is that Sonos announced upcoming Airplay 2 compatibility and stated that "it will begin supporting Apple’s AirPlay 2 in 2018, making it possible to play any sound from an iOS device – including YouTube videos and Netflix movies – on Sonos speakers throughout the house. Owners will also be able to ask any Siri-enabled device to control music on Sonos speakers." Sonos should have disclosed that only certain speakers would have Airplay 2 compatibility and that only those speakers, or speakers grouped with them, would be able to be used with Airplay 2. If Sonos had so stated, I would have purchased Sonos Ones instead of Play 1s.
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Outfit your home with two playbases instead.


These are wall mounted televisions so playbase isn't an option.
I am sure that there is a valid reason why the oder players cannot support Airplay 2. My issue is that Sonos announced upcoming Airplay 2 compatibility and stated that "it will begin supporting Apple’s AirPlay 2 in 2018 [...]
That was back in October 2017. Most likely the conditions were not clear or yet to be set at this point.
If they were not sure what would be supported they should have said so. Sonos created the impression that all speakers would be able to use Airplay 2. Also Sonos' new announcement claims that the older models are using outdated technology and are 16 times less powerful than the newer models. Sonos should have updated the outdated models or at least disclosed the issue.
If they were not sure what would be supported they should have said so. Sonos created the impression that all speakers would be able to use Airplay 2. Also Sonos' new announcement claims that the older models are using outdated technology and are 16 times less powerful than the newer models. Sonos should have updated the outdated models or at least disclosed the issue.

They did say so. They have qualified the original statement many times that Airplay 2 would be supported on the Sonos One at the minimum. In addition, if one reads the original statement, they carefully worded it so that anyone with even a scant amount of scepticism would realize they purposefully avoided stating it would be available on all speakers.
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Can someone who is disappointed by this announcement because of having Play:1/3/bar devices tell me what their use case is? I can't see the problem. Maybe it's because I use a Mac with iTunes and I'm already able to get Sonos speakers new or old working over Airplay using Audiobridge. If your system is all-Sonos, I suppose you don't have a problem either as you can use almost any device to play on any speaker. So your use case must involve mixing Sonos hardware with non-Sonos hardware and not using a source that is able to run Audiobridge or something like that I guess. Or are you just mad because you have new hardware that doesn't support the latest features? How would you use those features anyway? The only case I can see is if your music source is an iPhone or iPad.
Sonos did not make it clear in their announcement that Airplay 2 would not be available on all currently sold Sonos Models. Here is a direct quote from the Sonos website that is still on line: "Sonos also announced that it will begin supporting Apple’s AirPlay 2 in 2018, making it possible to play any sound from an iOS device – including YouTube videos and Netflix movies – on Sonos speakers throughout the house. Owners will also be able to ask any Siri-enabled device to control music on Sonos speakers." This makes no mention of Airplay 2 being available on only some speaker. And Sonos's new announcement refers to older models that are still on sale as being underpowered with 1/16th the processing power of the newest model and refers to the new models as "modern" in contrast to older models that are still being sold. I would expect a company to upgrade models that are currently being sold so that the user can take advantage of all of the advertised features of the system, unless the advertisements make it clear that some models do not include the.new feature. Sonos clearly did not do this and I resent it.
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Saldog, I also added to my existing Sonos, two Play: 1's early this year (2018). Then wanted to play specific iTunes playlists without reproducing them on the Sonos controller on the Mac. So I tried Audiobridge, which does not work perfectly for my setup.
I've been sweating on Sonos adding Airplay support, and now find that I've recently bought a product that will never have the functionality I need.
I'd appreciate clear direction from Sonos on this. If it will be possible via an extra device maybe I'll keep the Play:1's and buy the extra device. If it will never be possible, then I must dump the Play:1's (or dump iTunes? :P)
In general, there must be many tens of thousands of Sonos users with older speakers who are also Apple users. They have been abandoned by this decision... I predict a crash for Sonos now that the Apple HomePod is available.
I’m really excited about this news ! I sincerely hope one will be able airplay from an Apple TV to a pair of 5s or Ones !