Virtual zones


Userlevel 1
As per my 8 year old thread - http://forums.sonos.com/showthread.php?t=14604 I would like virtual zones - for example, an upstairs zone or downstairs, or outside so I can quickly get the music I want to the areas I want.

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53 replies

Userlevel 3
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I won't speak for anyone else, but for me it is the following:

I have two speakers in two separate rooms that I ALWAYS play/group together. I want this group to be permanent until I break them via the software interface. I have several other speakers that I would also like have set in a permanent group, since I am always grouping them. What happens when I want to include those same speakers in a bigger group, I have to break them up and or amend a single group in order to accommodate the other speakers. I would like to have a pre-designated group of speakers. That I can have at my finger tips without having to build them over and over again.

I would also like to have an upstairs group and downstairs group. Basically different sets of groups throughout the house.

Play Group 1 (speaker A and B start playing)
Play Group 2 (speakers A and C start playing)
Play Group 3 (speakers C and B start playing)
Play Speaker "A"
Play Group 4 (speakers A, B, and C start playing)
Play Group 5 (speakers D and A start playing)
Play Group 6 (speakers A, B, C, and D start playing)

Basically based on what you select or say, those groups will play. Yes there are some challenges like you mentioned. For me, this would allow me to better use my voice controls to operate. These two speaker groups are always grouped together. I want them to stay that way plus being able to include those groups in other groups based on what I select or have already designated as groups.

I would say, create a separate section called virtual groups/fixed groups, or just saved groups, which allows you to select and chose which speaker combinations you would like and be able to give them a name.

Like I mentioned before, as it stands right now, you have to build the groups ever time you want to group speakers. Being able to save your groups would be a huge in my book.
Your model only works for the use case of a single user with several different virtual groups that share speakers but only one virtual group is active to a time.

In the real world Sonos has to expect and accommodate multiple users and multiple groups operating at the same time but playing different programs. If you want Sonos to consider your request you need to explain how your model will scale to these real world use cases.
Userlevel 3
Badge +1
Not really, the same rules apply for these as they would with any other group you create. If you want to ungroup then you can, if you want to keep the same group going you can. Same thing applies now. If a user has a group and the second, third, or forth user wants to use a single speaker, they can do just that, ungroup and use that single group. If the user wants to use multiple speakers, each user can. That isn't the problem. The issue I would like to see/want to solve is having to build these groups continuously, each and every single time we want to group speakers. Why can't we have a remember this group functionality?

Let us have groups/zones. If you don't want to use them, you don't use them. If you want to use them, you will.

This isn't a one size fits all, but either is the current software solution, just but the amount of wants in this forum, but it does fill the need of those who want to create and keep these groups/zones.