Product: Sonos System / Home Theater
Summary:
Introduce an option to automatically ungroup non-TV rooms when HDMI-ARC TV audio becomes active, while preserving grouping behavior for music playback.
Problem Description:
In mixed-use households, Sonos room groupings persist across sources. When users group multiple rooms for music playback (e.g., Spotify) and later switch to TV audio via HDMI-ARC, the TV audio continues to play across all previously grouped rooms. This is often undesirable, particularly when TV audio should remain localized.
There is currently no way to define source-specific grouping behavior or automatically revert to a neutral (ungrouped) state after a music session.
Example Scenario:
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Living Room (Sonos Amp via HDMI-ARC)
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Kitchen (Sonos speaker)
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User groups both rooms to play music
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Music playback stops
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TV is turned on
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TV audio plays in both rooms unintentionally
Proposed Solution (Options):
Provide one or more of the following system-level options:
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HDMI-ARC Isolation Setting
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“When TV audio starts, automatically ungroup other rooms”
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Source-aware Grouping Rules
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Allow users to define which sources may propagate to grouped rooms
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Idle Playback Reset
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Optional: revert to default (ungrouped) topology after X minutes of inactivity for music sources
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Why This Matters:
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Reduces friction in daily use
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Avoids unintended TV audio in secondary rooms
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Preserves existing party / whole-house TV use cases via opt-in behavior
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Particularly relevant for users who do not always have a mobile controller nearby
Impact:
Improves usability for mixed TV/music households without changing default behavior for existing users.
