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Was I just about to waste $12k?

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
July 25, 2020
23 replies
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I was about to pull the trigger on about $12k to wire whole home audio, with Amps powering a bunch of in-wall/ceiling speakers + ARC/Sub combo in the family room. The idea was to have multiple zones in the house, but also create groups for multi-room audio controlled by Google Assistant. We’re an android house with Google Assistant powering our smart home ecosystem. Is there a way for me to get Google Assistant to play audio across multiple zones using voice control?

If not possible with Sonos, any idea on how to achieve this?

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Bumper

@106rallye I'm not trying to group Sonos and non-Sonos devices in a group (I want that, but I definitely know that's not possible). What I'm trying to do iscis a Sonos-only group (which I've done) and control that group through Google Assistant. This should be a straightforward ask, but appears to not be working.

Sonos and Google assistant integration is half baked.

Both companies are suing each other for patent infringement so all bets are off whether it gets better or worse over time.

T

theNEOoneAuthor

Trending Lyricist I

Sonos and Google assistant integration is half baked.

Both companies are suing each other for patent infringement so all bets are off whether it gets better or worse over time.

Hopefully they resolve their issues, because I would imagine customers would benefit from better integration between the two. But personally, the broader Google ecosystem is more important to me than any single component, so the decision here is pretty clear to me. Sorry Sonos, I tried.

Krishma M

Retired Sonos Staff

No, that doesn't work. It'll play music on just one speaker (office speaker) but not any groups. Using the actual group names doesn't work either.

Hi @theNEOone, have you added the Google Assistant in Sonos app? Once done, try to use the microphone of Sonos speaker and it should work.

Help others find useful content by clicking the like button and selecting the best answer to your question.

Bumper

Sonos and Google assistant integration is half baked.

Both companies are suing each other for patent infringement so all bets are off whether it gets better or worse over time.

Hopefully they resolve their issues, because I would imagine customers would benefit from better integration between the two. But personally, the broader Google ecosystem is more important to me than any single component, so the decision here is pretty clear to me. Sorry Sonos, I tried.

Sonos filed in January, Google recently filed their own infringement claims. It's going to be a while.

If you have a home automation hub that supports Sonos and Google home, you might have ok results

using that as a go between Sonos and Google home.

T

theNEOoneAuthor

Trending Lyricist I

No, that doesn't work. It'll play music on just one speaker (office speaker) but not any groups. Using the actual group names doesn't work either.

Hi @theNEOone, have you added the Google Assistant in Sonos app? Once done, try to use the microphone of Sonos speaker and it should work.

Hi, I haven’t added the Google Assistant to the Sonos 1, but I did add the Sonos “skill” to Google Home. I can’t depend on the Sonos 1 being my portal to the Google Assistant because I will have many rooms with just speakers in the wall/ceiling connected to an Amp in the media room, with only a Google Home Mini or other small/simple microphone endpoint to take commands.

T

theNEOoneAuthor

Trending Lyricist I

Sonos filed in January, Google recently filed their own infringement claims. It's going to be a while.

If you have a home automation hub that supports Sonos and Google home, you might have ok results

using that as a go between Sonos and Google home.

Can you elaborate on the options for an automation hub? I don’t want to go down the route of Control4 integration or similar, because I want to keep things simple-stupid for self-service. I’m also not convinced that something like Contol4 would work either, because a friend of mine has issues with getting group audio working throughout his home using Alexa/Control4/Sonos.

I’m going down the rabbit hole here, but I found this: Harman Kardon Amp+Adapt. It basically looks like a chromecast-enabled version of the Amp. I purchased one yesterday to test before plunking down on more of them, but it looks really promising. It should arrive later this week. It’s not nearly as nice looking as the Sonos Amp, but it’s going in a rack with a bunch of other equipment, so I’m sure I’ll get over it.

Bumper

Sonos filed in January, Google recently filed their own infringement claims. It's going to be a while.

If you have a home automation hub that supports Sonos and Google home, you might have ok results

using that as a go between Sonos and Google home.

Can you elaborate on the options for an automation hub? I don’t want to go down the route of Control4 integration or similar, because I want to keep things simple-stupid for self-service. I’m also not convinced that something like Contol4 would work either, because a friend of mine has issues with getting group audio working throughout his home using Alexa/Control4/Sonos.

I’m going down the rabbit hole here, but I found this: Harman Kardon Amp+Adapt. It basically looks like a chromecast-enabled version of the Amp. I purchased one yesterday to test before plunking down on more of them, but it looks really promising. It should arrive later this week. It’s not nearly as nice looking as the Sonos Amp, but it’s going in a rack with a bunch of other equipment, so I’m sure I’ll get over it.

Home Assistant (diy)

https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/sonos/

Smartthings ($$)

Probably a bunch of others

Personally think Sonos with limited speech gh support will be much better for music and reliable than most other products out there.

Krishma M

Retired Sonos Staff

No, that doesn't work. It'll play music on just one speaker (office speaker) but not any groups. Using the actual group names doesn't work either.

Hi @theNEOone, have you added the Google Assistant in Sonos app? Once done, try to use the microphone of Sonos speaker and it should work.

Hi, I haven’t added the Google Assistant to the Sonos 1, but I did add the Sonos “skill” to Google Home. I can’t depend on the Sonos 1 being my portal to the Google Assistant because I will have many rooms with just speakers in the wall/ceiling connected to an Amp in the media room, with only a Google Home Mini or other small/simple microphone endpoint to take commands.

You may need to try adding the Google Assistant in Sonos app as well to test if groupings will work when you use Sonos One’s microphone.

Help others find useful content by clicking the like button and selecting the best answer to your question.

T

theNEOoneAuthor

Trending Lyricist I

Hi Krishma - that doesn’t work either. I have tried that but even using the microphone/Google Assistant via the Sonos 1 does not allow me to play music in a group using voice commands.

I appreciate your help and effort, thank you.

106rallye

Still not sure about what you are trying to achieve:

do you group (GA-enabled) speakers in the Sonos app and then ask the main speaker to play music: or
do you ask google to group speakers and then ask one of them to play music?

1 might work, 2 does not as I understand it.

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