Question

Sonos Beam unable to maintain Surround Sound set-up

  • 28 December 2019
  • 5 replies
  • 459 views
J
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I’ve made numerous attempts to set up my neighbours Sonos system and remain frustrated by the surround sound set up in his lounge.

He has a Sonos Beam and two (first gen) Sonos 1 speakers.  All his Sonos System works through his Sky Wifi network.  His (LG) TV is a current model and the sound is supplied to his beam through HDMI-ARC.

I can set up the surround sound system with no problems.  The Lounge speakers show as a beam with +LS +RS.  The system works fine for a short amount of time and then the rear speakers stop working and show as ? ? in the room set-up.  After a few days the two rear speakers can be seen as individual speakers (rooms) on his sonos system (ie detach completely from his beam).

Recently I have split his Sky Wifi into two wireless networks (one 2.4 and one 5 Ghz) to make sure his Sonos system stays on the 2.4 Ghz network.  This seemed to have worked, however he tells me the rear speakers have yet again dropped off the system.

I’m afraid he doesn’t have a Sonos Bridge.  I don’t want to recommend he purchases one to fix the problem until I can be sure that there are no other potential fixes.

Any suggestions on next steps would be greatly appreciated.

 

 

 

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5 replies

N
Userlevel 7
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Have you tried setting allocated (fixed) ip addresses for the speakers? Reboot the router first. 

J
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Thanks I will give it a go!

Airgetlam

I’d be looking for sources of 5Ghz interference as well. The surrounds “bond” to the Beam on a 5Ghz network, separate from the normal Sonos connection on 2.4Ghz. 

I’ve never seen a case where they actually separate into a new room without some action in the controller app, though. 

A BRIDGE would be extremely unlikely to make any difference, as it would reinforce the signal to the Beam, but not between the Beam and the surrounds. 
 

This is in addition to the good advice by nik9669a, not in replacement. The indication of the “?” Indicates that the speakers aren’t connected to the router, either due to lack of IP or WiFi interference. 

Bruce
J
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I went ahead and allocated a fixed IP address to the Sonos Beam, restarted the wifi and added the two surround sound Play 1’s.   The Beam initially registered on the network as “SonosZP” (along with all the other Sonos products).  Once the two surround Play 1’s were added the Beam then showed as “UNKNOWN” (still with the same Mac and fixed IP address) and the Play 1’s no longer showed on the wireless network (presumably they were connected to the beams own wifi network).  Everything worked fine for a few hours and then the Play 1’s changed from LS+LR to ?+? and the surround sound no longer worked. Restarting the Play 1’s had no effect (ie they continue to show as ?+?).

I remain perplexed with the 5 GHz interference issue.  I tried to turn off the 5Ghz wifi however his Sky Q system uses this part of his network so had to reinstate this in order for his Sky Q to work.  I’ve also tried changing the channel number for the Sky wifi 5 Ghz network again with no success.  As suggested by Bruce, I do believe the problem is related to the Beam’s 5 Ghz network but am at a loss how to resolve the issue.

Any further suggestions are most welcome!

Airgetlam

No, even though the PLAY:1s are on an extension of the network, they should still be receiving IP addresses from the DHCP table on the router. Unless you’ve got more than one device serving IP addresses? An improperly set up WiFi extender, perhaps? The indication of a ? In the listing tells you that indeed there’s something keeping those devices from being properly connected.

Honestly, I’m not sure that I can easily work through this in text. I think you’d be better contact Sonos Support directly to discuss it.

I usually suggest the phone folks, they have more tools available because they're on the phone with you, but they are only available Monday through Friday during business hours. The Twitter support folks are available 24/7.

Bruce
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