Introducing Sonos Voice?

  • 23 August 2017
  • 18 replies
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Userlevel 3
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I believe that Sonos will be introducing their own voice assistant accompanying gadget that will permit them to work with the other assistants like Alexa, Google, Cortana, Siri et. al.

Saw this in the Privacy Statement
Voice control works by your voice enabled Sonos Product “listening” for a specific wake word. Please note that not all Sonos Products are voice enabled.

...and this...
Sonos does not retain a copy of your voice recording. Concurrent with the voice recording, your Product will collect data (for example, decibel level at each frequency) about the ambient noise in the room. It is not possible to extract any speech from this type of data. We collect this data to help us improve our speech recognition technology. For example, if you are trying to state a voice command while music is playing, Sonos may improve the technology by lowering the music so that your voice command can be properly understood.

Its not about integrating Alexa with the Echo .. something more! Maybe an Echo Dot copy but working with more than just Alexa.

If true, that will be awesome. Let the excitement continue!!!!

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18 replies

Why the need for an independent, self-developed VR system if there are several other ones from established software manufacturers already available? An API is all it takes for online music services to join the Sonos bandwagon. The same concept in combination with a Sonos-developed external far-field microphone would do the trick for VR at dramatically reduced development costs.
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There is only one device from Sonos at the FCC that is still "secret", just a few days away now before all is revealed...
Userlevel 4
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There is only one device from Sonos at the FCC that is still "secret", just a few days away now before all is revealed...

Ohoooooo!!
Why the need for an independent, self-developed VR system if there are several other ones from established software manufacturers already available?

I don't think that's what the privacy statement is suggesting. If you think about the way these voice assistants work, like Alexa, nothing really happens till you say the wake word. Nothing it hears gets digitally sent to Amazon's servers for processing until that happens. So that mean the listening device itself must be able to listen for the wake word all on it's own. It also must know when to mute music so that it can hear better, and such. So, if Sonos wants to build a product with voice assistant built in, it must be able to do these 'basic' functions.

Why does Sonos want to build their own device with voice assistant built in, instead of just pairing with existing voice assistant devices? I'd say because there are customers out there that don't have sonos or Echo yet who would be compelled to buy with an all-in-one product. There are customers who have both already, but want the all-in-one product. Perhaps because sonos believes no one's going to buy a wireless speaker without voice once it's readily available. Maybe because the media will give Sonos better reviews as your whole house solution if it's presented as an all-in-one vs a 'paired with Echo' type solution.
To Sonos Staff: why does this thread mislead to being a Sonos announcement when seen on the main Community page? I thought the long heralded has arrived.
Userlevel 5
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To Sonos Staff: why does this thread mislead to being a Sonos announcement when seen on the main Community page? I thought the long heralded has arrived.It is a bad idea to allow people to create threads in the Announcements forum.
Userlevel 5
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To Sonos Staff: why does this thread mislead to being a Sonos announcement when seen on the main Community page? I thought the long heralded has arrived.

Due to the title being potentially misleading and originally posted under the "Announcements" section, I've gone ahead and moved this thread to the "Music, culture, & the industry" section. A question mark has also been added to the end of the title.
Why in the world would Sonos want to spend $$$$millions on developing their own voice assistant when there are several maturing voice platforms already available which encourage 3rd party integration via well-documented APIs? Makes zero sense, and Sonos has long shown good market judgment. This ain't gonna happen. Alexa soon, possibly Google next.
Userlevel 3
Badge +5
Why the need for an independent, self-developed VR system if there are several other ones from established software manufacturers already available? An API is all it takes for online music services to join the Sonos bandwagon. The same concept in combination with a Sonos-developed external far-field microphone would do the trick for VR at dramatically reduced development costs.

The idea is to work with all voice assistants. To have the kind of control and functionality that in indicated in their policy, Sonos will need the ability to listen to the speaker and then hand off to the right assistant and/or control their devices. They are just doing the pre processing. Actual AI functionality will be performed by the respective back end systems.
Userlevel 3
Badge +5
To Sonos Staff: why does this thread mislead to being a Sonos announcement when seen on the main Community page? I thought the long heralded has arrived.

Due to the title being potentially misleading and originally posted under the "Announcements" section, I've gone ahead and moved this thread to the "Music, culture, & the industry" section. A question mark has also been added to the end of the title.


Apologies I did not know which section to put this into. I heed the need for keeping the Announcement section clear for Sonos Staff.
Userlevel 3
Badge +5
Why in the world would Sonos want to spend $$$$millions on developing their own voice assistant when there are several maturing voice platforms already available which encourage 3rd party integration via well-documented APIs? Makes zero sense, and Sonos has long shown good market judgment. This ain't gonna happen. Alexa soon, possibly Google next.

So why do they refer to a voice enabled Sonos product?
Userlevel 3
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There is only one device from Sonos at the FCC that is still "secret", just a few days away now before all is revealed...


See all about it in this thread....

https://en.community.sonos.com/wireless-speakers-228992/new-product-showing-on-fcc-s15-6773941


Unveiling on 8/27.....

So why do they refer to a voice enabled Sonos product?

Voice enabled via Alexa, not via a Sonos voice engine.
Userlevel 3
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So why do they refer to a voice enabled Sonos product?

Voice enabled via Alexa, not via a Sonos voice engine.


Not so fast... Looks like an Alexa + Google Assistant +++

https://www.theverge.com/2017/8/29/16219474/sonos-voice-assisted-speaker-event

So why do they refer to a voice enabled Sonos product?

Voice enabled via Alexa, not via a Sonos voice engine.


Not so fast... Looks like an Alexa + Google Assistant +++

https://www.theverge.com/2017/8/29/16219474/sonos-voice-assisted-speaker-event


Yes, as we've been saying all along, voice powered by Alexa, possibly Google,Siri,Cortana... But definitely NOT powered by some new Sonos voice engine...
Userlevel 4
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Sonos aren't going to create a whole new voice engine, the amount of time and resources it would take. Plus the new Sonos One has Alexa + G Assistant. I'm wondering when the Sonos three and Sonos five will come out...
Userlevel 1
SONOS team: - Where is the support for Cortana???
Userlevel 1
Sonos aren't going to create a whole new voice engine, the amount of time and resources it would take. Plus the new Sonos One has Alexa + G Assistant. I'm wondering when the Sonos three and Sonos five will come out...

I too would like to know about a potential Three, Five or Bar with voice'. Are they definitely coming at some point?.
I'd like voice but dont want to have to add a One' to my living room set up just for that.:?