Meet the Man Who's Building Sonos' Audio Internet

  • 15 August 2018
  • 5 replies
  • 696 views

Great article in Wired. https://www.wired.com/story/sonos-nick-millington-exclusive-interview/

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5 replies

That was a good read. Besides the info about what the Sonos labs are like, I found two important take aways.

- Sonos is looking at the possibility of products that can be used outside the home.
- Based on the example given in the article, Sonos intends to have both Alexa and Google voice services active on the same speaker. so that you ask Alexa one question/command then turn around and ask another to Google.
Good catch, thanks.
Quote from the article:
"I'm incredibly proud of the fact that you can use the latest iPhone and our app to control a Sonos player that you bought back in 2005, and listen to Spotify, when none of those technologies even existed at the time." In my case, add to that the ability to add an Echo Spot to my 2011 set up that gives me something that I have always thought missing in Sonos - a display for the track playing.
It really is a remarkable achievement, that. And I also remember seeing references to Sonos back in 2006, and completely failing to "get" what it could do for my music, because all there was to see were the zp boxes.
Equally remarkable if true is the Sonos claim that 93% of all the players they have ever sold are still in use.
And most remarkable for the domain they are in is the fact that almost 15 years down the line which is many lifetimes in the tech domain, there still isn't anyone that can do all that Sonos does, as well as Sonos does it.
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That's a great read, thanks. As someone who has had a system from the early days, it's good to read of the development.
Kumar, how does the Echo Spot display playing tracks? Is it using the Sonos App running on the Spot?
I agree that having originally come to Sonos in 2009 from the Squeezebox the one thing I missed was a continuously running display of what was playing.
A combination of not being blessed with the Sonos Alexa integration in India - no loss, IMO - and having Sonos kit with line in jacks, specifically Connect Amps in my case. I wired the Spot to the Line In/Auto Play on the Connect Amp and I get the full Echo/Spot functionality through the Connect Amp as a very good alternative to using the Sonos controller to access Amazon Music.

This isn't possible via the Sonos integration route where the music selected via voice command is handed over to Sonos, and the Spot thereafter does not show the artwork for music that then plays on Sonos.