Skip to main content

Hi guys,

 

A year ago when I moved, I fulfilled myself a long-held dream and got a Sonos multiroom sound system that I am really happy with. Also, this flat has a smart home system that, using KNX, operates everything from heating and light to sun blinds. To control it I can use wall switches or a very simple app.

 

Since I have Sonos microphones in every room, I asked a technician if it’s possible to somehow make use of those mics to control the KNX smart home via voice commands using my Sonos speakers. He was under the impression that the “RealKNX Air Server” would achieve this, however I was informed they are only able to control Sonos speakers for sound output, not the other way around as voice command input for the smart home system (which is ironic since Sonos bought RealKNX in 2019 and now feature their offline voice assistant Snips as “Sonos Voice Control”). This means that with a RealKNX Air server (in combination with their gateway config called “ProServ”) I would need additional microphones from them to be able to use voice commands.

 

Now I don’t really want to get additional mic devices in every room only for my smart home when I have my speakers with already integrated mics anyway. Do you guys know of any kind of setup where Sonos mics can be used for commands to control a KNX-based smart home? I really wouldn’t know where to look.

 

Many thanks in advance,

Chris

Sonos bought snips so they could utilize the tech for music control on their speakers, not with the intent of integrating their speakers into smart home control...at least not right now.  There aren’t any APIs to the Sonos Voice Control (SVC) to allow for any commands to be passed to a 3rd party device for further processing.  Again, maybe some day, but not currently.  From what I’ve seen, Sonos doesn’t really want to get into smart home to that level, so I wouldn’t expect anything.  Maybe if Matter becomes well established and it becomes a lot easier, they will consider it.

Of course Alexa and Google Assistant are also supported by Sonos, so perhaps they have some intgrations with KNX?  I have no idea.

You can use Home Assistant on a Raspberry Pi (or any other compatible device), and setup KNX and Google Assistant there.


You need an KNX IP interface installed for you to establish a connection between Home Assistant and your KNX bus.

 

Sonos speaker → Google Assistant → Home Assistant → KNX IP interface → KNX bus → Lights etc.

 

Setting up Home Assistant with Google Assistant requires a bit of setup and configuration, so it helps if you have an interest in these kind of things and thinks it’s fun. Setting up KNX with Home Assistant requires you to map KNX adresses to Home Assistant lights, so you also need some knowledge about your KNX system.

 

If you’re already a ”computer guy” and have the KNX IP interface installed, you can probably have this up and running in a day by yourself.

 

Thank you for your replies! In case anyone is interested, we managed to make it work with the (physical) BABTec Appmodul 10495, where a service for both Sonos and Alexa now allows me to leverage Alexa voice control (and the quite potent and free Alexa app!) through my Sonos mics to control all KNX elements in my flat. Success at last! :)

 

Also, there is the exciting factor of Amazon having bought an AI company which they plan to intgrate into Alexa.

Terms & ConditionsCookie settings