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Sonos Voice Control Alarm playing only in one speaker on Era 100 stereo pair

  • 10 April 2024
  • 6 replies
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Hi 

I have a stereo pair of Era 100s setup in a room. I have activated Sonos Voice Control on the right speaker.

When I issue an alarm command “Hey Sonos set alarm for 5 minutes”, the right speaker responds confirming the command, however when the alarm chime sounds after 5 minutes it only plays in the left speaker and I can only turn it off at the left speaker.

Any suggestion on how to get the alarm to play in both speakers? And so I don’t have to walk over to the left speaker to turn it off and can do it on the right speaker.

 

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Best answer by Corry P 11 April 2024, 10:32

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Hi @Radek_ko 

Welcome to the Sonos Community!

I have not heard report of this behaviour before, but it sounds like it could be fairly annoying!

Could you please perform the following steps?

  • Remove Sonos Voice Control from the room: Settings » System » [room name] » Sonos Voice Control » Remove Sonos Voice Control
  • Separate the stereo pair: Settings » System » [room name] » Separate Stereo Pair
  • Allow the right speaker to go to a new room, temporarily (just in the app, not really)
  • Physically swap the two speakers*
  • Recreate the stereo pair: Settings » System » [room name] » Set Up Stereo Pair
  • Add SVC to the room once more: Settings » Services & Voice » Add a Voice Assistant » Sonos Voice Control » Get Started

*Feel free to try these steps without physically swapping the speakers first, but if it does not help, please do try swapping - it’s possible that the speaker with the lowest-numerical-value serial number will always be the one that plays the alarm sound.

Please let me know how you get on.

I hope this helps.

Hi @Radek_ko 

Welcome to the Sonos Community!

I have not heard report of this behaviour before, but it sounds like it could be fairly annoying!

Could you please perform the following steps?

  • Remove Sonos Voice Control from the room: Settings » System » [room name] » Sonos Voice Control » Remove Sonos Voice Control
  • Separate the stereo pair: Settings » System » [room name] » Separate Stereo Pair
  • Allow the right speaker to go to a new room, temporarily (just in the app, not really)
  • Physically swap the two speakers*
  • Recreate the stereo pair: Settings » System » [room name] » Set Up Stereo Pair
  • Add SVC to the room once more: Settings » Services & Voice » Add a Voice Assistant » Sonos Voice Control » Get Started

*Feel free to try these steps without physically swapping the speakers first, but if it does not help, please do try swapping - it’s possible that the speaker with the lowest-numerical-value serial number will always be the one that plays the alarm sound.

Please let me know how you get on.

I hope this helps.

 

I followed the above instructions, and physically swapped the speakers. I set the Sonos Voice Control to the “new” left speaker and the voice activated timer once again only played in the left speaker (physically different speaker then during original setup)

I double checked and a similar situation occurs in my home theatre setup: Playbase, 2 x Ones set as surrounds. Left surround One has Sonos Voice Control and when a voice activated timer is set, the timer chime only plays (and can be switched off) on the Playbase. I would have thought in both scenarios the timer chime would play on all speakers in the specific room.

 

Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @Radek_ko 

I would have thought in both scenarios the timer chime would play on all speakers in the specific room

I can see why you would think this - it’s not entirely unreasonable. Personally, I expected the responses and alarm sounds to only come from the speaker that is actually running the Voice Assistant service, so it was a surprise for me to hear that it may just be the speaker with the lowest MAC address value. I’ll see if we can get a ticket written up for this behaviour, as it does not sound ideal to me.

I am glad to hear that swapping the speakers got the alarms sounding from the expected speaker, however!

 

Thanks for looking into it.

If the alarm is designed to only sound from the speaker which has the Sonos Voice Control (SVC) activated, then I still have an issue. In my Era 100 stereo setup the alarm has always defaulted to the designated left speaker in all tested scenarios (irrespective to which physical speaker was set to left and which speaker had the SVC activated).

In my space for the alarm to be useful I need it to be emitted from the right speaker and this speaker will also have SVC activated.

Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @Radek_ko 

That’s also fairly reasonable. I’ve converted this thread into a feature request - if that behaviour is not the intention, then at least we’ve logged your request for it to be different. The relevant teams will see the request for consideration.

I hope this helps.

check your Sonos settings to synchronize alarms across speakers. Verify the stereo pair setup and voice assistant settings, ensuring both speakers are configured correctly.

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