Airplay 2 Support | Sonos Community

MrVague-uk · 2017-10-04T17:27:02+00:00

Delighted to see AirPlay 2 support annouced. However, bubble well and truely burst by twitter support confirming it only works on newest devices - the play5 gen 2, and play base. Can this be explained further, is it : (i) Only new devices will support AirPlay 2. So if I have 6 Sonos speakers, 2 of which are play5:gen2, only those 2 will show as airplay speakers? Or (ii) You need at least one compatible device in your ecosystem, which acts as a bridge for older devices. So in scenario above, as at least one play5:gen2 is in the mix, all speakers are available. I am crossing everything that it is (ii)... or there will be a lot of very unhappy people!

Smilja,

Thanks for that link, that's helpful and perhaps shows the reason why we are seeing some recent Sonos updates that have changes mostly behind the scenes, rather than any new user interface changes.

It seems to make sense that these updates are paving the way for Google Home, improved voice control, SMB upgrade and AirPlay-2 support

It appears there is a quite a lot slotted into the Sonos development pipeline, that's reading between the lines of their recent announcements and documentation.

And we know that Play:1, PlayBar etc. don't support 64bit? 64bit processing is nothing new.

SoAnd we know that Play:1, PlayBar etc. don't support 64bit? 64bit processing is nothing new.

So that’s why 'grouping' will be necessary with the Sonos latest products (Sonos One, Playbase etc.) for the integration of AirPlay-2. It looks like it’s all beginning to make some sense, eh?

No my 64bit comment is a question. Do we 'know' those devices aren't 64bit?

The newer device thing I see as just a way of getting the audio into the system - and the grouping distributes it to non-Airplay 2 devices using existing Sonos architecture.

I think the relevant processing power required is clearly described in the Sonos announcement and it 'somewhat' ties in with the link provided by smilja. I’m afraid I don’t see the actual point you are trying to make sjw?

No my 64bit comment is a question. Do we 'know' those devices aren't 64bit? [...]

We are outsiders, so obviously we do not know, but presumably they aren't. I imagine, a few years ago 64bit chipsets weren't common outside of computer systems.

I think the relevant processing power required is clearly described in the Sonos announcement and it 'somewhat' ties in with the link provided by smilja. I’m afraid I don’t see the actual point you are trying to make sjw?I'm not trying to make a point. I've asked a question (Does anybody have any actual information on what these requirements are that are so above the requirements they currently satisfy in allowing all of the above multi room functionality? Is there cpu intensive encryption and decryption going on? What is the reason?) and the reply was that the hardware needs to support 64 bit processing. So I asked if we 'knew' that those Sonos systems weren't 64bit capable. It now appears to be a presumption that it is because 64bit processing is required and that the Sonos players are not.

The Sonos reason is that they just don't have the processing power (1/16 etc.) - which was why I asked in the initial question if anybody knew what was so cpu intensive in AirPlay2 as to necessitate this power. My guess it that the 1/16th figure is pure marketing and they maybe have a 1/16th of the RAM so are only 1/16 as powerful..

sjw,

Clearly the latest apple devices are 64 bit and I can't say for certain if the CPU's in the latest Sonos hardware are 64 bit or not but presumably the CPU's will need to be faster than the older Sonos hardware devices.

I do know that AirPlay-2 not only supports 2 channel stereo but it also supports 5.1 surround sound and it looks like the audio will be in perfect sync with video on iOS devices like iPhone and iPad (at least).

So I guess that will add to the processing power requirements but obviously no one knows what parts of AirPlay 2 Sonos intends to support. They may only support 2 channel stereo streaming perhaps? Not even sure if that will sync with the video output on the iOS devices?

We shall have to all wait and see. Those are my thoughts at the present time.

I mentioned the 64 bit Apple hardware as that shows the iOS devices are quite capable of shifting around a fair amount of data and Sonos will need to keep up with that for the implementation of AirPlay 2.

Hw spec can be found online. The play 1 speakers has a 64bits motherboard. Play 3 has a 32bit. But it is most likely the requirement of airplay2 with what apple has release so far it is a heavy SW application. I suspect it is more an issue with available ram and processor power that can crunch that hw requirement of airplay2.

I don't think it's anything at all to do with 'shifting around a fair amount of data' - the data you can move around between Sonos now or from a phone (inc. Android) is far in excess than that required from some music files and doesn't need support of particularly quick CPU's - as evidenced by the Sonos system itself and how well it runs on 10year old equipment.

Which is why I was wondering why the demands/requirements for AirPlay 2 are so high and my asking if there was maybe on the fly encryption/decryption taking place. It may well be as simple as Apple require 64bit CPU's and the older (still being sold) ones are not. I asked if anybody 'knew' the answer as there are plenty of people that have taken these things apart so may well know - not speculation.

I suspect it is more an issue with available ram and a processor power that can crunch that hw requirement of airplay2.I do too - and was just wondering why so much 'crunching' is needed.

Airplay 2 has a video aspect maybe you can not separated the 2. Like for YouTube airplay 2 support. Need to see the final airplay2 release by apple to really know.

Good point about video. Although one would assume Sonos only needs to deal with the audio mainly, there may well be some overhead for AV sync maintenance.

We can only speculate till we actually see the end result from Apple and Sonos, but I, for one, will be happy if the AirPlay-2 audio implementation by Sonos syncs with the video on all my iOS devices.

I'm hoping that will also include Apple TV. It may even include 5.1 surround sound, but that's just more wishful thinking.

I am extremely disappointed that Play:1 doesn't support Airplay 2 which I got a pair of Play:1.

Sonos did not clear the differences between Play:1 and One before besides the mic and voice control only. It would be better if you promote as 'advanced hardware' than Play:1. Now I have to get a Sonos One just to get the support of Airplay 2 but only the pair of Play:1 can work as stereo. :S

Nope, Sonos.

Well I would say if you got your play 1 within the last month or so. Or if you brought it from Sonos direct you get Sonos 100 day home trail. Contact Sonos about exchanging them for Sonos ones.

I am extremely disappointed that Play:1 doesn't support Airplay 2 which I got a pair of Play:1.

Sonos did not clear the differences between Play:1 and One before besides the mic and voice control only. It would be better if you promote as 'advanced hardware' than Play:1. Now I have to get a Sonos One just to get the support of Airplay 2 but only the pair of Play:1 can work as stereo. :S

Nope, Sonos.

Well I would say if you got your play 1 within the last month or so. Or if you brought it from Sonos direct you get Sonos 100 day home trail. Contact Sonos about exchanging them for Sonos ones.

Thanks for sharing. It may help others here.

However, I bought it at Apple Store and not in the US.

I would still contact Sonos if it was recently. They are very helpful even outside the US.

I am extremely disappointed that Play:1 doesn't support Airplay 2 which I got a pair of Play:1.

Sonos did not clear the differences between Play:1 and One before besides the mic and voice control only. It would be better if you promote as 'advanced hardware' than Play:1. Now I have to get a Sonos One just to get the support of Airplay 2 but only the pair of Play:1 can work as stereo. :S

Nope, Sonos.

Sonos made it very clear that the only device guaranteed to support Airplay 2 would be the Sonos One.

My whole thing is that maybe I do not WANT speaker with a voice assistance. Nor do I need a Play:5 or a Playbase. But yet Sonos still sells Play:1s (that they admit is 10+ year old technology) that do not support AirPlay 2?

My assumption is that they will update these to a generation 2 and introduce the capability to have AirPlay 2 to a Play:1 that does not require voice assistant.

I am also hopeful of some accessory that can be added on to support it natively. Besides AirConnect which I use today. Minor lag of audio.

[...] My assumption is that they will update these to a generation 2 and introduce the capability to have AirPlay 2 to a Play:1 that does not require voice assistant. [...]

I daresay that the Sonos ONE is Play:1 Gen 2. And what about Siri? How would one talk to Siri in the absence of microphones?

Re: The whole 64bit thing, we can speculate till we're blue in the face however I can tell you that a 64bit architecture requirement categorically does not necessarily mean a 32bit device cannot communicate using the protocol in question. Certainly it could, for a number of reasons, not least if there is a requirement to link, statically or otherwise with Apple libraries to do it (that would basically kill 32 bit devices and AP2), but it would even be possible to work around that using a proxy process / service - quite likely not within the Apple Developer / Partner agreement mind. But again a protocol is basically a language that defines how two devices talk to each other and what they will say. Furthermore, it could be that the data they shift about has to be 64bits wide and if it has to arrive at the destination in one piece as a 64bit chunk then that would likely kill it too..

I honestly am not privy to the detail of Airplay 2 since my Apple Developer enrolment expired quite some years ago. Don't get hung up on Apple's deprecation of 32bit however. Yeah, it may be the issue. If my money were on anything however, it would be on the size of free on-board memory for a larger buffer and the processing grunt to get the data into and out of that buffer.

[...] My assumption is that they will update these to a generation 2 and introduce the capability to have AirPlay 2 to a Play:1 that does not require voice assistant. [...]

I daresay that the Sonos ONE is Play:1 Gen 2. And what about Siri? How would one talk to Siri in the absence of microphones?

And if I do not want a speaker with a voice assistant? If that is what they push as generation 2, they will lose ground. Not everyone talks to their devices. Had a Google Home - returned it. Have multiple iOS devices, rarely use Siri. Am not a big enough Amazon user to use Alexa.

And if I do not want a speaker with a voice assistant? If that is what they push as generation 2, they will lose ground. Not everyone talks to their devices. Had a Google Home - returned it. Have multiple iOS devices, rarely use Siri. Am not a big enough Amazon user to use Alexa.

I don't think so. Probably in 10 years from now the entire lineup will possess built-in microphones; but for the Connect/ConnectAmp, that is. I would be surprised if that was not considered industry standard by then.

And if I do not want a speaker with a voice assistant?

Simple. Don't load a voice assistant. If you are especially paranoid, turn off the microphone, which is hardwired to the LED on top, so you will know if it is ever turned on by a hack.

Any other questiions?

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