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Airplay 2 support for PLAY:1, PLAY:3, PLAYBAR - BEWARE

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Be warned about all this talk of old speaker compatibility. It is very misleading. I was advised prior to Airplay 2 release about the functionality we were likely to get. It is very limited. Based on that advise I now have mixture of compatible (SONOS ONEs) and in compatible SONOS speakers (PLAY 3, PLAY:1s, PLAYBAR). Firstly if you have ONEs set as surrounds to a PLAYBAR they will not be compatible with Airplay2 as it is a closed group and the ONEs cannot be seen, this is because the PLAYBAR is the lead speaker in that set (not compatible). This negates Airplay 2 completely. (this is what I did in an attempt to provide access to my older speakers throughout the house). The only way I can bring that theatre set into play is by having an additional play ONE (thats 3 now) to drive the airplay2 commands. Also, 'accessing' older speakers by simply having a single SONOS ONE limits your entire network of speakers as it must be part of the group. For instance if room A has a compatible SONOS ONE and room B has an in compatible PLAY:1 you cannot play music in room B without playing in room A too (as it needs to be one group/room not two), which kind of ruins the notion of multi room. Essentially you have to set up your entire multi room house as one single room/group and toggle the mute/volume on each room depending on which you want to 'hear'. This will then further restrict the beauty of airplay 2 and Siri as you will not be able to send room commands to seperate spaces. You will not be able to say 'play music in the kitchen' as the kitchen will be grouped with the rest of the house. Its a complete hack.

The ONLY way around this is to have at least one compatible speaker in each room/group. ie, ditch everything you have and start again.

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Smilja

I'm sorry. I'm a big fan of Sonos products but that sounds like marketing ******. How much CPU power does the Play:5 has that the Play:3 doesn't? and how much processing power does AirPlay2 requires at the first place?

Why isn't Airplay2 supported on Apple TV 3? What does an Apple TV 4 have inside that an Apple TV 3 doesn't have?

»And the world is like an apple whirling silently in space, Like the circles that you find in the windmills of your mind.« (›Windmills Of Your Mind‹ [1967]. Music by Michel Legrand ; English lyrics written by Alan & Marilyn Bergman)

Stanley_4

Grand Maestro

I have some really old Sonos gear, Zone Player 80s, Gen 1 Play 5s and Play 3s, that are very limited to somewhat limited if I recall correctly. Sonos removed our ability to see most internal data on these so I can't give you a solid answer to how bad the space and CPU power issues are.

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rhill0123

Lyricist III

All, I have a playbar and two Ones set up as surrounds. Airplay 2 doesn't work at all (the ones don't show up).

I was told that the Ones would support Airplay 2 but they can't in this configuration.

Is there a way that I can configure the system to use Airplay 2 with the Ones and also use them as surrounds with the TV? I mean a practical option (not having to press buttons and reconfigure, etc).

I'm really upset because I spent a lot of money in the last 6 months on a playbar and Ones with the belief that Airplay 2 would work as opposed to just going with HomePod. I can live with it if I can find a way to make the Ones work.

Let me know if there is a way. Thanks!

Ken_Griffiths

All, I have a playbar and two Ones set up as surrounds. Airplay 2 doesn't work at all (the ones don't show up).

I was told that the Ones would support Airplay 2 but they can't in this configuration.

Is there a way that I can configure the system to use Airplay 2 with the Ones and also use them as surrounds with the TV? I mean a practical option (not having to press buttons and reconfigure, etc).

I'm really upset because I spent a lot of money in the last 6 months on a playbar and Ones with the belief that Airplay 2 would work as opposed to just going with HomePod. I can live with it if I can find a way to make the Ones work.

Let me know if there is a way. Thanks!

Add another Sonos One to your Sonos Household and 'group' the Playbar Room with it. That seems to me to be the easiest answer, although you may not like my idea.

It’s definitely what I would do, if I were in your position.

In my case, I have lots of the older Sonos speakers, Play -1's/Play-5's (gen1) etc. all around my home, so I have recently added a Sonos One to my Hallway. I just 'group' rooms to the new Sonos One, whenever I want to stream AirPlay Audio to any of my rooms. The extra speaker is effectively just acting as my Sonos AirPlay controller and I can quickly group/ungroup it with any room. It seems to work fine for me.

R

rhill0123

Lyricist III

Ken,
Appreciate your suggestion, but that royally sucks. Why would they design it that way?

Is there no way to just create a group of the two surrounds and play to those?

Or create two whole room systems, one that includes the playbar and surrounds, and another just the surrounds?

Rob

Ken_Griffiths

rhill0123,

When your Sonos Ones are bonded to the Playbar over the 5ghz WiFi band, they are 'slaves' to the Playbar and contained within the Playbar Room... for example it might be called 'Living Room' on the network ... when anything talks to that room, it is really talking to the controlling PlayBar and it’s surrounds are not visible on the network. The speakers therefore cannot be seen as an AirPlay Master controller device, not whist they are bonded.

In this type of setup the Sonos Ones can only handle thd rear left and rear right audio channels via the Playbar itself.

To make them both visible and to work with AirPlay you would need to break them out of the bonded setup and either use them standalone, grouped or paired, but then you revert your Playbar to a 3.0 or 3.1 setup (depending on whether you have the Sonos sub).

The unbonding and bonding process is of course one way to go about it, but I think you may find it a bit of a nuisance over time, hence I would personally opt to buy another Sonos One and put that elsewhere in the home and use that as the AirPlay controller to 'group' with your bonded PlayBar room and/or any other Sonos Rooms you may have in your household.

I’ve got a friend in a similar situation to yourself and he’s decided to add a new Sonos Beam to a smaller TV in his main bedroom and is hoping to get around the issue in much the same way, by using that device as his 'AirPlay Master' for grouping purposes.

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BailsAuthor

Trending Lyricist I

[quote=Ken_Griffiths]

In my case, I have lots of the older Sonos speakers, Play -1's/Play-5's (gen1) etc. all around my home, so I have recently added a Sonos One to my Hallway. I just 'group' rooms to the new Sonos One, whenever I want to stream AirPlay Audio to any of my rooms. The extra speaker is effectively just acting as my Sonos AirPlay controller and I can quickly group/ungroup it with any room. It seems to work fine for me.

This is driving me insane. From my experiments thus far I have determined that the only way to use a ONE as the access point/controller to older speakers is to 'room' it with them in the SONOS app. ie, if I have 2 x PLAY:1s in different locations around the house they need to be bound as a 'room' along with the ONE in the SONOS app room settings (creating 1 single room) not simply grouped in the playback UI as you would normally with individual rooms in multiroom playback. How can you group rooms with older speakers together with your ONE if you cannot see those rooms in the Airplay2 speaker list?

Essentially you can only group and ungroup old and new in the sonos app settings which is much more involved than tapping the group icon during playback.

Am i missing something really obvious here?

Please tell me exactly how you are grouping other rooms with your ONE. Adding all speakers into one room in Sonos app settings? sonos app mult-room grouping during playback? or airplay2 muti-room grouping during playback?

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BailsAuthor

Trending Lyricist I

Massive compromise? I don't see it as such. Switch groups around in Sonos is very easy to do. Again, your idea of setting up your home is one large group all the time, is a rather lousy one, not something Sonos would recommend, or pretty much anyone. Sending audio to whatever compatible speakers you have, then grouping that speaker with the rooom you want to listen to isn't some monumental task. Yes, it means you can't do the whole thing through Siri or Apple's screen.

Please describe how exactly you are grouping rooms together during playback.

If you have a ONE in room A and a PLAY:1 in room B and start playing music in room A via airplay2 how on earth can you see room B in the airplay2 room list when airplay 2 cannot see this room? It is not there.

Airgetlam

In the Sonos controller, group room A with room B. In iOS, send the signal to Room A, and it plays in both rooms simultaneously.

Bruce

B

BailsAuthor

Trending Lyricist I

In the Sonos controller, group room A with room B. In iOS, send the signal to Room A, and it plays in both rooms simultaneously.

I see. I was trying to avoid all use of the Sonos app but clearly you cant. So using the apple music app is now possible just means im grouping rooms in SONOS not in iOS. Thanks for spelling that out, you are the first to do that.

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