I see there are 92 articles on Amazon Echo here in the SONOS community. Has anyone from SONOS responded? Does SONOS have any intent to support Amazon Echo integration?
I can't imagine anyone not wanting that. It feels like that is just how SONOS should work. We love our SONOS system but we keep finding ourselves using the lesser quality Echo just because it's easier. I wish I could use my SONOS system as my speaker and my ECHO as the controller (unless of course my SONOS could just do the same thing). I can't imagine how anyone will beat ECHO for speed and quality of response. Not even SIRI can compete with our Amazon Echo experience.
If I have to I will replace my SONOS system with a bunch of ECHO's but I would never want to do that. Not even because of the investment I have already made with SONOS. I would buy a whole new SONOS system if I could have the AMAZON ECHO controller.
Are there any representatives of the SONOS company in this community? Can I even wish for true Integration between the two companies?
Has anyone got an official answer from SONOS about AMAZON ECHO Integration?
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If I had a dime for every time someone predicted Sonos' imminent demise due to "new technology XYZ" brought out by "Big Pockets company IJK", I could buy a new Play:5 and a year of Apple Music. I would suggest doing a search for the King of the Doom and Gloom Posters 'wappinghigh' if the search facility actually worked; but alas it doesn't. Suffice to say if his many predictions came true, Sonos would be owned by Apple, in court for DRM hacking, put out of business by Linksys, Logitech, Sony, Yamaha, Bluesound, Spotify Connect, (and a dozen other companies) or relegated to the scrapheap just because they didn't perfect a Sonos brand router, Sonos brand NAS, Sonos brand dedicated ripper, Sonos brand clock radio, Sonos brand TV display, support Hi-res audio, or hire him as a consultant. Strangely enough, he peppered his posts with phrases like "a company caught napping", "they used to be the best but now . . . ", etc.
So why don't we all sit back and let it all unfold, lest one suffers years of embarrassment like our old friend 'wappinghigh'.
So why don't we all sit back and let it all unfold, lest one suffers years of embarrassment like our old friend 'wappinghigh'.
I'm interested, what is Sonos' core competency going forward?
What makes you think that just because you buy their product you should be privileged to ask, never mind actually get an answer, for this decidedly internal and proprietary information?
I think the poster was asking you what YOU thought the answer was
To be honest - and I know a little about technology - I don't see the opportunity in voice for Sonos. Echo seems to be growing daily - and with the introduction of that $90 smaller unit - that doesn't seem to be a pricepoint Sonos has played in ..
And that is just the hardware. There is the cost of the entire ecosystem behind Voice - which again - Sonos doesn't have. They would have a lot to create - without a clear revenue stream in return
And they just laid people off ? That usually is NOT a good sign for a company that is growing - and investing
And to my knowledge, Sonos has no recurring revenue stream. Its not like there is a subscription fee you pay to Sonos after the initial purpose
So we are back to partnering. But after a year of letting the Echo establish a marketplace - and a 2nd round of product enhancements - delays in partnering are a little more than curious .
To be honest - and I know a little about technology - I don't see the opportunity in voice for Sonos. Echo seems to be growing daily - and with the introduction of that $90 smaller unit - that doesn't seem to be a pricepoint Sonos has played in ..
And that is just the hardware. There is the cost of the entire ecosystem behind Voice - which again - Sonos doesn't have. They would have a lot to create - without a clear revenue stream in return
And they just laid people off ? That usually is NOT a good sign for a company that is growing - and investing
And to my knowledge, Sonos has no recurring revenue stream. Its not like there is a subscription fee you pay to Sonos after the initial purpose
So we are back to partnering. But after a year of letting the Echo establish a marketplace - and a 2nd round of product enhancements - delays in partnering are a little more than curious .
Err, so what are you saying? There should only be one music service on Sonos? Which one? Amazon? Not available outside the US. Sonos don't integrate the music services, the services do that themselves, there's nothing stopping every music service in the world adding itself to Sonos. What's the point of NOT doing that? That's the CEO's point, "now that all the music in the world is available". It isn't if you take all but one music service away.
Sonos doesn't need to compete WITH Echo and similar services. They should be looking to integrate with as many of these services as possible. The direct integration with Google Play Music is/was a start, but feels stagnant now. Sonos (imho) should be focusing on being the leader in quality speaker and sound technology that just works. And by just works, that means integrating with the services that you use (even if there are 10 different ones that are prevalent) and the home automation and voice controllers that are becoming ubiquitous. It's no longer a leaderless, fragmented herd.
I won't get into having a $300 connect when Chromecasts are available for $35 (or less), but honestly the product direction at Sonos must go beyond making great speakers that just work together.
The market is catching up, and being the leader in integrations with services like Alexa, direct connections with streaming services, connecting with Nest, deeper integration with SmartThings, etc. are definitively critical to keep this company moving forward.
Focusing on streaming services is necessary, but not nearly enough as home automation and voice control are critical and there are clear movers in this space. Get on board while you can, Sonos.
I won't get into having a $300 connect when Chromecasts are available for $35 (or less), but honestly the product direction at Sonos must go beyond making great speakers that just work together.
The market is catching up, and being the leader in integrations with services like Alexa, direct connections with streaming services, connecting with Nest, deeper integration with SmartThings, etc. are definitively critical to keep this company moving forward.
Focusing on streaming services is necessary, but not nearly enough as home automation and voice control are critical and there are clear movers in this space. Get on board while you can, Sonos.
As Matthew said above, Sonos makes a few things:
-speakers
-Multiroom, wireless mesh to integrate them
-app that aggregates music from multiple sources to play on their speakers in their mesh
That's about it - not to minimize how well they do it.
They have been the only game in town and did it the best - created a market. The problem, as witnessed by their layoffs and vague press conference, is that some pretty big names have jumped in the game and are picking off pieces of their "system". That system is really their strength because there are competitive alternatives for each component in their system. Nobody yet has created something as good - in total. There speakers are very good, but c'mon man there are hundreds of great speaker manufacturers. They have the best mesh but Google is strengthing quickly and can leverage whatever speaker you feel is best, not just three or four models. Amazon has developed the uber-interface with Echo and can already play music from multiple sources by just telling it to do so - no phone, no app required. By the end of the year they'll have a SonosNet equivilant tying their echo speakers together with voice.
And it doesn't stop there, both google and amazon are looking far beyond music to whole house integration. Music will be just one piece of it. You can already see this with how Nest and Echo integrate with other devices in the home - thermostats, lights, garage door openers, security systems, cameras, etc. They both have their respective clouds to leverage too. I own a few thousand $$ of Sonos equipment but before I buy anymore I waiting to see something concrete on what their vision is.
-speakers
-Multiroom, wireless mesh to integrate them
-app that aggregates music from multiple sources to play on their speakers in their mesh
That's about it - not to minimize how well they do it.
They have been the only game in town and did it the best - created a market. The problem, as witnessed by their layoffs and vague press conference, is that some pretty big names have jumped in the game and are picking off pieces of their "system". That system is really their strength because there are competitive alternatives for each component in their system. Nobody yet has created something as good - in total. There speakers are very good, but c'mon man there are hundreds of great speaker manufacturers. They have the best mesh but Google is strengthing quickly and can leverage whatever speaker you feel is best, not just three or four models. Amazon has developed the uber-interface with Echo and can already play music from multiple sources by just telling it to do so - no phone, no app required. By the end of the year they'll have a SonosNet equivilant tying their echo speakers together with voice.
And it doesn't stop there, both google and amazon are looking far beyond music to whole house integration. Music will be just one piece of it. You can already see this with how Nest and Echo integrate with other devices in the home - thermostats, lights, garage door openers, security systems, cameras, etc. They both have their respective clouds to leverage too. I own a few thousand $$ of Sonos equipment but before I buy anymore I waiting to see something concrete on what their vision is.
Sonos hasn't "focused on music services" in a long while, at least engineering-wise. In 2011 they announced Sonos Labs and the Music Partners program which allowed most of the development of music services to be done by the services themselves through the Music Partners API. Not coincidently, the number of services available exploded after the program came on line.
New York Times article today underscores how Sonos is not keeping up with the times. Laying off staff. Not a good sign. Smart people. Hopefully, they're working on voice activation and will roll it out soon.
This really reminds me of Blackberry a few years back. All the blah blah about how secure they were, no one was going to touch them - and I personally believe Blackberry drank that koolaid way to much ..
iPhone comes on the scene - and Blackberry's days were numbered
I think we have seen this movie ends ..
iPhone comes on the scene - and Blackberry's days were numbered
I think we have seen this movie ends ..
The home automation systems and voice control is a fragmented and leaderless herd with no common standards nor integration to a central "processor" - the automation version of your router.
There are at the very least a dozen different ways to do anything. Which is the right one. Which one will work in five years time? What standards have been agreed. Have any standards been agreed.
Alexa does very simple things (especially once you throw away the ooh that's neat or that you will use once or realise that is more trouble than it is worth.
Is controlling Sonos just as simple?
Alarms.
Groups
Get music from what source.
Overall group volume
Each group volume
Play different music in each group
I have no idea what the answer to that is.
I do think that the future for voice must lay in a central hub that devices communicate through, a homenet. I talk to my phone, my tablet, my TV, my media streamer, my other media streamer and... It gets tiresome trying to work out what to talk to and say what.
There are at the very least a dozen different ways to do anything. Which is the right one. Which one will work in five years time? What standards have been agreed. Have any standards been agreed.
Alexa does very simple things (especially once you throw away the ooh that's neat or that you will use once or realise that is more trouble than it is worth.
Is controlling Sonos just as simple?
Alarms.
Groups
Get music from what source.
Overall group volume
Each group volume
Play different music in each group
I have no idea what the answer to that is.
I do think that the future for voice must lay in a central hub that devices communicate through, a homenet. I talk to my phone, my tablet, my TV, my media streamer, my other media streamer and... It gets tiresome trying to work out what to talk to and say what.
Userlevel 7
+22
right now that central hub for me is Smartthings. Even my echo if I say "Alexa turn on Sonos" it routes through my Smartthings hub.
Amazon doesn't care about owning the speaker market–they care about controlling your entire home. Hence why they have just released the Echo Dot, a smaller Echo that plugs directly into other audio sources and controls them. They even show one plugged into an A/V receiver in one of the marketing images.
In other words, I think they'd be perfectly happy to control Sonos speakers with their tech. It simply needs to be a simpler process.
Chris, have you tried this?
@rmgraci, @everybody
If I can create a virtual machine at home. What operating system you recommend for hosting your code?
I just got my Echo Dot last night. I connected it to my Sonos Play:5 Line-in source and the down side is that Sonos has to be permanently on Line-In hence, no Sonos playing unless you change it on your mobile, but then Alexa becomes crippled.
I'm wondering if the code developed by @rmgraci fixes this or can be modified to maintain a balance between native Sonos operation and Alexa's functionality with the speaker (when directly attached to a line-in of a Sonos speaker). Or, is there a different approach I missed?
Thanks to all who have contributed and keep contributing to this initiative!
-Mario
If I can create a virtual machine at home. What operating system you recommend for hosting your code?
I just got my Echo Dot last night. I connected it to my Sonos Play:5 Line-in source and the down side is that Sonos has to be permanently on Line-In hence, no Sonos playing unless you change it on your mobile, but then Alexa becomes crippled.
I'm wondering if the code developed by @rmgraci fixes this or can be modified to maintain a balance between native Sonos operation and Alexa's functionality with the speaker (when directly attached to a line-in of a Sonos speaker). Or, is there a different approach I missed?
Thanks to all who have contributed and keep contributing to this initiative!
-Mario
@Mario, have you tried Sonos auto line in feature?
No, where do I find it?
No, where do I find it?
Found it on my Sonos software in PC. Thanks!
Now, this does activate Echo audio on the Sonos speaker automatically, but does not set it back to where it was.
For example, if I was playing music and ask "Alexa, ..." it works, but it does not resume the music. Is this too much to ask?
A key to success in business is listening to your customers. From all the activity in this forum and the web in general, it's pretty obvious that Sonos/Echo integration is a real demand of the market. Our family loves our Sonos setup and we use it almost everyday but we are increasingly using Echo just because is a more spontaneous and direct an interface than a smartphone.
Echo is a very well executed product and way better than Siri. Not a matter of funding though. I'm sure Apple has enough R&D to come up with a better/faster Siri but they haven't. Amazon has the funding and somehow figured out the technology. I'm not sure Sonos can do better than Apple or Amazon on this. I hope they keep making great speakers (maybe one for outdoors?).
I hope Sonos and Amazon work out such integration. It would keep me buying more Sonos and Echo gear for the rest of my house. For now, I'm holding off.
Echo is a very well executed product and way better than Siri. Not a matter of funding though. I'm sure Apple has enough R&D to come up with a better/faster Siri but they haven't. Amazon has the funding and somehow figured out the technology. I'm not sure Sonos can do better than Apple or Amazon on this. I hope they keep making great speakers (maybe one for outdoors?).
I hope Sonos and Amazon work out such integration. It would keep me buying more Sonos and Echo gear for the rest of my house. For now, I'm holding off.
Although no specifics were given, the Sonos CEO announced that he is quite aware of the success of the Echo, and is making voice activation and streaming the two top interests for Sonos in the immediate future:
http://blog.sonos.com/news/industry-in-transition-invest-in-future
http://blog.sonos.com/news/industry-in-transition-invest-in-future
Userlevel 7
+26
Hey guys, let's tone it down a bit and hold off from trying to agitate each other when possible.
Posted to the wrong thread? No apparent current agitation here.
Posted to the wrong thread? No apparent current agitation here.
Must have required a deletion.
I want to buy a full Sonos system for my house, but won't until there is an official integration with Alexa/Echo. @Sonos - My $ are waiting here for you...
Found this today in my feedly feed (Search on Sonos)
Sonos has announced that a 2017 software update will allow owners of Alexa-enabled devices (currently Amazon’s Echo range) to control their Sonos speakers with their voices. Yes, even models like the Play:1 that don’t have a line-in, because it'll cleverly work via Wi-Fi.
Read more at http://www.stuff.tv/features/instant-upgrades-sonos#m0ucbm8APdQLV2j1.99
Sonos has announced that a 2017 software update will allow owners of Alexa-enabled devices (currently Amazon’s Echo range) to control their Sonos speakers with their voices. Yes, even models like the Play:1 that don’t have a line-in, because it'll cleverly work via Wi-Fi.
Read more at http://www.stuff.tv/features/instant-upgrades-sonos#m0ucbm8APdQLV2j1.99
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