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Contributor I
December 9, 2018
Answered

Air play on Sonos play:1 using sonos:one

So, we have 2 sonos play:1 speakers. I would like to be able to stream from bbc player radio but understand I can do this with sonos: one using airplay. So, my question is: if I get a sonos:one to connect to the current network will I be able to stream the player to the current speakers I have. So we currently have a speaker on ground floor, and one on top floor (of a three storey house) I'd want to listen to the player though just one speaker that may or not be the sonos:one.
Hope this makes sense, ask me questions if you need further explanation.
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    Ken_Griffiths
    December 9, 2018
    The way it works is AirPlay is presently available to these Sonos devices listed below...

    Sonos One
    PlayBase
    Play:5 (gen2)
    Beam
    Sonos Amp


    So you can send an AirPlay stream to any of these products.

    To get the same stream to play on a non-AirPlay speaker, like a Play:1 or Play:3 etc; you will need to 'group' these speakers with an AirPlay-capable speaker... You can then choose to reduce the volume or mute the AirPlay speaker (if you want to) leaving the AirPlay stream just playing on the non-AirPlay (Play:1/3) device.

    So the main point here, is that you will need to 'group rooms together' in order to get your Play:1 speakers to work with AirPlay and the other room must be an AirPlay capable device that can receive and handle the AirPlay stream.

    Hope that helps you to understand how AirPlay works with Sonos. ?

    13 replies

    Ken_Griffiths
    December 9, 2018
    The way it works is AirPlay is presently available to these Sonos devices listed below...

    Sonos One
    PlayBase
    Play:5 (gen2)
    Beam
    Sonos Amp


    So you can send an AirPlay stream to any of these products.

    To get the same stream to play on a non-AirPlay speaker, like a Play:1 or Play:3 etc; you will need to 'group' these speakers with an AirPlay-capable speaker... You can then choose to reduce the volume or mute the AirPlay speaker (if you want to) leaving the AirPlay stream just playing on the non-AirPlay (Play:1/3) device.

    So the main point here, is that you will need to 'group rooms together' in order to get your Play:1 speakers to work with AirPlay and the other room must be an AirPlay capable device that can receive and handle the AirPlay stream.

    Hope that helps you to understand how AirPlay works with Sonos. ?
    Contributor I
    December 15, 2018
    So, what Sonos is saying is, if you bought any of their Sonos Play: 1 speakers, you are out of luck and will need to buy at least another one of their speakers if you want to use AirPlay. So, nice of them to take care of their customers of the past.

    Personally, they should be willing to allow their Sonos Play: 1 customers to either trade up for a new Sonos One speakers at a huge discount or be able to produce something that would allow their Sonos Play: 1 speakers to be able to use AirPlay.

    I bought two speakers from them with no intentions to have to buy more speakers. (At least NOT within a year of turn of purchasing the Sonos Play: 1 speakers.) No technology that costs over a hundred dollars should be obsolete within a year or two of purchase.

    Thank you!
    Ken_Griffiths
    December 15, 2018
    So, what Sonos is saying is, if you bought any of their Sonos Play: 1 speakers, you are out of luck and will need to buy at least another one of their speakers if you want to use AirPlay. So, nice of them to take care of their customers of the past.

    Personally, they should be willing to allow their Sonos Play: 1 customers to either trade up for a new Sonos One speakers at a huge discount or be able to produce something that would allow their Sonos Play: 1 speakers to be able to use AirPlay.

    I bought two speakers from them with no intentions to have to buy more speakers. (At least NOT within a year of turn of purchasing the Sonos Play: 1 speakers.) No technology that costs over a hundred dollars should be obsolete within a year or two of purchase.

    Thank you!

    The Play:1 Speaker has been around since 2013, KP. The simple fact is the processor and memory in that device is not upto scratch to both manage (and play) AirPlay streaming sources within a Sonos Household.

    Sonos could have made AirPlay available to just their newer/recent speakers only, but they chose to allow their latest AirPlay devices to work with their older speakers and thus allowed their existing customers to just buy one new Sonos One device, in order to get AirPlay on ALL their existing speakers.

    I, for one, am grateful that Sonos chose that route, as I have at least 10 of their older products and now enjoy listening to AirPlay sources on all of them.

    I thought the extra small outlay was worth the advantages it brought to my system.
    jgatie
    December 16, 2018
    Is Sonos supposed to take the Airplay 2 hardware requirements in a time machine back to 2013 in order to build the Play:1 to those specs (and probably pricing it out of the market in doing so)? Sometimes new stuff comes along that old stuff cannot handle. That's a fact, and whining about does no good.
    Contributor I
    December 19, 2018
    My apologies. I guess I have been spoiled with Apple and their suppliers who make equipment to last and able to be upgraded with technology changes. i.e. I had to just upgrade my “2008” Mac Pro to a new Mac this month (2018...almost 2019!). YES! That’s 10 years that was able to go through 14 system software updates with this one system purchase. I had a Dell printer that lasted 8 years before it died. Not because of technology updates. But because of use.

    Technology is guaranteed to change and if a company is going to be making equipment working off of technology. It should be built to be able to handle change by adding upgrade cards.

    Or the company should be willing to give those consumers who purchased one of the products. (i.e. I purchased my first Sonos Play: 1 in 2017, NOT 2013. And my second one a couple of months later in 2017.)

    So, I can understand your thoughts, who may own your speakers sines they came out in 2013. If I had purchased the speakers in 2013 I wouldn’t have a problem with this. But I bought my two speakers in 2017, a few months before Sonos revealed they were coming out with the new Sonos One speaker. If I had known they were coming out with this new speaker. I would have waited.

    I don’t expect Sonos to be giving away new speakers to all previous owners. I wouldn’t expect one if I had them for 5 years. But anyone who just bought two new speakers right before they came out with a new technology speaker. Then they should at least be offering those customers a little more than an offer to go ahead a buy a new speaker (at the current $20 off Christmas sale.)

    Thank you.
    Ken_Griffiths
    December 19, 2018
    KP 1

    When you purchased your speaker, there was no AirPlay on them... so you still have exactly what you paid for and now your speakers are likely to work for a good many more years to come, doing what it said on the box and in the instructions supplied with the product..

    The fact Sonos now sell upgraded hardware that would improve your existing hardware is something you will have to pay for.. if you are looking for a discount I doubt any company would offer one for the reasons you suggest. You are best to perhaps sell your devices and use the money you get as the discount off your new Sonos Ones... that’s how most people get a reduction in their outlay by selling and upgrading.

    If you choose not to do that, then I think the issue is your own making and quite frankly out of the hands of Sonos, who are in the game of selling the customer the hardware they have available for sale at the time of the financial transaction.
    jgatie
    December 19, 2018
    "Apple and their suppliers who make equipment to last and able to be upgraded with technology changes."

    Tell that to the people who bought the iPhone 4 in June 2010, then a little over a year later they had to upgrade to the 4S to get Siri. Apple's reasoning? The hardware wasn't up to it. The design was less than 2 years old, and Apple knew what Siri required. Apple gave no discounts.

    The Play:1 design is almost 7 years old, and they had no clue what Airplay 2 required. I doubt a discount is coming, and citing Apple as a way to handle things does nothing but kill the point.
    Contributor I
    December 19, 2018
    I’m confused. You all keep insisting Sonos had these Sonos Play: 1 speakers made (in 2013) long before Apple’s AirPlay existied. Thus having no clue about AirPlay to have anything capable of utilizing AirPlay’s technology put into this speaker.

    FYI...”Release date as AirTunes June 7, 2004;[1] AirPlay: September 1, 2010; November 22, 2010 for iOS systems; Mirroring: June 6, 2011”.

    So, what you are saying is Sonos equipment is made without the technology that was in use 3 years, and available to us consumers, prior to Sonos products even being released?

    Ok, thank you for clarifying how far behind the times Sonos equipment is for me now.

    I’ll keep this in mind when shopping for any future speakers. Thank you!
    pwt
    Virtuoso
    December 19, 2018
    FYI...”Release date as AirTunes June 7, 2004;[1] AirPlay: September 1, 2010; November 22, 2010 for iOS systems; Mirroring: June 6, 2011”.

    So, what you are saying is Sonos equipment is made without the technology that was in use 3 years, and available to us consumers, prior to Sonos products even being released?

    Sonos opted not to implement AirPlay v1 -- which is what you're referring to above -- due to its well documented failings.

    AirPlay 2 is a relatively recent technology, and has significantly higher hardware requirements than AirPlay 1. It's also better, which is why Sonos has now implemented it on any of its speakers that have the necessary processing power. This includes speakers that pre-date the AirPlay 2 introduction.
    4 x P:5 | Sub | 4 x P:1 | 3 x Connect | 2 x Boost | Connect:Amp | 2 x One | Amp | Move | Port | Era 300
    December 19, 2018
    My apologies. I guess I have been spoiled with Apple and their suppliers who make equipment to last and able to be upgraded with technology changes. .ROLF