Use Sonos without internet?

  • 4 April 2022
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I’m doing the music for my next high school reunion and need some feedback on whether or not I can use Sonos equipment. Wifi and internet at the reunion venue won’t be accessible. I’m thinking of using 3 Play 5’s with my own router and create a wifi network in the ballroom. The music source will be on an IOS device via Airplay. The question is will this work without internet?


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Without internet, yes, without LAN created by your router, no...except.

The issue with large venues is that they tend to be full of human bodies. Human bodies are an excellent absorber of wifi signals, since they’re substantially water. Which means there’s no guaranty that the signal will get from your router to the Sonos devices without issue. 

You may want to search for “wedding” in the forum’s search function, since the two events are fairly similar, you’ll see lots of responses suggesting that this is a bad idea, sprinkled with the occasional complaint that it was tried, and worked fine before there were bodies in the equation, but not so much afterwards.

You can help this issue by stringing ethernet cables between your router and each speaker, but that’s often not very easy. You’re much better off renting a PA system to do this sort of thing, and leave your Sonos speakers in the home environment where they’re actually designed to function well.