Sonos System and Loxone

[Gast]

Hello,

I am installing Loxone in my house to deal with several issues and I am aware of the Loxone Music Server, however I own a complete Sonos system and I am not too keen in investing on yet another system. How well does Loxone play with Sonos? As in, can I integrate Sonos into the Loxone ecosystem in order to stop music playing when something happens, or start music playing in a room when that light is turned on, etc.

Kind regards,

Paulo Matos

[duncan]

yes, simple things like starting/stopping music are easy, but trying to replicate the full remote control experience will not be great

[Gast]

yes, simple things like starting/stopping music are easy, but trying to replicate the full remote control experience will not be great

Shame! How's the connection between Loxone and Sonos made? Is there a specific Sonos plugin for the Loxone server or something?

[Gast]

You can all so use the c3 server. There are some more options between Loxone and sonos.

[Gast]

You can all so use the c3 server. There are some more options between Loxone and sonos.

What's the c3 server? Does that interact with the Miniserver?

[Matthias]

Hi Matos,

I am using Sonos within the Loxone Musikserver, which such a configuration the Sonos system is used as UPnP.
The Musikserver supports Airplay, Spotify, TTS and your own files stored on the HD.
In order to have synchronized zones you need to create your own UDP commands.
However, the MS is further developed and will support Sonos better in the future.

If you want to use Raspberry instead of the Musikserver you can find many scripts and adaptations in this forum which are really nice.

Br
Matthias

[Gast]

first i was a bit embarrassed too about the sonos integration. Because on you can read something like "sonos full supported blablablabla" and I was thinking, that it is completly integrated to the app with song and radio selection, cover thumbnails and all the fancy stuff you know from other music apps. But it is different!
All you can do is to select specific commands like "PLAY","STOP","LOUDER".... "THAT RADIOSTREAM" ...
This makes it extremly uncomfortable to controll the "fancy sonos" stuff out of loxone or the loxone app.

I put my concerns away and started to use it:
- push Button here Sonos Play
- central all OFF stops all Sonos
- button here switch Radiostation

Im using it that way since 8 weeks now and must say that i love it! I do not miss anything integrated in the app or server. 99% Of the time i like to just "activate music" and the sonos plays the last Station or playlist it played before. So i dont need more. And if i like to search for a specific song or like to to fancy stuff ill use the sonos app either way.

[Gast]

Hi Matos,

I am using Sonos within the Loxone Musikserver, which such a configuration the Sonos system is used as UPnP.
The Musikserver supports Airplay, Spotify, TTS and your own files stored on the HD.
In order to have synchronized zones you need to create your own UDP commands.
However, the MS is further developed and will support Sonos better in the future.

If you want to use Raspberry instead of the Musikserver you can find many scripts and adaptations in this forum which are really nice.

Br
Matthias

Thanks Matthias,

I will take a look at the raspberry pi router. Thanks for the pointers.

[Gast]

first i was a bit embarrassed too about the sonos integration. Because on you can read something like "sonos full supported blablablabla" and I was thinking, that it is completly integrated to the app with song and radio selection, cover thumbnails and all the fancy stuff you know from other music apps. But it is different!
All you can do is to select specific commands like "PLAY","STOP","LOUDER".... "THAT RADIOSTREAM" ...
This makes it extremly uncomfortable to controll the "fancy sonos" stuff out of loxone or the loxone app.

I put my concerns away and started to use it:
- push Button here Sonos Play
- central all OFF stops all Sonos
- button here switch Radiostation

Im using it that way since 8 weeks now and must say that i love it! I do not miss anything integrated in the app or server. 99% Of the time i like to just "activate music" and the sonos plays the last Station or playlist it played before. So i dont need more. And if i like to search for a specific song or like to to fancy stuff ill use the sonos app either way.

That 'basic' mode sounds nice already. How do you send those commands? I can see a file in the official loxone page full of virtual outputs, etc. However I don't understand how those commands are sent. Is there any documentation out there about the supported commands?

Thanks.

[Gast]

hi

the installation and config is pretty easy.

1(pic 1): Setup

Add predefined Virtual-Device (sonos)
now you can see a sonos node under the virtual output node.

2.(pic 2) Config

set the IP-Address of your sonos device. (e.g. browsing the Network with your Windows PC you should be able to find the Speaker)

3. (pic 3) program

all you need to do is to connect the needed input with the function you like to have.
Under the Sonos device node you can find all type of preconfegured functions (play,pause, mute ....)

In my example i showed both a simple to button conf (one for play and one for pause) and as i using it the program with a sequencer first push quals play next push is paus and so on.

hope that helps!

[Gast]

Hi,

I tried to connect my miniserver to my Sonos device but it doesn't seem to work. I did exactly what Kafaetz said:

1(pic 1): Setup

Add predefined Virtual-Device (sonos)
now you can see a sonos node under the virtual output node.

2.(pic 2) Config

set the IP-Address of your sonos device. (e.g. browsing the Network with your Windows PC you should be able to find the Speaker)

3. (pic 3) program

all you need to do is to connect the needed input with the function you like to have.
Under the Sonos device node you can find all type of preconfegured functions (play,pause, mute ....)

I created a virtual input for my visualisation and also tried a push button, but my Sonos doesn't react. No play/pause or volume/up down. I have everything updated to the newest firmware/software.
Does somebody have any idea what could be wrong?

thanks in advance

[Gast]

I found the problem, when I configured my router as dedicated access point it worked.

[Liver_64]

Hi,
i never had a look in the "non German" piece of our forum to see whats going on here. If you would like to implement a full working solution please have a look here.https://www.loxforum.com/forum/germa...skript-steuern
Using the php based application you can do almost everything with your Sonos System within Loxone. You have full control and all Standard commands + text-to-speech using 2 diff. Online Engines, Zone grouping, playing mp3 files, weather-to-speech, clock-to-speech, Playlist handling, and so on. I was putting/developing all the scripts and documented them, by mistake, just in German.
But we have our friend google translate or whatever else to get it translated, if you need some details do not hesitate to contact me.
The files could installed at any kind of internal Webserver like Raspberry, Synology, QNAP. The Syntax for all kind of functions are in the README.md file.
Have fun and enjoy it.
Oliver

[Gast]

Hi,
I have a Sonos system, Synology NAS and Raspberry.
When my knx/loxone installation is done, I'm definitely looking into the loxone/sonos integration.

The first goal will be to integrate 3 push buttons: ON/OFF, select radio station 1, select radio station 2.
Don't know yet if it's possible to do solely in Loxone or that I need to use your application. But it's already promising that something like that is possible
Thanks for your work!

Gr,
Nick

[Gast]

I have Sonos in many rooms. Each room has KNX push buttons that always have these functions:
- on/off
- volume up/down
- select radio station (1 local radio, 3 Google Music All Access radio channels)
- thumbs down (so Google won't play this track again + skip immediately)

Now for automation:

In some rooms, audio starts/stops depending on presence, depending on a motion sensor or light on. The started channel and volume depends on the day and time.
In my office, audio is stopped when making or receiving a phone call.

All is controlled directly from Loxone, without any feedback from Sonos, and that seems to be working fine. When I want to control a Sonos on my phone, I use the Sonos app.

Now I will put some files on my QNAP NAS to make announcements on the Sonos.