“Sonos has revealed how its speakers will use Apple’s new AirPlay 2 technology,” Andrew Griffin reports for The Independent. “Soon, anyone with a Sonos speaker will be able to listen to music just by clicking on their phone or asking Siri to put it on. But only if they have the right speakers.”
“Newer Sonos speakers – the Sonos One, its Playbase and the Play:5 – will all be able to get AirPlay as normal. That will mean that anyone can click on the little icon at any time, whether they are listening to music or watching video, and then send that to their Sonos speakers. Future Sonos speakers will all support the same technology, too, and will work in the same way,” Griffin reports. “But older ones will not work in that simple way. That is because the processing power and other features in those older speakers such as the original Play:1 or the Play:3 is not up to the demands of AirPlay, so it will not be able to handle them.”
“AirPlay 2 requires that the speaker stores up a long buffer of music that it will be playing in the future. That stops the music from cutting out if there is a break in the internet connection, for instance, but it is also taxing on the devices that are playing them,” Griffin reports. “If an old Sonos speaker is grouped with a newer one, however, then the speakers will be able to receive music using AirPlay 2. If someone owns both a Sonos One and an older Play:1, for instance, they can be grouped together within the app – and the Play:1 will be able to play music from people’s phones, indirectly.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Now all we need is a release date!
(We’d like to get stereo-paring and multi-room audio for our HomePods this decade – if it can be fit in between Apple’s Beer Bashes, of course.)
Sounds like Sonos is keeping it’s eye on the ball.. Would be embarrassing for Apple if Sonos’ integration with AirPlay 2 in their speakers ends up being better than that of the HomePod.