6 Pop Songs Great for Audio Demos
Worst DIY Installs Ever Part 7
10 Must-Have Products for Your Next Install
6 Amazing High-End Home Theaters
Print
Email
Comments (14)
Share
Philips Cracks the Sonos Code; Integrates Audio with Automation
Now, instead of relying on Sonos’s proprietary touchscreen controllers (or iPhone), you can integrate the product into a whole-house control system.
“Sonos delivers a great multiroom audio experience,” says Philips marketing director Rudy Musschebroeck. “We deliver a great control experience.”
In the Philips booth at CES 2010, the Sonos system is fed through a receiver. The receiver handles the volume control via a Pronto remote – something you can’t do with a Sonos controller.
More importantly, users can access Sonos through the same remote control -- a TSU9800 or TSU9600 -- that operates other entertainment and automation systems in the home.
Furthermore, Pronto dealers can customize the Sonos interface to the consumer’s liking and, even better, incorporate Sonos audio into whole-house scenes.
A “wake-up” button on a Pronto remote, for example, could slowly ramp up the lights and the music in the bedroom.
[continues]
What Took So Long?
On its own, what the Sonos product does is spectacular – high-quality, wireless multiroom audio that simply works.
* CES 2010 Video: Philips Pronto Controlling Sonos
* Why Sonos Maintains a Closed Architecture
Philips managed to crack the code, however, and now offers seamless integration.
Sonos communicates via UPnP, so the first step for Philips was to get a UPnP engine into Pronto. But Sonos adds some special sauce that makes it invisible to the network.
“Through some trial and error, we were able to reverse-engineer it,” says Musschebroeck.
Here's how Philips puts it in the related press release:
The new PEP 2.4 [ProntoEdit Professional] software features enhanced UPnP (Universal Plug and Play)/DNLA (Digital Network Living Alliance) compatibility. The UPnP/DNLA engine now incorporated into the Pronto platform accelerates the development of two-way integration modules between A/V servers, players and control devices, so providing a straightforward, single solution for controlling any product of manufacturers adhering to the UPnP standard. The UPnP discovery mechanism embedded within the software’s ProntoScript library will help the Pronto control panel automatically find IP devices on the network.
Significantly, these developments allow Pronto to integrate Sonos multi-room audio systems quickly and directly into a system without the need for special hardware, additional PC’s or the use of a Sonos controller. The upgraded software also enables Pronto to control and access content from TwonkyMedia-based equipment, being one of the most popular UPnP servers on the market. New Sonos and TwonkyMedia pre-configured modules are available in ProntoScript.
There's no hard feelings from Sonos, though. Musschebroeck says that some Sonos execs visited the Philips booth during CES and they were “very excited” about the interface.
No doubt, integrators are, too.
“They can go back to all their Sonos customers and add control from Philips,” Musschebroeck says.
Philips isn’t exactly the first to crack the Sonos code. An Australian company called AVD has been offering Sonos integration software for Pronto remotes for at least a year.
The difference? Philips’s own version is free and the integration is seamless.
Subscribe to the CE Pro Newsletter
Article Topics
News · Product News · Audio · Distributed Audio · Home Automation and Control · Control Systems · Universal Remotes · Events · CES · Wireless A/V · Wireless Av · Philips Pronto · Sonos · Philips · Universal Remote ·About the Author
14 Comments (displayed in order by date/time)
Awesome, this was really needed. I am going to have to hit up one of my colleagues for a Pronto remote. I wonder if someone from Sonos or Phillips can comment on what happens to the interface when Sonos upgrades their software? When building using the “reverse engineer” approach as opposed to using a formal SDK or API can result in things breaking on a regular basis.
I think this would be a much more viable approach if Sonos would come out with a documented interface.
Now if only Crestron could figure this out ...
We’ve been doing Sonos control for a few months using our RTI remotes but it requires our automation controller to be in the mix. Would be nice if Sonos got with the program an opened up their protocol so we don’t have to jump through hoops. When will manufactures learn?
I agree with AdamS. Solve the integration problem…don’t buy Sonos.
I wish Phillips would stop telling lies.
The Sonos control protocol is NOT closed and NOT protected. There are plenty of third-party controllers written which prove this. Many of these have been written by hobbiest developers.
Integration to Sonos can be done by competent developers.
The REAL problem here is that the Pronto platform lacked the technical capability to do this. They required a UPnP library, and they didn’t have one.
As soon as Phillips added full UPnP libraries to the Pronto, this became possible and they were able to deliver this capability, no “cracking” required. Just plain old development.
I can’t believe the level of ignorance and buck-passing here.
The need for an intermediate automation controller for the RTI remote is nothing to do with the Sonos protocol being “closed” (which it isn’t) and EVERYTHING to do with a lack of capability in the RTI remote.
If the RTI supported a UPnP SDK, it would be possible to develop Sonos control directly on the remote itself.
What will happen to all those systems using “cracked code” non-Sonos controllers or remotes if Sonos one day decides to change the control protocol without telling anyone and the next time a user does an on line update things “no-workie no-more”?
Well they haven’t substantially changed this in 4 years. The Open Source purple.org controller software that was written over 4 years ago using the open API still works (I think they had one minor change in that time), as does the Homeseer plugin.
Remember, when this article uses the word “cracked” it’ is grossly exaggerating. This stuff has been available and known about for years, and is used by quite a few projects. A lot of it is based on standard UPnP Media Server/Renderer standards.
“cracked” to me means “without consent or permission”. If Sonos finds this action to be a competitive threat (impact to controller sales) they are completely within their rights to make changes to their API to disable the access…or maybe I’m just a pessimist.
The assumption that this is “without consent or permission” is not valid. Back in Feb 2005 Sonos posted the following on their forums:
“Now’s the time to prove what you’re made of…
Many of the requests for control over the Sonos DMS can be accomplished using the UPnP control protocol we use for all our inter device communication.
Usual caveats apply - no direct support from us. Post your findings here and let’s see how creative you can get.”
Of course they could withdraw or change this, but it seems unlikely. They don’t seem bothered with eroding sales of their hardware controllers, or why would they give both of their current software controllers away for free (the PC and the iPhone one)?
By the way, I have heard rumours that, contrary to the “information” in this article, Sonos actually provided some assistance to Phillips to produce this integration.
Sonos appeared to be quite pleased by Philips’s implementation.
So if the protocol is open, there should some android apps available as well, does anybody know of any?
Try Andronos
Finally!! This is one of those “we’ve been waiting” moments. Too bad we haven’t used Philips to this point…