Integration at Last: Sonos Wireless Audio and Control4 Automation

Control4 and Sonos lovers rejoice! Soon, you will be able to operate a Sonos multiroom audio system from a Control4 home automation system, including Control4 remote controls, touchscreens and TV interface.

Ordinarily, control of the popular wireless audio system is relegated to Sonos’s own single-purpose touchscreens – there are only two of them -- and an iPhone interface.

The Control4/Sonos driver was written by Extra Vegetables, a UK-based developer of home control software, and will be demonstrated for the first time at Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) next week.

“Sonos is the music streaming solution of choice for many home owners as it provides a convenient way to enjoy music in every room wirelessly,” says Vegetables spokesperson Jane Scotland. “However, up to now controlling a Sonos system and other entertainment equipment has meant juggling a Sonos controller and multiple remotes.”

With the Vegetables solution, users can employ a full range of Control4 interfaces to manage their Sonos music system. From a Control4 touchscreen, for example (the same touchscreen that controls the lights, thermostats and A/V gear), customers can browse through their Sonos music library, create song queues and distribute the tunes to any ZonePlayer on the network. They can also control the volume of the music in any zone.

There are limitations, however. Even with the Vegetables driver, the Sonos system still remains somewhat isolated. Only media from the Sonos database is played by the ZonePlayers. Similarly, the Sonos database is not made available to Control4 devices.

Control4/Sonos Driver: Behind the Scenes

Extra Vegetables isn’t the first company to tap into the Sonos ecosystem. In particular, there has been development around the Philips Pronto remote control, first from Australia’s AVD and then Philips itself.

But Scotland says Vegetables’ Control4 application is different from the Pronto implementation.

For starters, the “names” of each Sonos zone do not appear as IP addresses, rather something friendlier such as “bedroom” or “kitchen.”



"The dealer will have complete freedom on how the zones are named. This is quite important because Sonos uses DHCP and the IP addresses may change,” Scotland says. “There should be no confusion on what player you are controlling.”

In fact, says Scotland, there should be little confusion over the Sonos/Control4 integration, whether you're a veteran user of either system or both of them.

“We will be implementing the Sonos style of music selection, so when you select a track you will have the option to insert it in the queue and play it now, add it to the end of the queue or clear the current queue and replace it with the current track,” she says. “You will also be able to set a default action rather than being asked each time.”

At the same time, says Scotland, “Existing Control4 users will not have to ‘re-learn’ the way they choose music. … We’ll be making full and logical use of the Control4 remote control and this will operate in a way consistent with the Control4 iPod dock.”

Sonos offers line-in jacks on each ZonePlayer. Vegetables plans to utilize the input “to some extent,” Scotland says. “It might be restricted to acting as a local input in a room but we’ll have to wait and see.”

What has Taken So Long for a Control4 Driver?

Sonos is a popular multiroom audio system for the masses. Control4 is the same for home automation. Why has it taken so long to integrate the two solutions?

First, Sonos doesn’t provide a developer’s kit for third parties, and it isn’t necessarily easy to figure out the system’s communications protocol even though it is based on UPnP.

“In many respects it is a standard UPnP device but it is unusual in that both the server and renderer (player) elements are combined in each ZonePlayer,” Scotland says. “What has taken the time and effort is to understand the subtle differences between Sonos and the standard UPnP protocol. That together with the combined server/renderer element has made it an interesting challenge. We are not surprised this hasn’t been done before.”

At the same time, the Control4 interface has been relatively fixed (until the company ships OS 2.0), so Vegetables had to use some “ingenuity” to present the Sonos interface within the Control4 framework and ensure that “it is recognizable and easy to understand by users of both systems,” Scotland says.

It will be even more “recognizable” after Control4 2.0 ships. Then Vegetables can offer enhanced graphical features such as cover art. The company will offer such enhancements via the 4Store app store.

Maintaining Sonos Integrity

Vegetables does not begrudge Sonos for its somewhat closed architecture.

“We understand why Sonos has developed the product in the way they have with a well defined boundary around it,” Scotland says. “It does what it does supremely well. Sonos must be the envy of the industry in terms of how good their technical support is. They can really only do this because of their closed architecture.”

Sonos fans undoubtedly want to integrate their music system with other A/V devices but they may not be technologically equipped to do so.

“Sonos doesn’t want those phone calls,” Scotland suggests.

But Control4 is installed by trained professionals and Vegetables will only sell its Sonos driver to authorized dealers.

“It is then the responsibility of the Control4 dealer to perform and support the Sonos integration, and for us to support the Control4 dealer with the driver.”

Since the driver is sold only to authorized dealers, there is no "retail" price on it, but Scotland suggests it should cost the end users "about the same as a Sonos hand held controller," which retails for $349.

Extra Vegetables??

In case you’re wondering about the company name: “Most integrators offer a ‘soup to nuts’ service to their customers. However even the finest menu can be complemented by some extra vegetables on the side."

Before the company created the Sonos driver, it developed an Apple TV application for Control4, enabling two-way communications via IP– no unreliable IR commands required.

Autonomic in the U.S. is well-known for its two-way Apple TV control (for Crestron, AMX and other control systems but not not Control4), but Vegetables takes the integration one step further, according to Scotland.

Via Control4, users can control the Apple TV on-screen display (OSD) – something that currently eludes Autonomic's integration partners.


Learn more in the Digital Media track at EHX Spring. | http://www.ehxweb.com
Electronic House Expo Spring 2010: The New Opportunities Show, March 25-27, 2010, Orlando, Fla.
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