I, like many here, am in the process of looking for a replacement for the Logitech Harmony remotes and the iPort xPress Sonos remotes.
There are basically 3 ways that Sonos speakers can be grouped:
- Stereo pairs
2 speakers are inherently grouped as one left speaker and one right speaker. They are no longer controlled individually and any changes to one speaker (L or R) apply to both. Change the volume on one device, for example, and the volume is changed on both. - Home Cinema grouping
A Playbar can have multiple surround speakers associated with it and one subwoofer associated with it. From that point forward none of those devices are controlled individually. Any changes made to the Playbar are automatically applied to the other associated devices. Change the volume on the Playbar, for example, and the volume is changed on all of the associated devices. - Multi-room grouping
All Sonos devices can be grouped together, in the Sonos apps, and they function as one device. Any changes made to the group are automatically applied to all of the devices in the group. Change the volumne in the group, for example, and the volume is changed on all devices.
All of this works fine on the remotes mentioned above.
However, the X1 appears to find and control Sonos devices by their individual IP address and controls only the individual device and not the linked devices.
My Living Room speakers appear as "Living Room (L+R)" in Sonos settings. But in the X1 I find myself with 2 individual and separate devices "Living Room Left" and "Living Room Right" which is named when adding the device to the remote as I can only add them individually. The problem is that they do not work as associated, linked or grouped speakers in the X1 app. The X1 does something I can't even do in the Sonos app: when I change the volume on the left speaker it only changes the left speaker volume and the right speaker volume remains at the level it was at. This obviously creates an imbalance between the two which Sonos does not allow.
The situation is obviously the same for home cinema grouping and understandably worse for multi-room grouping.
The idea that multi-room grouping does not work correctly is understandable for the beginning versions of a remote control product. You have to emulate the group somehow and send commands to the group rather than the device. The Sonos API must allow this somehow as many other manufacturers are able to do so. But it is understandable how this could be a later release fix.
The fact that linked product grouping does not work is a major handicap rendering the product completely unusable for many, many installations. The remote should be able to send commands to one device and Sonos controls replicated that effect on the others.
The fact that we cannot change the volume on home cinema linked devices means that we can't change the volume while watching the television (or projector) renders the remote control useless as this is the primary function of the remote once the programme has started.
The fact that we cannot change the volume on stereo pair linked devices renders the remote control useless, again, as we have to change the volume on the devices individually. Either the user has to go in to devices and change each device individually or we have to create 2 separate activities, 1 for each device, and the user has to go to separate activities to change the volume individually. To turn down the volume 3 times, for example, would require going to the left device and pressing volume down 3 times and then going to the right device and pressing volume down 3 times.
My first hope is that, as a new X1 user and configurer, I am missing something in the configuration commands and possibilities. I am here to learn, adapt and implement.
My greater fear is that none of these options are currently possible with the X1 in which case I have to put it in the closet, for the moment, until such a time as Sofabaton upgrades the software to make is usable. That unfortunately means I also have to go looking for a compatible replacement option.
Thank you for reading this far and I look forward to the conversation.
