Sonos Web Interface

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While this article is still a great description of how to wire your Sonos network using BOOST devices, we have since replaced the BOOST devices in our home. Now we have an advanced network configuration that takes advantage of Sonos Beams, as described here.

Sonos web interface reboot

Even if you have a multi-access point Wave 2 Wireless AC WiFi network, I recommend connecting your Sonos speakers as follows:

The Hidden Sonos Web Interface by Volker Weber Sonos controllers interact with the players through the HTTP protocol. It is actually possible to directly use this underlying interface to communicate with the players without being limited by the feature set made available in the controller. The Sonos platform lets you build integrations to control and follow the sound everywhere. All the sounds that matter Bring Sonos listeners the world’s most interesting sounds by putting your podcast on Sonos, unlocking bonus tracks on your album, or creating the perfect mix of rolling waves for deep REM sleep. With the Sonos Sound Platform, bring new ways of listening to millions of Sonos homes around the world. Crestron® HTML5 User Interface bridges standard web development methodologies with Crestron solutions for creating dynamic, scalable user interfaces. Refer to for more information on using Crestron HTML5 User Interface. Support for HTML Web XPanel coming soon. Refer to the Overview section for more information.

Matrix
  1. Ethernet1, else
  2. SonosNet 2.0 wireless network (“Boost” mode), else
  3. your existing WiFi network (“Standard” mode).

This will reduce the likelihood of audio drop outs and network loops, particularly as you connect more Sonos speakers and/or run them in pairs. Relatively few homes have Ethernet wired throughout. The more Sonos speakers you have in your home, the less likely that you have an Ethernet drop in exactly the same location as where you wish to place your Sonos speaker. Therefore, most–if not all–of your Sonos speakers will use some form of WiFi connectivity: SonosNet or your private home WiFi network.

BOOST mode uses SonosNet 2.0, a proprietary wireless mesh WiFI network operating in the 2.4Ghz band.2 It includes MIMO and utilizes 20Mhz wide channels. SonosNet is optimized end-to-end for audio delivery to Sonos devices.3 If you use SonosNet (BOOST mode) exclusively, both your music and Sonos speaker control will be multicast to each room (for stereo pairs, the left speaker unicasts to the right speaker). This permits you to stream multiple lossless audio streams throughout your home.

If you use Standard mode, then only the Sonos control information will be multicast. Audio will be unicast to each speaker, which isn’t scalable if you have many Sonos speakers.

If at least one Sonos One speaker can connect via Ethernet to your router, then you do not need to buy a separate hardware device like the Sonos BOOST to run SonosNet. Just plug in at least one speaker via Ethernet to your home network and reboot all your Sonos speakers. You can confirm that your devices are running on SonosNet by going to About My Sonos System in the desktop app. For each Sonos speaker, it should say WM:0.4

SonosNet uses Spanning Tree Protocol (STP), a network protocol that builds a logical loop-free topology. STP permits only one active path on the network between two devices. If you connect your Sonos speakers to your Ethernet or WiFi network and your networking gear support STP, then I recommend enabling that feature. I provide more details about how I implemented this across a Ubiquiti Unifi aggregator and secondary switches here.

The Sonos BOOST hardware device is a dedicated access point, running SonosNET. Like an Ethernet-connected Sonos speaker running in BOOST mode, it creates a wireless offload network for your Sonos speakers. Using a BOOST device frees you from placing a Sonos speaker near an Ethernet connection.

Contrasting the BOOST device with a Sonos speaker running in BOOST mode, the BOOST device:

  • contains 3 wireless antennae for 360 degrees of coverage and significantly more range
  • has “enterprise grade wireless performance”, and
  • has “advanced wireless interference rejection”

The BOOST device does not have any smart or managed switching capabilities. So, you may still need to pair a BOOST device with a separate managed Ethernet switch if you have a significant amount of non-Sonos multicast traffic in your home.

Initially, I had only two Sonos One smart speakers, each in different rooms. I used Standard mode, connecting them to my Wireless AC WiFi home network. As I added more Sonos speakers, I encountered occasional audio drop outs, particularly noticeable with paired speakers and particularly with lossless audio. Typically, dropouts and buffering are a function of how much data you are streaming on your wireless network. Running more concurrent audio streams or running higher bandwidth streams like lossless audio places a greater burden on your wireless network. This is particularly true in Standard mode because it unicasts audio.

One of my Sonos One speakers was close enough to one of my WiFi access points’ Ethernet port that I could plug it in via Ethernet. This offloaded all my Sonos audio traffic to the separate SonosNet WiFi network. However, my Ethernet-connected Sonos One was at the far end of the house. This meant that audio traveling from there to the other end of the house had to travel a number of hops across other Sonos speakers. Here is what my network looked like using only an Ethernet-connected Sonos speaker.

Colored cells (green, yellow or red) represent an active wireless connection. Grey cells means that SonosNet isn’t sending data wireless between the two units. The colors in the left column represent the ambient noise conditions: ANI levels correspond to the cell color codes. 0-3 is green; 4-5 is yellow; 6-7 are orange; 8-9 are red. The colors in the cells represent wireless tunnel strength. The inbound and outbound numbers go up to 64. 3d object converter torrent kickass. Lower numbers are worse.

Now, I have purchased three Sonos BOOST hardware devices to feed my sixteen Sonos One smart speakers and a Connect:AMP. I attached each Sonos BOOST device via a managed Ethernet switch to our router. I ensured that the Sonos BOOST devices are configured for an empty 2.4Ghz channel to minimize RF interference.

Comparing the before (Ethernet connected Sonos One speaker in BOOST mode on one side of the house) versus the after (centrally located BOOST device), the improvements are relatively modest in terms of the number of yellow cells.

But, adding a second Ethernet-connected BOOST device makes a significant difference in the number of green cells.

At three Ethernet-connected BOOST devices, we have reached the point of diminishing returns for our house. Note that all three of my BOOSTs are Ethernet connected. It is also possible to run the satellite BOOSTs wirelessly. However, I found that, when I did so, the other two BOOSTs weren’t used by the Sonos system at all. This is because Sonos tries to minimize the number of wireless hops across devices. With this many Sonos speakers, it makes sense to use Ethernet backhaul and multiple BOOST devices.

Beyond the red/yellow/green color codes, here’s how to decode the data presented in the network matrix:

Sonos Smart Home Integration

  • Signal strength (field strength) is the measure of the signal between your Sonos components. The higher your score the better.
  • Noise floor is defined as the sum of all signals–other than the one being measured–including unwanted atmospheric and incidental (man-made) noise. Man-made noise includes your neighbor’s WiFi networks, Bluetooth devices, microwaves, cordless telephones, baby monitors, and security cameras. In the network matrix, you can view the noise floor for each Sonos speaker. The lower your noise floor (as measured in negative dB), the better. For example, a noise floor of -115 db is better than -85 db.
  • OFDM ANI level is a measurement of how well your Sonos components are coping with interference in your wireless environment. The lower your score the better. 0 is best, 9 is worst.

One issue that I struggled with was intermittent dropouts of rooms or paired speakers within rooms. I could play a single Apple Lossless-encoded stream from my Music Library in only 2-3 rooms before I had issues. Party mode always failed. The Sonos Escalations team confirmed that you should be able to play at least three separate lossless streams simultaneously.

Since the issue wasn’t RF-related, we narrowed it down to non-Sonos multicast traffic on my home network. I have a number of Google Cast enabled devices that use multicasting. Sonos heavily relies on multicasting both for group control and audio streaming. The Per-TXQ and Latency fields on this screen are critical: http://boost_IP:1400/status/proc/ath_rincon/fullstatus.5 Any multicast traffic in excess of 143 (Per-TXQ field 0) causes the buffer to be dumped and your Sonos system to behave unexpectedly.

The solution is to place a managed Ethernet switch between the router and your Sonos BOOST device(s). If you cannot run each Boost device to a dedicated port on the managed Ethernet switch, then you are better off running a single Ethernet-connect BOOST for reach (even with more yellow cells) and keeping your Sonos system ‘walled off’ from the rest of your home network. A good “starter” managed switch is the Ubiquiti Networks US-24 24-Port UniFi Managed Gigabit Switch with SFP.6 After installing a managed Ethernet switch, you should configure it as described here.7

Wireless Coverage

  • I recommend putting a single Sonos One in as many rooms as you listen to music before spending the same money on Sonos One pairs in fewer rooms. This permits you to use voice control in more rooms. Additionally, this enhances the coverage of your SonosNet mesh network if you are using a BOOST configuration without a dedicated BOOST device.

Avoiding Wireless Interference

  • Make sure that you place your Sonos BOOST device at least 2 to 3 feet apart from your wireless router or access point. Do not place your BOOST device on metal.
  • Make sure that your Sonos BOOST is operating on a different 2.4Ghz channel than your home network’s access points.
    • I recommend manually specifying the channels on both your router and Sonos, rather than using “auto”. Use only channels 1, 6 or 11
    • Use a WiFi survey tool like WiFi Explorer.
  • For more network configuration tips, I recommend reading my companion article: How To: Optimizing Your Multiple Access Point, Wireless-AC WiFi Network.

Sonos Web Interface

Network Management

  • To review your SonosNet network status, visit the web site running on one of your Sonos speakers: http://player_IP:1400/support/review
  • If you started your Sonos network in Standard Mode, then switched to using Boost Mode, I recommend removing your WiFi network’s credentials from your Sonos system. In the iOS app, you should do a network reset (the button is hidden below the iOS keyboard) under Advanced Settings.
  • Sonos Software Release Notes (for the current version)
  • Wireless Interference and Sonos (video)
  • Sonos BOOST (video)

Sonos Web Interface App


Updated on February 23rd, 2019

  1. This may require advanced configuration of STP on your switch/router.↩

  2. Although the Sonos One speakers have hardware support for 5Ghz, this band isn’t used except for home theater configurations.↩

  3. It is theoretically possible to run Android devices on your SonosNet WiFi network, I don’t recommend it since the whole point of SonosNet is to provide a dedicated network for just your Sonos speakers↩

  4. “WM=0” means your system is in a BOOST Setup. “WM=1” means your system is in a Standard Setup. “WM=2” means the device is bonded as a surround speaker or SUB to a PLAYBAR in Standard Setup.↩

  5. This screen needs to be unlocked by Sonos tech support.↩

  6. I recommend pairing this with Ubiquiti’s USG security gateway, Cloud Key, and WiFi access points.↩

  7. My configuration recommendations are specific to Ubiquiti but they are based on both Sonos STP Switch Settings for Cisco and my collaboration with the Sonos Escalations team.↩

  8. Thanks to everyone who gave feedback there!↩

Connecting your Hubitat Elevation® to your Sonos device is an easy way to add audio and text to speech voice notifications to your home automations. Using the Hubitat Sonos Integration, you can control the volume and playback functions of your Sonos speakers, plus send voice notifications using the built-in Text to Speech (TTS) capabilities of your Hubitat Elevation® hub.

Installing the Hubitat Sonos Integration

  1. From the Hubitat Web Interface select Apps.
  2. Choose Sonos Integration from the list of Built-In Apps.
  3. Wait for your Hubitat Elevation® hub to search for Sonos devices. This can take 5 minutes or more, but typically Sonos devices are found with 30 seconds from installation the Sonos Integration app.
  4. Once your Sonos device is found, press the Next button.
  5. Make your selection by checking the box next to the name of the found device you want to use. To add additional devices not discovered during the Sonos Integration installation, press the Continue Search button.
  6. Press the Done button to finish.

Test your Sonos Integration

  1. In the list of Devices, find the name of your Sonos device you are testing. In the example above, it is named Dining Room Sonos.
  2. Scroll down and find the Speak command.
    • NOTE: There will be some duplicate commands shown, since the same command is part of two separate capabilities of the integration. You will notice for example, one of the Speak commands also has a field for Volume level, while the other only has a single field for testing the TTS message you want to hear from the Sonos device.
  3. Type your test word or phrase into the Text box below the Speak command and press the Speak button. You should hear your word or phrase from your Sonos device.

Using the Hubitat Notifications app for Text to Speech (TTS) messages

The Notifications app can be used to send TTS messages to your Sonos device. This is the simplest way to play TTS announcements on your Sonos. For detail on how to use the Notifications app, please see the Notifications document.

Controlling your Sonos Integration with Rule Machine®

There are several ways to control your Sonos device with Rule Machine® and send Text to Speech (TTS) messages. While it's possible to simply use the Notifications app to play TTS messages on your Sonos device, it is helpful to understand how to build Rule Machine® rules, since you can combine multiple actions, control multiple devices, and trigger all actions within a single rule by way of one or multiple triggers. This is substantially more powerful than a single TTS Notification and will help you Elevate your home automation to new levels. For our basic example below however, the Sonos device will simply play the TTS message at volume 50, anytime the front door contact sensor is opened.

  1. If you have not already done so, install Rule-4.0 with the same method used to install the Sonos Integration at the beginning of this document.
  2. From the Apps page of the Hubitat Web Interface, select Rule Machine
  3. Give your rule a name. For this simple example, we will announce the via TTS, the message 'Front Door' anytime the front door contact sensor is open, so it therefore makes sense to name our example rule 'Announce Front Door'.
  4. For our example rule, we need to specify something to trigger the actions of the rule. We want the rule actions run when the front door is opened, so the trigger device we will select will be our Front Door contact sensor.
  5. You can of course have multiple triggers in Rule Machine®, but for our simple example we only want to use a single trigger. Press the button Done with Trigger Events.
  6. We will now specify the Action for our example rule to Speak a message on our Sonos device. Press the Select Actions to Run button.
  7. From the drop-down menu, choose the Action Send, Speak or Log a Message, Send HTTP Request and then choose Send or Speak a Message.
  8. For our example rule, we want our announcement to be 'Front Door', so type this into the Message to Send field, then scroll down and activate the option Speak this message. For a Sonos device, there are two places where you can select the device to use. If you choose On this speech device, the TTS message will be spoken at the current volume level of the speaker. For our example, we will choose On this music device, since it will allow us to also specify the volume at the same time.
  9. Press Done with this action, and since we will only be adding a single action from our trigger device (the Front Door contact sensor), you should now select Done with Actions.
  10. Press Done to finish and test your rule by activating the trigger device.
  11. As you become more familiar with building rules, you can explore using Rule Machine® Actions called Custom Commands. These allow you to specify actions such as Pause, nextTrack, previousTrack, Mute, etc. These may be independent actions, or they can follow, or proceed the TTS action.

As you can see from the above examples, the power of Rule Machine® can be leveraged to specify criteria that must be met before a rule action is run. In the example rule, the TTS message will be at a specified volume level. Once you are more familiar with building Rule Machine® rules and Conditional Actions , TTS announcements at different volumes, occurring at different times of the day, only in specified Modes, etc., becomes very simple to achieve.

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