I’ve recently purchased a VeraEdge and been using the awesome Sonos plug-in. We have Sonos devices in 7 different rooms, but I only have one device setup in Vera. I have TTS alerts setup which work very well. To speak to multiple rooms I use the GroupZones parameter. My question is, is there a similar parameter which can be used to play music across multiple zones? Or is it advised to setup a device in Vera for every Sonos zone and then join zones when playing music? I don’t mind doing this if it’s required but I want to avoid cluttering the interface if I can avoid it.
I am running a Sonos system with about 20 zones, and I have been able to accomplish what you’re looking to do using the alert function. see 1st screen shot with the parameters, this specific one plays a playlist in spotify.
I do have devices created to match up with each of my zones though. One of the challenges with larger Sonos deployments is easily managing volume levels across a house when you’re playing all zones at once. While there may be an easier way to do this, I use Vera to balance the volume levels across my house. I have a scene called “Sonos Volume” which then sets the individual volumes for each of the zones. You can run this when you desire to reset the volumes, or schedule it so each time you go to play audio through the house, the volumes are right where you want them. (see 2nd screen shot)
One note: If your installation of Sonos includes playbars, i’ve struggled a bit to get them to join groups, and have had to explicitly use a “JoinGroup” to get the playbars to be included.
If anyone else has any best practices associated with Sonos and Vera would be great to hear from you…The plugin is really powerful, and I’m sure there are others doing some interesting things.
bkanemios, I never thought to use the Alert function as I assumed the “duration” parameter would be required and I didn’t want to have to calculate the track length before playing. Needless to say it works perfectly and was exactly what I was looking for. In time I’m sure I’ll end up creating each Sonos zone within Vera but I just don’t need that at the moment. I’m only playing the odd track based on the date/occasion so volume isn’t too much of an issue and the SameVolumeForAll seems to work for my environment when using a low number such as 25. Thanks for your help on this, much appreciated, and I’m sure it will help others.
I’ve recently purchased a VeraEdge and been using the awesome Sonos plug-in. We have Sonos devices in 7 different rooms, but I only have one device setup in Vera. I have TTS alerts setup which work very well. To speak to multiple rooms I use the GroupZones parameter. My question is, is there a similar parameter which can be used to play music across multiple zones? Or is it advised to setup a device in Vera for every Sonos zone and then join zones when playing music? I don’t mind doing this if it’s required but I want to avoid cluttering the interface if I can avoid it.
Thank you.[/quote]
You don’t really need to create one device for each zone. In fact, it depends on what you are planning to do exactly. But if you have only one device created, you should be able to manage the group relative to this zone using the action UpdateGroupMembers.
You need to add another device when you want to control another specific zone.
If you have one device associated to zone A and you have no device associated to zone B. Fron this device, you can control zone A standalone or group A+B. You are not able to control zone B standalone.
[quote=“lolodomo, post:5, topic:185001”]You don’t really need to create one device for each zone. In fact, it depends on what you are planning to do exactly. But if you have only one device created, you should be able to manage the group relative to this zone using the action UpdateGroupMembers.
You need to add another device when you want to control another specific zone.[/quote]
Thanks for the help. I presume you just send the action “UpdateGroupMembers” with the value being a comma separated list of zone names which you want to include? The Alert method posted by bkanemios seems to be working fine for my needs. Can you see any advantage to using your method?
[quote=“citrate, post:7, topic:185001”][quote=“lolodomo, post:5, topic:185001”]You don’t really need to create one device for each zone. In fact, it depends on what you are planning to do exactly. But if you have only one device created, you should be able to manage the group relative to this zone using the action UpdateGroupMembers.
You need to add another device when you want to control another specific zone.[/quote]
Thanks for the help. I presume you just send the action “UpdateGroupMembers” with the value being a comma separated list of zone names which you want to include? The Alert method posted by bkanemios seems to be working fine for my needs. Can you see any advantage to using your method?
Using Alert is fine too.[/quote]
Best Home Automation shopping experience. Shop at Ezlo!