Sonos today unveiled a brand-new smart sound bar for your TV with dual-assistant support and beam-forming mics whilst confirming that Siri voice control and AirPlay 2, the latest and greatest version of Apple’s local media-streaming technology, are both coming to the One, second-generation Play:5, Playbase and future speakers via a free software update in July.
AirPlay 2 and Siri coming to Sonos
Having demoed AirPlay 2 and Siri voice control functionality on stage at its San Francisco presser this morning, the company underscored that, thanks to AirPlay 2, customers can now take advantage of Siri to control Apple Music on their Sonos system using just their voice.
AirPlay 2 and Siri will be supported on Sonos’s One, second-generation Play:5, Playbase and future speakers. Older hardware won’t support AirPlay 2, but users can easily pair a legacy speaker with one of the supported ones, like Playbase, to gain AirPlay 2 functionality.
It's official: Airplay 2 works on Sonos! We demoed it on stage this morning and are excited to offer it in a free software update in July. pic.twitter.com/xYNPojIwbM
— Sonos (@Sonos) June 6, 2018
Customers will be able to speak to either Alexa or Siri—and even control Apple Music playback using Amazon’s assistant. Sonos speakers that support AirPlay 2 will work without problems with other AirPlay 2-compatible devices, like your HomePod.
Sonos’s continuity of control even lets customers simply hold down the Play button on top of a speaker in another room to instantly extend an AirPlay 2 music session to that room.
Introducing Sonos Beam
But that’s not all, as Sonos today also unveiled some flashy new hardware in form of a new Beam compact sound bar for your TV. It features dual-assistant support, beam-forming microphones, what they’re describing as “clear, room-filling sound” and more.
“With the arrival of AirPlay 2, we will unlock the ability to control Apple Music on Sonos through Siri,” Sonos said. “We’ll add Google Assistant to the Sonos system in the near future as well.”
The $399 sound bar will ship globally beginning July 17. It supports Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and Apple Siri assistants, with Siri support coming via a software update next month.
You can pre-order your Beam today.
Wrapping it up
If you like today’s news from Sonos, then be sure to check out the company’s blog post to learn more about the Beam, AirPlay 2 support and other announcements.
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Last October, they took the wraps off of their new One smart speaker with built-in support for multiple voice services. Having arrived with Amazon Alexa built-in, the One speaker will gain AirPlay 2 and Siri functionality via a free software update next month, as mentioned.
Support for Google Assistant will follow later in 2018.