Sonos, Playlists, and random play

[Dave Robinson]

Firstly, apologies for what I am sure are silly questions......

I'm a relative newbie to the Brennan scene.  Have loaded a load of CD's to it, and we've enjoyed the random play feature to listen to all sorts!

Decided to get a portable Sonos speaker, so we can take our music outside with us.

But it doesn't work the same way. I can play a track, or an album, but not a random selection. Is that right, or am I doing something daft?

I then put a selection of CD's in a playlist (never used playlists before), but can't really work out how to play that playlist! Can I play the playlist in random order too?

Thanks for any help.

Dave

[PMB]

Hi Dave,

If you are using the Sonos on your network to play music from the B2 then your options are to play a Track, an Album or 20 randomised Tracks.

To play the 20 tracks have the B2 paused (displaying the clock) and press NEXT. You will need to repeat this every 20 songs though.

To play a Playlist in randomised order, click on a Track to start the Playlist and then select Random mode.

Paul

Brennan Support.

[nealswe...@gmail.com]

Hi Paul,

Sorry, but these instructions don't really make sense to me. Whatever I do on the Sonos, I can only seem to play a Playlist in non-random order. If I press NEXT on the B2 while playing a playlist to the Sonos (it's displaying the clock), it just starts playing a different track on the B2 while continuing to play the existing track on the Sonos speakers. (Surely it must be possible to write a piece of code that allows for a playlist to be played in random mode on the Sonos? One reason I spent so much money on two Sonos speakers was to have the flexibility to play my music in a different space.)

Thanks for your help with this.

Neal.

[fred.w....@gmail.com]

Hi Neal,

I have 3 Sonos speakers, 2 set up as a stereo pair in one room (named Living Room) and a single in my office (named Office).

You first need to understand that when the B2 plays to a Sonos speaker it is NOT sending music DIRECTLY to that speaker. It is sending the Music to the Sonos System. It is the Sonos system that sends the music to the specified speaker.

You can see this happening if you have your Sonos App open along side the Brennan Web UI as you do things on the Brennan.

Thus,

Using the Brennan Web UI, I can select "Office", then start playing a playlist (Red on my case) and the B2 will then play that playlist on my Office speaker.

And in the Sonos App you will see

Thus you can see that as the MUSIC files of content of the Brennan Playlist (On the Brennan a playlist is a TEXT files pointing to music on the Brennan HDD) have been uploaded to the Sonos System,.

Now if you go into the Sonos App and select random there (I have ringed the button above), the Sonos System will play the files in the list in random order.

Anyhow - that how I do it - The Brennan Web UI random button does NOT seem to change the State of the Sonos App random button! (Not sure if this a BUG or there is some technical reason why it can't do this)

Fred

[PMB]

Hi Fred,

As you say, the Playlist has been uploaded to Sonos, so subsequently selecting Random mode on the B2 won't affect the Playlist play order, as I thought it might. So selecting Random on the Sonos app is the way to go.

Hi Neal,

Pressing NEXT on the B2 will play 20 randomised Tracks to Sonos.

Paul

Brennan Support.

[fred.w....@gmail.com]

Thanks Paul,

Could you put on the "wishlist" that the B2 UI "random" button state be communicated to the Sonos system - it must be possible to do and seems a glaring - counter intuitive omission (at least to me). OR if it can't I think it would help us

to understand why this is.

Fred

[nealswe...@gmail.com]

Thanks, Fred, that's so helpful. Thanks to that simple (but not immediately obvious) fix I am now able to listen to my playlists on Random mode.

Neal.

[fred.w....@gmail.com]

Glad to have been able to help.

Fred