Sonos launches bridge to extend range, updates software to V2.5
Sonos, Inc., the leading developer of wireless multi-room music systems for the digital home, today introduced an addition to the suite of products for the Sonos Digital Music System – the Sonos ZoneBridge™ (BR100). The new ZoneBridge is the easiest way to set up and extend an all-wireless Sonos Digital Music System. ZoneBridge is available for £69 at all Sonos authorized retailers .
“We are focused on continually developing innovative ways for our customers to easily enjoy music throughout their homes,” said Phil Abram, President & COO, Sonos, Inc. ”ZoneBridge provides a cost-effective, flexible solution to connect Sonos to the Internet and wirelessly control and play all the music you love, all over the house.”
The ZoneBridge delivers four key benefits to music-loving consumers that provide for an easy way to set up and extend the Sonos system. First, by connecting it to a router and pressing a single button, the ZoneBridge instantly activates SonosNet™, Sonos’ wireless mesh network. SonosNet enables wireless music distribution throughout the home. Now, customers can fill up any room with music wirelessly, by placing Sonos ZonePlayers anywhere in the home.
In addition, the ZoneBridge is a useful way to extend the range of SonosNet to stream music wirelessly to a remote room or guest house by placing one between the remote music zone and the rest of the Sonos system. For those homes where the speakers have been run to a central location, placing ZoneBridges around the house will provide optimal wireless coverage for the Sonos Controller. And, the ZoneBridge’s two Ethernet jacks bring Internet connectivity to your set-top box, PVR, PC, and more.
Sonos is the first wireless, multi-room digital music system that lets you play digital music all over your house — and control it from the palm of your hand. With a wireless Sonos Controller, you’ll have plug-and-play access to millions of songs — including online music and radio services, and your personal digital music collection. And, with Sonos ZonePlayers in the rooms of your choice, you can play the same song in different rooms, or different songs in different rooms! To learn more about Sonos, please visit www.sonos.com.
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Sonos, Inc., the leading developer of wireless multi-room music systems for the digital home, today released Sonos System Software 2.5. Sonos 2.5 is a feature-packed software update to the award-winning digital music system that enables music lovers to enjoy a multi-million song jukebox experience all over the house. The one-button software update features music search, plug-and-play support for the Napster® music subscription service and the Best Buy Digital Music Store and more.
Music search is a key component of the award-winning Sonos Digital Music System, allowing Sonos customers to fully enjoy the million-song jukebox experience. With millions of songs to choose from, Sonos search allows music lovers to find and play the songs they want from the Best Buy Digital Music Store, the Napster music subscription service, the Rhapsody Online Music Service, as well as their own music libraries. With the wireless Sonos Controller in hand, music lovers can quickly search by artist, album or track.
Sonos continues to give music lovers more and more music right out of the box. Sonos customers can now connect directly to Napster’s catalog of more than 5 million tracks without having to install an application or turn on a computer. With Napster on Sonos, you can enjoy music from Napster’s massive catalog, plus easy access to its music discovery tools such as Billboard Charts, pre-programmed playlists, staff picks, new releases, music sorted by genre, and commercial-free radio stations. In addition, Napster’s innovative automix discovery feature finds and plays tracks like the one you’re listening to. With a single click, automix queues up hours of related music, streaming a customized playlist based on the Napster community’s music preferences.
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“With Sonos 2.5, we continue our commitment to listen to our customers and improve the music experience in the home,” said John MacFarlane, Chief Executive Officer, Sonos, Inc. “Our latest software release marks the arrival of a new way to enjoy music at home by fully realizing the dream of a giant jukebox where you can find any tune and play it in any room.”
“Sonos is one of the few companies that really understands that music should be easy to get and that it shouldn’t require a PC to make the solution work,” said Rob Enderle Principal Analyst for the Enderle Group. “The next generation of home entertainment is all about multimedia services in the Internet cloud. This move by Sonos represents the next big step in music towards making that vision a reality.”
Sonos 2.5 also includes direct support for the Best Buy Digital Music Store. Sonos customers with a Best Buy Digital Music Store subscription can seamlessly access all of the music they love on Sonos. Plus, Best Buy will be demonstrating the Sonos direct-to-service approach at locations throughout the country that feature a multi-zone Sonos display.
Other new features of Sonos System Software 2.5 include:
- Support for long track, artist and album names via text-scrolling on the wireless Sonos Controller.
- Better zone management. It is now possible to drop all grouped zones.
- More ways to queue up music. It is now possible to add a track and clear the queue at the same time. This was one of the most requested features by the Sonos community.
- Improved compatibility with Windows Home Server for centralized storage and organization.
- Enhanced support for Apple Computer’s Airport Extreme.
