Sonos port / C4 hybrid

[DrGonzo65]

Ok, I'm trying to work out what I'm doing wrong with this setup, and could use some guidance.

I have:

triad 8x8 matrix

triad 8 channel amp with a bunch of rooms wired to it

Sonos port (known as Whole House) in sonos

A handful of sonos speakers

 

Current setup:

Sonos port output connects to input 1 on matrix

EA-5 output connects to Sonos port input

What I'm trying to do (two scenarios):

1. Use Alexa to say "play X radio" and have it play in all rooms
2. Use C4 interface to choose music, and have it play in all rooms

#1 is generally working. I have a house group in Alexa that tells it to play on both Kitchen (sonos 5) and Whole House (Port to C4). It's not perfect, but it generally works using Auto Power Rooms and Override Rooms.

#2 is the sticking part. I want to be able to have a stream chosen on the EA-5 play through the Port, then play on the sonos speakers from it as well as the output into the matrix. What seems to happen is that, when I pick something from C4 streaming, and then get Sonos to choose the line-in, C4 senses Sonos, and wants to switch to the Sonos input as the stream source instead of C4 streams. 

To answer some common questions:

Why not just use native C4?

1. I have a bunch of sonos hardware already, and it's nice to be able to add seamlessly.
2. I like to use voice control to select music by artist/album/song, not just playlist, and C4 is *seriously* lagging behind here.

Why not just get a bunch of Sonos Ports and plug them all into the matrix?

That's still on the table, but I already invested in the current setup, and wanted to see if I can get it working before doing that. Plus, they are crazy backordered.

 

Any thoughts on how to do this?

 

[Cyknight]

13 minutes ago, DrGonzo65 said:

what I'm doing wrong with this setup

Two things jump out:

-You have conflicting programming (yes, audio sense will mess you're second goal up every time) - you'll have to think of an alternate option for auto sensing (button, experience button, C4 alexa voice trigger) if you want to use C4 for other services.

-You're attempting to use two system (sort of three) to trigger music.

I'm not arguing your reasoning mind you, but to make this work well, you'll need to make a choice.

By the sounds of it, my suggestion would be to not use C4 (directly) for music at all, just use Sonos (via Alexa or the Sonos App) to select what you want to listen to, and then use auto sensing as you are already doing.

In your example, Sonos has Tune-In as well, just use that instead. If you use C4 for some triggered events to select TuneIn channels, save those as favourites in the Sonos app, and you can still select that channel using C4, but it will use the Sonos for the streaming.