thanks for ruining the clients experience, and "fixing" what wasn't broken with integration with C4. You have not only managed to PISS off multiple clients but you have rendered this "integrated" system virtually useless. And guess who gets the blame, not you, not spotify but US. I have spent 5 hours today converting a client over to your "endorsed" driver.


Client has a big system with matrix, hardwired keypads dedicated to audio and uses spotify exclusively and occasionally pandora. he has 4 connects going into the zektor matrix...finally got the call that spotify no longer works so knowing i had to go out and do the endorsed driver. never mind that it absolutely sucks but now the clients keypads cannot be used with the driver.

as per TS this cannot be done. they said you can only select a single favorite so double and tripple tap wont work to select another "favorite".... this is Because keypads are not sonos endorsed you have to make a work around for it to work because they classify this as a "mini driver" W.T.F.?!?!?

this is absolutely ridiculous, tech support said their hands are tied and cannot do ANYTHING because you guys decided to stick your grimy paws into a driver that worked PERFECT before. i get the spotify thing but as far as pandora and other sources. WTF! as of now i have to CEASE selling your product, sonos. until you can give us a reliable driver that lets us DO WHAT WE WERE ABLE TO before it literally makes it impossible to give a client a fully integrated solution. your bean counters may not understand why you need this and want to "control the experience" but know you have PISSED off multiple dealers, clients to no end and caused HOURS AND HOURS of needless reprogramming and frustration.

EFF YOU....

I am guessing all of this made you feel better? worse?

Welcome to "SonosWorld" lots of very hip cool people walking around talking about the "experience" in skinny jeans sipping lattes and writing notes on their iPads...and the result just keeps getting worse....We are headed back to S1 for media streamers....

Add Spotify favorites.

Bring said favorites into Composer. Make sure they are available to the system.

then create a number variable and call it spotify favorites.

Then on your keypad press, program "spotify favorites" variable=+1

Program on the variable, if SF variable= 1, play x playlist.

if SF variable= 2, play y playlist

if SF variable= 3, play z playlist

so on and so forth. At the end of your playlist list programming, add SF variable = 0, so it returns to the first selection.

Now your single keypad button will toggle through all his playlists on each press.

The biggest disadvantage is you only have so many favorites that you can use in the system. I forget what the limit is but I know it's not much.

This should work providing the favorites are available for programming. Unless i'm totally missing something here, haven't had to do this typr of programming in a while.

Sometimes the venting keeps one from climbing the closest bell tower with a deer rifle

The company i work for was lucky enough to learn this lesson 20 years ago (thanks Phast) when the economy was great and a single job wouldn't put someone out of business.

Never ever ever sell a work around product like Sonos. They made a sale and you will be jumping through hoops for the rest of your life trying to keep it working.

The problem is more Spotify here. They are the ones that have locked the control to only allowing their app now. And their app is getting worse ever update, I find the newest version of their app to be total dog crap! It makes it painful to use the service now.
I stop paying for Spotify last year and continually remind them as to why I refuse to use their service anymore. If only EVERYONE would do this, it would send a clear message.

Meanwhile, I see Napster has a special right now. Get 3 months for $1 when you signup. Going to try it out, it is very Spotify like. All though not nearly as many CE devices support it yet. But it is on SONOS.

I don't know how you can say Sonos is a work around product? Do you call Lutron a work around product? Maybe now with crestron taxing you dealers....

It's not so much now because C4 has built in streaming but it doesn't help the fact that clients use ALL sources like Spotify audible etc etc. and now with ignorant services wanting to control the end experience (Spotify) who's to say that products like autonomics etc etc will solve what we need? They can't!

Unless you can 100% control the entire experience with your platform of choice then you are stuck with a "work around product" i.e. Cable boxes, blue ray players, TVs and the list goes on and on.

It's in our name, we are CUSTOM iNTEGRATORS...

The announcement from Sonos saying they are partners of the industry now was really just an EFF YOU "tax" like crestron just pulled on you. How CE pro and Julie can defend that is total crap. But I digress.

Thanks, you used to be able to just select a favorite in the macro "if Spotify button is pressed" select playlist from x Sonos player " and that was enough to activate the zone. Your workaround won't work now with the new endorsed driver :(

Well part of the problem was created by Spotify, yes. But Control4 chose to discontinue support of the existing, and fully functional SONOS driver that they had created and was working perfectly fine (and still does, in fact, as of this writing). It may have been part of their agreement with SONOS as part of the "endorsed" B.S. rollout. Either way, they could have continued along as they have done for years if they had chosen to do so.

The endorsed drivers do suck, that is also a fact. That is to blame on SONOS 100%. Whoever came up with the features to include in the new "endorsed 3rd party integration API" was a bonehead. They must not have consulted with ANY 3rd party integration vendor at all. Because the features are basically worthless. Even the auto room power function in C4 does not work.

We are fiddling around with the Fusion stuff this week again....they work fine in the few Elan systems we have done with them. I am trying to talk the powers that be into bringing in an Autonomics MMS-1e to give a whirl. It seems to be sliced bread on paper. I know there are those here who will not touch Fusion nor Autonomics with a 10' pole though, so my mileage may vary. :)

In the end, with the current state of music streaming integration, it has to be either native to the control system or not integrated into the control system at all IMHO. Anything else is a gamble and a potential future day like 3 Pedal had today. Control4 has Pandora, Tidal, Deezer, Napster, Tunein, and Airplay. I know Spotify seems to be the flavor of the month, but it is not the be all, end all service.

I did a basic C4/SONOS system a few months ago. I ended up taking out the endorsed driver, installing the legacy drivers, and instructing the client to use the SONOS app for music. Granted, the C4 was only being used to operate 2 AV systems in 2 different rooms (both with SONOS Connects in them). Nothing else integrated, so this was no big deal. The legacy SONOS driver works perfect in auto-powering on and off rooms they are assigned to in composer. This makes it work pretty slick without the 2 control platforms interfering one with another. I am not banking on this to continue to work forever, but for the time being, it was the best way to do it.

Sorry, but like I said on the phone when you called, I have NO sympathy. Every C4 dealer defended the EV debacle as being "good business" on C4's part, and not the backstabbing move that it really was to all of us TC dealers and our clients. Proof? Has C4 cut off access to Pakedge and other product lines they bought or are they still available to non-C4 dealers? When they bought EV, it happened the first day of Cedia to make a point of rubbing it in, and immediately cut off ALL support, including access to licenses we PAID for. Every EV/Sonos job we installed included paid licenses. Your situation does not. I have no sympathy that this is happening. You are now in the same situation I was in, scrambling to get paying customers back up and running.

There, now no one can say I always take your side :-)

When have you ever taken his side? :-)

That one time back in '08

What proof? Pakedge dealers, that are not C4 dealers, still have access to Pakedge products/support. And, C4 dealers who were not Pakedge dealers immediately had access to Pakedge. No smoking gun there.

As for the rant in post one. Yes, the new endorsed driver sucks...if you want your client to only use one interface. But, you've known about this for months. It should not be that big of a shock this many months later. Native services will likely be added. If that includes Spotify, 99% of the bitching and moaning will cease, right?

You guys are missing my point. My point is C4 did NOT cut off non-C4 dealers from buying Pakedge, and I. Ekieve other lines they have purchased. They DID cut off URC dealers the second they announced they bought EV. It was a dirty move.

I have been integrating Lutron and Crestron since you were in grade school. Guess how many times an update killed the integration.

Zero.


If you cant deliver a stable way to get your customers spotify...or whatever...then don't offer it. If they just have to have it give them a 3.5 plug or a wireless connection for their phone.

Science experiments will cost you or them time and money and they will always blame you for it. You are the PRO who is supposed to say "no sorry you cant do that and this is why".


So far Sonos+Control system is a science experiment. I can't think of a single product in 20 years that has caused more grief...to those trying to control it.


I bet the Crestron F U tax doesn't break my customers systems.