Sonos

Sonos Inc.
Public
Traded as NASDAQ: SONO
Industry Consumer electronics
Founded 2002 (2002)
Founder
  • John MacFarlane
  • Craig Shelburne
  • Tom Cullen
  • Trung Mai
Headquarters Santa Barbara, California, United States
Number of locations
  • 12 offices
  • 3 retail stores
Area served
 Worldwide
Key people
  • Patrick Spence
  • (Chief Executive Officer)
  • Michael Giannetto
  • (Chief Financial Officer)
  • David Perri
  • (Chief Operations Officer)
  • Nicholas Millington
  • (Chief Product Officer)
Number of employees
 1,450 (2018)
Website www.sonos.com

Sonos is an American consumer electronics company founded in 2002 by John MacFarlane, Craig Shelburne, Tom Cullen and Trung Mai, based in Santa Barbara, California. Sonos is widely known for the smart speakers it develops and manufactures.

MacFarlane introduced a prototype at the 2004 Consumer Electronics Show, which was released in 2005 as a bundle called the Digital Music System. The company expanded upon the prototype and product design, adding mesh networking with AES encryption to allow the speakers to play music simultaneously in multiple rooms. Between 2011 and 2014, the company released numerous speakers and added more services. They worked with Bruce Mau Design to incorporate a rebrand of the company, which took effect in 2015. The company has partnered with other companies adding to their catalog of services, including iHeartRadio, Spotify, MOG, QQ Music, and Amazon Music.

They are also partnering with Amazon to enable Alexa to control Sonos speakers, intending to eventually work with every voice assistant on the market.[1] Google Assistant will also be supported by Sonos in 2018.[2]

The company opened its own local studio and art museum, the Sonos Studio, in May 2011 as well as an official Sonos Store in SoHo in July 2016.

History

Sonos was founded in 2002[3] by John MacFarlane, Craig Shelburne, Tom Cullen and Trung Mai, with MacFarlane wanting to create a wireless service.[4] In 2004, MacFarlane brought a prototype of the company's soon-to-be first product, the Digital Music System bundle of smart speakers, to CES and the remote at a Wall Street Journal press conference later that year.[5] The bundle won the "Best of Audio" award at the CES Innovations Design and Engineering awards in November[6] and was released in February 2005.[7] In March, the company introduced the ZP100 amplifier (later replaced by the ZP120 and rebranded as the CONNECT:AMP) as an add-on to the current Digital Music System bundle.[8] The bundle was also announced to be sold in the United Kingdom later in May.[9] This was joined shortly afterwards by the unamplified ZP80 (later replaced by the ZP90, rebranded as the CONNECT) with analog and digital input and output connections to link a user's Sonos system to their traditional amplifier. In 2009 the ZonePlayer S5 (later rebranded as the PLAY:5) an amplified smart speaker was released.

In February 2011, Sirius XM was added to Sonos' catalog of music services.[10] In July, the company announced the PLAY:3, a second, smaller, amplified speaker in its Play lineup of smart speakers[11] and added Spotify to its catalog.[12] MOG was also added to the catalog of services, with a free 14-day trial, in May.[13]

In August 2012, Amazon Cloud Player compatibility was added.[14] In May, the company announced the SUB wireless subwoofer[15] and added QQ Music to their catalog with collaboration from Tencent.[16] Within the same month, Sonos announced the Sonos Studio, a studio and art gallery in which art was exhibited along with Sonos' products for free,[17] and featured events with artists like Beck, The Lonely Island, Solange and others,[18] and released a video about its development on July.[19]

In February 2013, Sonos announced the PLAYBAR soundbar speaker.[20] In October, Sonos announced a third, compact, smart speaker, the PLAY:1.[21][22] In December, the company was estimated to have raised $118 million in venture funding, including a $25 million round; Its investors included Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Redpoint Ventures and Elevation Partners.[23]

In March 2014, the company announced a refresh of its universal Controller app for its system.[24] In January 2015, Sonos was rebranded by Bruce Mau Design,[25] with a new visual identity and improved logotype that was created over the span of four years, from 2011 to 2014.[26] Sonos also announced the limited edition Blue Note PLAY:1 in February, a collaboration with Blue Note Records,[27] which went on sale in March.[28] A new ("2nd gen") PLAY:5 speaker was announced in September. In October, Amazon Music support was officially added following 3 years of Cloud Player support[29] and pre-orders for the PLAY:5 began the same month.[30] In November, a tuning feature called Trueplay was released in a software update.[31] Trueplay tunes the output of Sonos smart speaker units to the acoustics of the room they are in. The initial tuning process requires the use of a suitable Apple smartphone or tablet.

Apple Music became available for streaming in February 2016[32] and Sonos also released a study entitled Music Makes it Home Study.[33] In March, CEO John MacFarlane announced the company's shift to streaming music services and voice control instead of local playback and laid off some employees.[34] In July, the company opened its first Sonos Store in SoHo.[35] In September, the company announced that its products would become available at the Apple Store.[36]

In January 2017, McFarlane announced via the company's blog that he would be stepping down from his role as CEO, and that he would be succeeded in this position by former COO Patrick Spence.[37]

In December 2017, IKEA and Sonos announced a collaboration to build Sonos' technology into furniture sold by IKEA.[38] The first products resulting from the collaboration will launch in 2019.[39]

Products

The company currently offers eight powered speakers: four smart speakers (ONE,[40] PLAY:1,[41] PLAY:3 and PLAY:5[40]), two soundbars (PLAYBAR[40] and BEAM), a television sound system (PLAYBASE),[41] and a subwoofer (SUB)[40]. It also offers the CONNECT:AMP to drive unpowered speaker pairs and the CONNECT to link a Sonos system to conventional audio equipment such as amplifiers and CD players. A key feature of whole house systems starting in 2017 was the adoption of Amazon's Alexa as a third-party voice controller.[42] An updated version of the Sonos Amp was unveiled in August 2018, with a planned limited release in December.[43]

Multiple Sonos devices in a single household are connected to each other wirelessly or through a wired ethernet network or a mixture of the two.[44] The Sonos system creates a proprietary AES-encrypted peer-to-peer mesh network,[45] known as SonosNet. This allows for each unit to play any chosen input and if desired share it as synchronized audio with one or more other chosen zones. A single ZonePlayer or ZoneBridge must be wired to a network for access to LAN and Internet audio sources when using this feature,[44] or when creating a 3.1/5.1 surround setup.[46][47] SonosNet 2.0 integrates MIMO on 802.11n hardware, providing a more robust connection. Sonos does not implement wake-on-wireless technology, instead requiring that every Sonos player or bridge constantly maintains a wireless connection, even when in standby mode or connected by cable. The mesh network maintains signal in digital form throughout transfers, only converting to analog at the speaker endpoint, which was a distinguishing feature versus, for instance, Bose and Squeezebox as of 2009.[45] Sonos devices do not have power buttons, and the company claims that each speaker consumes 4-8W in idle/standby.[48]

Sonos previously offered 2 dedicated handheld controllers. Sales of the more recent CR200 controller were discontinued in 2012.[49]. Existing CR200 controllers continue to operate, however there are reports of touchscreen failures which cannot be repaired.[50]. The previous CR100 ceased being supported in April 2018.[51]

Logo history

Locations

Headquarters

The headquarters are located in Santa Barbara, California.[52]

Stores and resellers

The company's products are mostly resold through vendors, such as Best Buy, Apple and Target. However, online retailers, such as Amazon.com and Crutchfield, also play in the role of distributing and reselling the products manufactured by the company.[53] According to a press release in November 2011, the company had over 6,300 retail locations that housed their products in North America.[54]

The first official Sonos Store was opened in New York City on July 12, 2016.[55] A store opened on Seven Dials in London, in November 2017.[56] A store opened in Berlin, Germany in April 2018.[57]

Offices

There are currently 12 offices operated by Sonos independently.[58] These are located in Australia, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Netherlands, Santa Barbara CA (US), Seattle WA (US), Sweden, and the United Kingdom. An engineering office was present in Boston as of 2017.[42]

References

  1. ↑ "Sonos almost announces Alexa integration - News - Smart Home Geeks". Smart Home Geeks. 2017-08-17. Retrieved 2017-08-26.
  2. ↑ "Sonos debuts Beam soundbar with Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant integration". VentureBeat. 2018-06-06. Retrieved 2018-06-22.
  3. ↑ "Company Overview of Sonos, Inc". Retrieved 3 December 2013.
  4. ↑ Elliott, Amy-Mae (8 December 2011). "The Story Behind the Wireless Music System 10 Years in the Making". Mashable. Retrieved 31 October 2016.
  5. ↑ Bradley, Ryan (30 October 2014). "How Sonos Built the Perfect Wireless Speaker". Bloomberg L.P. Retrieved 31 October 2016.
  6. ↑ Ozler, Levent (11 November 2004). "Sonos Digital Music System: Best of Audio". Dexigner. Retrieved 31 October 2016.
  7. ↑ "Review: Sonos Digital Music System". Macworld. Retrieved 31 October 2016.
  8. ↑ "Sonos Introduces the Sonos(TM) Loudspeaker SP100" (Press release). Sonos. 21 March 2005. Archived from the original on 2016-11-01. Retrieved 31 October 2016 – via PRNewswire.
  9. ↑ Smith, Tony (24 May 2005). "Sonos wireless music kit ready to roll in UK". The Register. Retrieved 31 October 2016.
  10. ↑ "Sonos streams SiriusXM Internet Radio to every room of the home". News from USA (Press release). Sonos. 16 February 2011. Archived from the original on 2015-10-02. Retrieved 31 October 2016.
  11. ↑ "Sonos PLAY:3 official: cheaper entry to the streaming music club". www.slashgear.com. SlashGear. 20 July 2011. Retrieved 31 October 2016.
  12. ↑ "Spotify now available for streaming in every room of the home on Sonos". News from USA (Press release). Sonos. 14 July 2011. Archived from the original on 2015-10-02. Retrieved 31 October 2016.
  13. ↑ "Sonos and Mog team up to bring high-quality listening experience to the home". News from USA (Press release). Sonos. 24 May 2011. Archived from the original on 2015-10-02. Retrieved 31 October 2016.
  14. ↑ "Amazon Cloud Player now streaming on Sonos" (Blog). Sonos. 9 August 2012. Archived from the original on 2012-08-13. Retrieved 31 October 2016.
  15. ↑ "Introducing the Sonos SUB". News from USA (Press release). Sonos. 22 May 2012. Archived from the original on 2015-10-02. Retrieved 31 October 2016.
  16. ↑ "Tencent and Sonos bring QQ music into the home". News from USA (Press release). Sonos. 8 May 2012. Archived from the original on 2015-10-02. Retrieved 31 October 2016.
  17. ↑ "The Sonos Studio: Listening, Sonos-style". Sonos. 9 May 2012. Retrieved 31 October 2016.
  18. ↑ "Best Venue Where the Music (and the Booze) Is Free | Sonos Studio". LA Weekly. 2 October 2013. Retrieved 31 October 2016.
  19. ↑ "The Making of the Sonos Studio LA". YouTube. 16 June 2016. Retrieved 31 October 2016.
  20. ↑ "Introducing Sonos PLAYBAR". News from USA (Press release). Sonos. 12 February 2013. Archived from the original on 2015-10-02. Retrieved 31 October 2016.
  21. ↑ Roettgers, Janko (14 October 2013). "Sonos releases new $200 speaker, CEO dismisses Spotify's Connect speaker partnerships". Gigaom. Retrieved 31 October 2016.
  22. ↑ Price, Emily (14 October 2013). "Sonos' Play:1 Is Its Smallest and Most Affordable Speaker Yet". Mashable. Retrieved 31 October 2016.
  23. ↑ Nellis, Stephen (3 January 2014). "Top 10 Software/E-Commerce Growth Companies in the Tri-Counties". Pacific Coast Business Times. Retrieved 10 March 2014.
  24. ↑ Martin, Mel (18 March 2014). "Sonos announces new controller apps for Mac and iOS". Engadget. Retrieved 31 October 2016 – via AOL.
  25. ↑ "Sonos | Bruce Mau Design". Bruce Mau Design. Retrieved 31 October 2016.
  26. ↑ Ricker, Thomas (23 January 2015). "New Sonos logo design pulses like a speaker when scrolled". The Verge. Retrieved 31 October 2016 – via Vox Media.
  27. ↑ "Born in Blue: Introducing the Sonos Blue Note PLAY:1". Sonos. 4 February 2015. Retrieved 31 October 2016.
  28. ↑ "Limited Edition Blue Note PLAY:1 On Sale March 15". Sonos. Retrieved 31 October 2016.
  29. ↑ "Stream Amazon Prime Music to Sonos Speakers". Sonos. 20 October 2015. Retrieved 31 October 2016.
  30. ↑ "Sonos' New Flagship PLAY:5 Pre-orders Start Today". News from USA (Press release). Sonos. 29 October 2015. Archived from the original on 2015-12-03. Retrieved 31 October 2016.
  31. ↑ "Sonos Trueplay Brings Simple Speaker Tuning to Millions of Rooms Around the World". News from USA (Press release). Sonos. 10 November 2016. Archived from the original on 2015-11-22. Retrieved 31 October 2016.
  32. ↑ "APPLE MUSIC ON SONOS AVAILABLE TOMORROW". News from USA (Press release). Sonos. 9 February 2016. Archived from the original on 2016-02-13. Retrieved 31 October 2016.
  33. ↑ "CAN MUSIC OUT LOUD CHANGE THE WAY WE CONNECT AT HOME?". News from USA (Press release). Sonos. 11 February 2016. Archived from the original on 2016-02-18. Retrieved 31 October 2016.
  34. ↑ Sonos will layoff employees as it adapts to changes in the music industry TechCrunch Retrieved 10 March 2016.
  35. ↑ "Sonos Expands Its Brand, Opens Flagship NY Store". WheePR Media.
  36. ↑ "SONOS: Coming to an Apple Store Near You" (Press release). Sonos. 26 September 2016. Archived from the original on 2016-11-01. Retrieved 31 October 2016.
  37. ↑ http://blog.sonos.com/en/the-next-generation-of-sonos-leadership/
  38. ↑ Tepper, Fitz (6 December 2017). "Sonos and Ikea are collaborating on sound products for the home". TechCrunch. Oath Inc. Retrieved 8 December 2017.
  39. ↑ Roettgers, Janko (6 December 2017). "Sonos Teams Up With Ikea for Smart Home Audio". Variety. Penske Media Corporation. Retrieved 8 December 2017.
  40. 1 2 3 4 Snider, Mike (22 October 2017). "Sonos Sounds Smarter With Alexa On Board". Tech. USA Today. p. 8B. Retrieved 17 August 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
  41. 1 2 Rossman, Jim (13 May 2017). "All-in-one Sonos Playbase offers big sound for big price". Your Tech. Arizona Daily Star (Review). Dallas Morning News. p. A10. Retrieved 18 August 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
  42. 1 2 Bray, Hiawatha (25 August 2017). "Sonos triggers a fight over privacy". Business. The Boston Globe. pp. B9, B14. Retrieved 18 August 2018 – via Newspapers.com.  The second part of the article appears at https://www.newspapers.com/clip/22916056/sonos_triggers_fight_over_privacy_pt2/ .
  43. ↑ McConnell, Josh (29 August 2018). "Sonos announces new Amp hardware, opens developer platform to all in September". MobileSyrup. Retrieved 30 August 2018.
  44. 1 2 Langberg, Mike (15 March 2005). "Digital tunes for every room". TechToday. Detroit Free Press. Knight Ridder Newspapers. Retrieved 18 August 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
  45. 1 2 Hunt, Kevin (27 December 2009). "Sonos S5: Sound Entry In Music Wars". Money & Life: The Electronic Jungle. The Hartford Courant. Hartford, Connecticut. Retrieved 18 August 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
  46. ↑ "Sonos guide to setup options". Support. Sonos. Archived from the original on 29 April 2016.
  47. ↑ "Sonos guide to setup over WiFi". Sonos.
  48. ↑ "Sonos Components Consume Power When Idle". Sonos. 2005-03-16. Archived from the original on 2012-12-17. Retrieved 2012-06-19.
  49. ↑ Sakr, Sharif. "Sonos listens to reason, drops dedicated controller in favor of smartphone apps". engadget.com. Retrieved 25 March 2018.
  50. ↑ "Sonos CR200 dead spot fault – is it home-repairable?". setfirelabs.com. Retrieved 25 March 2018.
  51. ↑ "Save the CR100". community.sonos.com. Retrieved 25 March 2018.
  52. ↑ Kettmann, Matt. "Sonos Spins into Control". Santa Barbara Independent. Retrieved 2 June 2017.
  53. ↑ "Store Locator". Sonos. Retrieved 31 October 2016.
  54. ↑ "Sonos now playing at 6300 retail locations across North America" (Press release). Sonos. 1 November 2011. Archived from the original on 2016-11-01. Retrieved 31 October 2016.
  55. ↑ "Listening comes home at 101 Greene Street". Sonos. 12 July 2016. Archived from the original on 1 November 2016. Retrieved 31 October 2016.
  56. ↑ "Sonos's new London store has tiny houses and a bit of Memphis". Curbed. Retrieved 2018-06-22.
  57. ↑ "Guten Tag, Berlin: Why Sonos Opened A Store In Germany's Hub of Culture and Innovation | Sonos Blog". blog.sonos.com. Retrieved 2018-06-22.
  58. ↑ "Contact Us". Sonos. Archived from the original on 2016-11-01. Retrieved 31 October 2016.
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