Sonos have just announced a major update to the features of their product line - you no longer need the bridge unit to connect their mesh into your home network. Yippee. Why is that of any consequence?
First, it saves you money. You were being forced to buy a box that did next to nothing for you. As the name implied it was simply the bridge from your home data network into Sonos and their proprietary mesh network. Second, it's yet another box, something else to go wrong, another set of wires, another thingy to dust.
Mainly its another element of complexity removed from the equation. Over the last few years I've become a frequent visitor at several London houses where the owners had "lost" their Sonos system thanks to the bridge failing. It's never been a hardware failure and usually remedied in a few minutes but it's a weak link that all too often fails.
Restoring the link is counter-intuitive. You have to make the link work and then crawl around the house bringing each bit into play. We've got the hang of it but it took a while to realise what the game was. Maybe this was all OK when Sonos was a product sold by premium suppliers whose hand maidens of audio technology would lovingly massage their boxes into life - for a fee - but today Sonos are pitching the same consumer market as Apple. Sonos needs to play nicely with everyone else in the home technology market, this is a big step towards that goal.
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