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Appeared on: Wednesday, June 6, 2018
Sonos Beam Home-theater Smart Speaker Offers Alexa and Apple Airplay 2 Integration

Sonos introduced the Beam home-theater smart speaker and said its products would be integrated in July with Apple's new AirPlay 2 wireless music-streaming system.

The compact and smart soundbar arrives July 17 at $399 US; Apple AirPlay 2 support coming in July.

The Beam is a sound bar designed to sit below a television set and replace the speakers built into existing TVs. It can also link to other speakers from Sonos around a home and be controlled with a physical remote or via Amazon.com's Alexa digital-voice assistant. Like other Sonos smart speakers, it also will be integrated in the future with Google's voice-activated Assistant. Beam is part of the Sonos home sound system, meaning owners have options like adding two Sonos Ones for surround sound, a SUB for more bass, or integrating Beam into their existing Sonos multi-room set-ups.

Unlike Amazon, Google and Apple, Sonos lets users connect to multiple voice assistants and stream music via other companies' services - more than 80, according to Sonos.

Owners can also control Beam the way they choose, whether it be with voice, the Sonos app, third-party apps like Spotify, Audible, Pandora and Tidal, their existing TV remotes, and smart home gadgets like wall switches and remotes made by Sonos-certified partners.

Out of the box, Beam comes with Amazon Alexa in the US, UK, Germany, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and soon, in France. Beam will support additional voice assistants as they become available on Sonos around the world and won't lock owners into specific streaming boxes or services.

Sonos says that the Beam produces "a surprisingly wide soundstage for a speaker of this size," featuring four custom-built elliptical full-range woofers and three passive radiators.

AirPlay 2, which Apple released last month, allows users to stream music from an iPhone or iPad to multiple speakers at the same time throughout a home. It's also a key feature introduced in May to Apple's own HomePod speaker.

Sonos said the Beam would go on sale July 17 and cost $399, less than $699 price for its original Playbar and Playbase living room devices. It will connect to TVs via a standard HDMI connection, allowing people to turn on their TV with a voice command. It will also integrate with a connected Amazon Fire TV set-top box.

Specs



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