New details regarding an as-yet-unannounced Sonos streaming media device have emerged and they’re both cause for optimism as well as grounds for concern. The device in question, which we already know goes by the internal codename “Pinewood,” could cost as much as $400, according to reporting by Chris Welch at The Verge, who cites sources “familiar with” the project.
As Welch points out, that’s a princely sum for a product that will effectively compete with the $200 Apple TV 4K, $200 Nvidia Shield TV Pro, and $100 Google Streamer. And yet, Sonos’ device will reportedly do a few things these other boxes can’t.
Among its more interesting features are multiple HDMI inputs, the ability to stream audio wirelessly to a variety of Sonos speakers (not just its dedicated home theater soundbars), support for voice commands, and a software experience that will mirror what is arguably the Sonos app’s best feature: universal search.
Digital Trends reached out to Sonos for comment on the report, but we were told (unsurprisingly), “we do not comment on rumor or speculation.”
An earlier patent application suggested that Pinewood (referred to within the application as Sonos TV) would lack a physical remote, but apparently Sonos has had sober second thoughts about this terrible idea, Welch claims.
Multiple HDMI inputs is an intriguing idea. To my knowledge, no media streamer has ever done this before. If you want this kind of functionality, you’re looking at an AV receiver or an HDMI switcher. The former makes no sense in a home with a Sonos soundbar and the latter inevitably feels like a kludge — a device you buy to address a lack of inputs on your TV — that no one actually wants.
A Sonos streamer with multiple HDMI ports, on the other hand, solves several problems. By sending audio over Wi-Fi to your preferred Sonos speakers, it eliminates the need for an HDMI ARC/eARC connection between your TV and your soundbar. It also means that Sonos speakers that don’t have their own HDMI connection (like the superb Era 300) wouldn’t need one to do full-range TV sound. Welch rightly points out that this would give folks the opportunity to use any pair of Sonos speakers for TV sound and might even open the door for proper height-channel ceiling speakers via a Sonos Amp.
Having “Pinewood” act as the brain connecting gaming consoles, Blu-ray players, and other devices, with your TV, could give you voice command access over your entire home theater, much the same way that Amazon did when it introduced the first Fire TV Cube.
According to the report, “Sonos plans to combine content from numerous platforms including Netflix, Max, and Disney+ under a single, unified software experience. Universal search across streaming accounts will be supported.” It’s hard to know from this description whether this means that Sonos has done the impossible i.e. talked Netflix into letting its content be viewed within an app environment it doesn’t directly control, or whether it simply means that the Netflix app will be installed by default (Pinewood is said to run on Android).
A truly integrated Netflix would be a huge coup if Sonos can pull it off. History suggests it has a shot: The Sonos music platform remains the only wireless speaker system that gives users native access to Apple Music inside the Sonos app.
However, (recent) history suggests that it will be the device’s software, not its hardware that proves to be Pinewood’s weakest link. Sonos, as I’m sure many of you know through painful personal experience, is still trying to recover from one of the all-time worst software launches.
To say that I’m skeptical of the company’s ability to jump into video streaming without significant problems, is an understatement. These fears are somewhat tempered by the fact that previous reports have indicated Sonos is using a third party for Pinewood’s software — an online advertising company called The Trade Desk.
Not that I welcome the idea of an ad-tech firm getting its fingerprints all over a streaming media device — we’ve seen too many instances of this already — but given the state of things at Sonos right now, perhaps it’s better this way. And as odd as it may be for a company like Sonos to have two different software platforms, Pinewood likely wouldn’t benefit from a deeper integration with the existing Sonos app.
If the details in the report are true, Sonos’ media streamer will act like a parallel control for your Sonos speakers. You can currently stream to Sonos speakers from the Sonos app, or from AirPlay 2, and you can bounce freely between these two options. Pinewood’s software would simply be another source for Sonos products.
There are a still a myriad of ways this could all go sideways — including the open question of whether anyone is willing to pay $200-$400 for such a device — but if it succeeds, it could be the product launch that restores Sonos’ reputation. And that can’t come soon enough.
