Sonos’ multi-room wireless music system is crazy easy to use, but it’s always had one annoying little drawback: You have to plug at least one Sonos speaker or a Sonos Bridge into your router for it to work. Well, the company just announced that it’s overhauled its tech so that you don’t need to be plugged in anymore.
Sonos keeps all of the speakers throughout your house connected together by creating a big wireless web it calls SonosNet. It’s basically just another network that’s plugged into your network. When Sonos developed its tech a decade ago, it was built around having the Bridge plugged directly into your network, serving as the air traffic control that all the speakers and devices could stay in communication with.
According to Sonos, the company has evolved its software so that all the different parts of SonosNet can stay in sync without being plugged into the router. Some users may still benefit from using a Bridge, but the company says that in its testing, most use cases won’t need it any more. Now all you’ll need to do to set it up is a speaker, a smartphone, and a wireless connection.
That’s not just awesome because it’s easier, in a lot of cases it will also make it cheaper to get on Sonos. Typically a Bridge costs about $80 though; the company frequently bundles it with speakers in deals.
The new software is currently in beta while the company completes testing, but if it’s far enough along for an announcement, we’ll hopefully see it hit Sonos systems everywhere soon. Gotta love it when easy gets easier. [Sonos via The Verge]