Sonos Controller for iPad

Sonos Wireless System & iPad Controller app.

Sonos, makers of the World’s #1 multi-room music system, released their free controller for the iPad and we are not only going to review that app right here for you, but we are also going to show you how you can create one of the most amazing home music systems you have yet to experience. Surely this is something you don’t want to miss.

Who Is Sonos?

In order to appreciate what we are about to review, you will want to know who Sonos is.  Sonos is a company headquartered in Santa Barbara, California that was created by music lovers, for music lovers.  Their philosophy is to create products that are well designed, of the highest quality and express their passion for music.

Sonos takes a new approach to consumer electronics.  They make it super easy to enjoy the best music all around your house.  And now, they have taken a significant leap forward in the world of music systems with the launch of the iPad Controller app. Essentially, Sonos has created a way to experience music that we all thought would be possible one day.   And now it is.

What Is A Multi-Room System?

The Sonos multi-room music system is a way to have multiple wireless speakers located around the home that can all be controlled using a single controller.  But these speakers wouldn’t be much without great music right?  As it turns out, the Sonos system also has access to your own home music library, thousands of internet radio stations, and several great online music systems such as:

• iTunes
• Last.fm
• Pandora
• Rhapsody
• Audible
• iheartradio
• SIRIUS
• Wolfgang’s Vault
• Zune Marketplace

All of these music choices are sent out to each of your wireless speakers separately or in unison.  Now, in order to connect all these wireless speakers together, Sonos has created a great little accessory called the Zone Bridge.  It is a small white box that plugs right into your wireless network and allows all of the speakers and your controller to talk – instantaneously.

The Components

So, what do you need to set up your own multi-room music system?  Here is an example of simple entry level system:

• ZonePlayer S5 (two)
• Controller
• ZoneBridge

Sonos does make other products that you can use, but these 3 things are sufficient for the most basic set up.  If you want to use your own speakers or have in-ceiling ones, it’s no problem.  Sonos has different wireless receivers based on your desires.

Music throughout your home does not get much better than this.  If you are looking for a home music system that not only takes advantage of the latest technology but one you can use with your iPad, then here it is.

The layout is extremely well designed and easy to use.  On the left, you have your “Zones” which are the ZonePlayers. In the middle of the app you have the current music being played and on the far right are your music choices.

All of the music services work great, including Pandora.  The great thing here is that you could sign into Pandora and it loads up all your stations.  If you have network attached storage or your computer is turned on and sharing, then it will locate your home music library. If you use the Mac iTunes library, it will find it and list all your music just as you would see it in iTunes.

Other features we love from the Sonos iPad Controller app are the timers and alarms.  You can easily tap on “timers” and it will let you set a sleep timer up to 2 hours as well as set an alarm.  So it’s like having a wireless alarm clock as well.

If you have one iPad or two or more, each one can control the ZonePlayers.  This is nice because you might want to have Internet radio playing in the Living Room but Rhapsody playing in the Master Bedroom.

This is the perfect example of taking an amazing multi-room wireless music system and pairing it with an app that actually makes sense.  It brings together two amazingly innovative systems: the iPad and the Sonos.  The app does not crash. It is intuitive and it works so well you really won’t want to part with it.

Conclusion

From the minute the Sonos arrived to the time we loaded the new iPad controller app, we have not only been impressed but amazed.  Sure, it’s a speaker system.  But it’s more than that.   It’s a well thought out speaker system that changes how you listen to music completely.  It’s a system that just about anyone can use.  And most importantly, it shows off the value of the iPad and makes it that much more useful in your everyday life.

The 3D Phenomenon

If there is one thing that was made abundantly clear at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas last year, it was that the entire consumer electronics industry was strongly pushing for a switch to 3D. Sony, Panasonic, Samsung, Toshiba, Mitsubishi, Vizio, Sharp and a number of other manufacturers have all announced new 3D capable models that they will be releasing over the course of this year (2011). Never before have we seen such widespread industry support for 3D, and this will certainly go a long way in helping bring 3D to the masses.

Riding on the enormous success of James Cameron’s latest movie, Avatar, many of the big name electronics manufacturers are making a strong case for bringing an authentic 3D experience to the consumer’s living room. This time around the timing seems perfect. Over 60% of Avatar’s ticket sales were for 3D viewings of the movie, a startling statistic given that the number of 3D capable screens around the world is far outnumbered by their regular 2D counterparts.

New 3D technology overcomes previous limitations

Old 3D technology from many years ago never really caught on, but new 3D technology overcomes its previous limitations.

1. Unrealistic to Realistic 3D – An unrealistic effect was caused due to the images for the left and right eye being unnaturally spaced causing eye strain. However, current 3D video capture technology coupled with the projection of both left and right eye images by the same device ensures that such effects are mitigated in new 3D displays.
2. Goodbye to Nausea and Headaches – These side effects were predominantly due to the analog nature of 3D films many years ago when the films for the left and right eye view were projected simultaneously but were hard to keep in sync with one another. This resulted in an uncomfortable viewing experience, confusing the viewer’s brain due to the unrealistic and unnatural visual stimulation.  Current 3D displays however, are digitally synced so no such issues exist and these “3D Symptoms” are thankfully a thing of the past.
3. Poor to Great color fidelity – Using Anaglyph technology, images were split into chromatically opposite colors so that by using tinted glasses the viewer was able to view a unique image for each eye thus providing a 3D effect. However, the use of these tinted glasses drastically changed the appearance of colors and in general resulted in a poor 3D experience. With the use of new Polarized or Active Shutter technology, this has been done away with as the image displayed on the screen represents the true color and each eye piece does not distort the image color in any way (apart from lowering the incoming brightness of the image by a small amount).

3D Content

Many people seem to whine about the lack of 3D content and that this lack of 3D content guarantees the failure of this industry push towards 3D. After all, content is king right? There are some issues with this criticism however.

1. ESPN, DirectTV, Discovery Channel and UK’s Sky have pledged support for delivering 3D content as early as 2010. ESPN has already procured the necessary equipment for shooting live events in 3D and plan to air football and NBA in 3D in the near future. A number of other content providers are also joining ranks and pledging support for delivering more 3D content. While 3D content is still at a nascent stage, we have to keep in mind that these are still early days. However, with all the industry support so far, the signs seem very positive.

2.      Hollywood is also backing this push to 3D with over 20 3D movies released on 2010. Keep in mind also that every 3D animated film will likely be available in 3D as this medium enables an effortless transition for producing movies in 3D. These numbers will only increase, especially if there is widespread interest in 3D content as witnessed by the success of Avatar in 3D.

3D TVs are Backward Compatible with Regular 2D

This is one of the main reasons why 3D will eventually succeed over time. Pretty much all the proposed 3D technologies that are being developed by various electronics manufacturers are compatible with regular 2D content. This of course is for a good reason as it would be suicidal on the part of device manufacturers to make their 3D sets not compatible with conventional 2D content given that there is a long transition period ahead as we make the switch from 2D to 3D (and perhaps it will never be a complete 100% switch).

Displays requiring active shutter glasses are pretty much your regular high performance LCD or Plasma TV with a high refresh rate (120-240 Hz) and the ability to sync with your active shutter glasses. However, they are perfectly capable displays for 2D content as well and there shouldn’t be any real decrease in performance or image quality. Additionally, the high refresh rates of newer 3D TVs will actually be a bonus for regular 2D content as this refresh rate boost will help smooth the display of fast paced 2D scenes and sporting events. Finally, the prices of the TVs themselves aren’t going to be all that much more than regular TVs.  If you don’t want 3D at all, you could still buy a 3D capable set for roughly the same price as regular TVs and just skip buying 3D glasses and any other accessories that you might need for viewing 3D content on your new TV. All in all, it’s a win-win situation either way and this is one of the main reasons why the long run adoption of 3D TVs will hence in general a will win situation.