Sonos Unveils Beam Soundbar Speaker With Voice Assistant Microphones

Sonos has announced the Beam. The intention is that this cross between a soundbar and smart speaker is placed in front of or under a TV and can serve as a regular soundbar, where there is also support for voice control via five far-field microphones.

According to Sonos, the Beam supports 49 different music services and there is also support for Alexa, Amazon’s digital voice assistant in the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, Australia and soon in France. Other voice assistants will also receive support, although it is not clear when that will be the case and when Alexa will also be available on the Beam in the Benelux. The Sonos Beam has WiFi and an Ethernet port and can be controlled by voice, but also via the Sonos App or any app from a music service.

The unit features a tweeter and four drivers, two of which are angled at either end and the remaining two are in the middle. Collectively, these speakers create three audio channels: left, right and center. Optionally, users can add copies of the Sonos One and Sonos Sub to integrate the Beam into a 5.1 surround system. The speaker has only one HDMI connection, of the HDMI arc type, so that it can be connected to a TV and the audio signal is passed on to the Beam.

The Sonos Beam is a relatively small soundbar with a length of 65 cm and is available from July 17 for a price of 449 euros. Apple’s AirPlay 2 will be added to the Sonos Beam via a software update in July, so that users of iOS devices can also play music directly on the new soundbar.