We were excited to hear the announcement a few weeks ago that Sonos had opened a showroom in NYC, but never really knew when we would get to see it in person. Because of a terrible storm that struck NYC on Monday, we found ourselves stuck in the city for an extra day. Instead of sitting around waiting for our flight, we decided to make the most of it, and headed down to SoHo to make a stop at the newly opened store.
The location of the store is strategic, to be sure—right across the street from Apple’s SoHo retail store. As you walk up, you are greeted with nice-looking architecture, keeping true to the character of the building.
After being greeted by a security guard when walking in, you can’t help but get excited by what you see. Everything is cleanly designed—only a week old—feeling very modern and sleek.
We were then greeted by one of the many staff members of the store, who explained to us the concept of the experience. On this level, there are five “listening pods,” each identical in setup, replicating some typical use-cases for a user. We even tried to quiz the staff member about home automation and the role Sonos plays, and are happy to report that he was very knowledgeable about the space.
The pods themselves have a variety of different models, including the PLAY:1, PLAY:3, and PLAY:5. There is an iPad setup that lets you go through and select music, choose groupings, and use other functionality to let you experience how easy they have made distributed audio. There is a downstairs area that demos the Sonos CONNECT, which is relevant to the custom integration projects our industry is used to.
Overall, good design, knowledgeable staff, and great technology made this a fun visit. If you find yourself at the heavily crowded Apple Store in SoHo, make sure to walk across the street to check out this newly opened experience.
Currently the Sonos store doesn’t have any voice controlled functionality, but as you know Josh.ai has a robust voice integration with Sonos:
This blog by Josh.ai founder Alex Capecelatro originally appeared on Medium and was reproduced here with the author’s permission. Check out the original post for more photos of the Sonos showroom.
