Accessing music from online streaming services is one of the greatest advances this industry has ever seen. What’s not to love about more music than you could ever consume in a lifetime, being available at your fingertips – at an affordable price? However, experience has shown that accessibility isn’t as good as many of us would hope – a streamer’s user interface can make or break the experience…

One such example is Sonos. Despite popular opinion, this company was not the first to market with a multi-room streaming product – its first product, the ZP100, was shipped in 2005, whereas Yamaha released its MusicCAST MCX-1000 in 2003. True, this didn’t have network connectivity, but it still provided wireless multi-room streaming. The latter was ahead of its time, with Yamaha being the first in the world to stream uncompressed music wirelessly throughout the home. This in turn blazed a path for the likes of Sonos, Heos, Bluesound, etc. Unfortunately, the Japanese giant could not capitalise on its initial achievement, but that’s another story.

So why did Sonos become so successful while many others have fallen by the wayside? The reason is that it realised the importance of user-friendliness - and that it had to work in the real world, with the sub-standard wireless networks that many people used then and some even have now. The company’s engineers nailed both issues, due in no small part, I’m sure, to Sonos originally being a software company that moved into the world of consumer audio hardware rather than the other way around.

That first Sonos interface was excellent and proved to be accessible to all but the most technologically challenged people. Yes, I’m aware of the problems surrounding some of the later releases, including the buggy recent major software upgrade, but my point still stands. And the fact that the sonic performance was not up to the standards of some of the competition mattered little – for the typical Sonos buyer, convenience was king.

To ensure stability on the network, early Sonos hardware releases were meshed – meaning that they formed their own network rather than relying on clients’ existing systems. The latter has been the undoing of a number of companies. When Bose belatedly entered the streaming market, we at Len Wallis Audio were still a dealer for the brand. Yet, we could never get its streaming systems to work properly with our in-store commercial-grade network system. We even sent our network components to Bose to see if they could make them talk, without success. I suspect we were not alone; interestingly, the company has never taken its place as a serious player in this field.

Our Custom Division Manager, Alexis, estimates that just over half of all service calls we make are network-related, and over ninety percent of those are for wireless issues. We no longer live in a world where we can cobble together a wireless network based around cheap routers, network extenders and products you notice on sale at Officeworks and expect them to handle modern day-to-day requirements. Just because your wireless network does a good job of retrieving emails does not mean it will cope with multiple streams of hi-res music and movies, along with gaming, monitoring your security, supporting your home automation, and so on!

With the multitude of connected devices that we and our children use daily, a robust network is more critical than ever. Laptops, smartphones, tablets, smart TVs, and gaming consoles all compete for bandwidth, often leading to performance issues. The strain on home networks is unprecedented, and the need for a stable, high-performing network has never been greater. We have been designing and installing commercial-grade networks for many years now and contend that if you are serious about streaming, be it audio and/or video, you cannot accept less. A good interface for your streaming service is essential, but it matters little if you don’t have a solid platform in the first place.

So many of our network-related service calls revolve around networks where we had no initial input. That’s why investing in a reliable, high-quality network setup is not just a luxury but a necessity in today’s connected world. By ensuring a strong foundation, you can truly enjoy the convenience and performance of modern streaming services without frustration. This done, with the latest generation of sophisticated streamers, you can be sure that listening to music will be an uplifting experience rather than a frustrating one.

For more information visit Len Wallis Audio