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Comment by givinguflac | Hacker News Reader

Even if Sonos went belly up you’d still have airplay and tv/line in, along with direct control from stuff like Spotify (until Spotify inevitably change their protocols). But I don’t see airplay ever quitting until the hardware does

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Does AirPlay not require software updates or certificates? There are a lot of things which are fairly robust but still fail when things like certificates or NTP servers disappear.

No, my first generation airport express from 2009 still works as an AirPlay device from the latest iOS. Sure you can’t configure it from latest macOS, but airplay still works. I can’t recall when the last software update was, but I haven’t done any updates for at least 3 years - it’s unplugged most of the time.

To Apple's credit, they have released fairly recent firmware for all their airport devices, even adding Airplay 2 support to (either 2nd or 3rd gen?) Airport Express' that had the hardware to support it, despite the devices not being mfged anymore (for many years) and the entire product line discontinued. Fwiw, I just used a 1st gen Airport (>$20) as a wifi to ethernet bridge to get a GoldenTee machine online for a client. They also work great as a wireless airplay receiver for older stereo equipment using the 3.5mm output from the Airport!

> airplay

Yes, because Apple is a company known for their commitment to longevity and compatibility.

> tv/line in

Many of their devices don't have any line in ports.

All streaming integrations in Sonos (like Spotify) communicate with the Sonos backend rather than the device directly. So that would fall apart too.

I thought Airplay requires that both devices are on the same network.

Can a person configure the wifi settings for an Airplay-capable Sonos speaker without the Sonos app?

> tv/line in

Most Sonos speakers do not have any inputs, sadly.

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