Your Portable Sonos Speakers Can Now Become Rear Home Theater Speakers

What if the Sonos speaker you carry out to the patio could also become part of your home theater when you bring it back inside? That is now possible, thanks to a new Sonos feature that lets compatible portable speakers work as wireless rear surround channels.

Sonos has begun rolling out Sonos OS version 27, introducing a feature called Portable Surrounds. It allows the Sonos Play and Move 2 portable wireless speakers to be used as the rear channels in a compatible Sonos home theater system.

Until now, building a full Sonos surround system meant using stationary speakers such as the Era or older One models as rear channels. Portable Surrounds changes that by allowing supported portable speakers to temporarily take on surround duties before returning to their normal standalone operation.

Your Portable Sonos Speakers Can Now Join Your Home Theater

Portable Surrounds works with the Arc, Arc Ultra, Beam (Gen 2), and the new Beam Ultra soundbars. However, Sonos has left several older products out of the feature. The Playbar, Playbase, Arc SL, first-generation Beam, and Ray are not supported.

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There is also an important limitation when choosing the rear speakers. You need two identical Sonos Play or two identical Move 2 speakers. Sonos does not allow different models to be mixed together as the left and right rear channels.

Once configured, the portable speakers connect to the home theater system over Wi-Fi and take over the left and right rear surround channels.

That could make the feature particularly interesting for Sonos owners who do not want their rear speakers permanently occupying space behind the sofa. Instead of buying a second pair of speakers exclusively for the home theater, the same portable pair can serve another purpose around the house.

Sonos Says Switching to Surround Takes Just Seconds

One of the more interesting parts of Portable Surrounds is how quickly Sonos says the speakers can change roles.

After the initial setup, placing the compatible portable speakers behind the sofa reportedly takes around eight seconds for the system to recognize them and automatically switch them into a surround configuration.

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With the Arc Ultra, Sonos says the resulting system can reach as much as 9.1.4 channels. The Play and Move 2 themselves do not have upward-firing drivers, so they are not responsible for the height channels. Their job is specifically to provide the left and right rear channels while the rest of the system handles the remaining surround and height effects.

The Best Part Is What Happens When the Movie Ends

The real appeal of Portable Surrounds may have less to do with adding another surround configuration and more to do with what happens after you turn off the TV.

Once the movie is over, the Play or Move 2 speakers can be removed from the home theater and used independently again. You could take them outside to the patio, move them into the kitchen, or use them in another room without leaving a pair of dedicated rear speakers permanently sitting behind the sofa.

For Sonos users who want a cleaner living room without giving up surround sound, that flexibility could be a surprisingly useful upgrade.

Sonos is effectively turning its portable speakers into two-purpose products: portable speakers when you need them around the house and wireless rear surrounds when it is time for a movie.

And that could make Portable Surrounds one of the more interesting additions to Sonos’ home theater ecosystem in OS 27.