Do you have a Sonos Beam soundbar? Are you looking to extend its functionality by connecting it to a projector?
People usually love to connect soundbars to projectors when they want to watch content on screens bigger than a modern TV size. Projectors are best for viewing experiences in open areas along with a large number of people.
Connecting Sonos beam to the projector will allow maximizing the best audio experience. The combination of the two will help in turning it into a home theatre experience.
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What is Sonos Beam?
Sonos Beam is a smart soundbar by Sonos. It provides a Dolby Atmos sound experience and is even compatible with Apple Airplay 2, Alexa, and other voice assistants.
You can connect it to your TV and elevate its sound experience. Or when the TV is off, you can use an audio device to stream music from your favorite music streaming apps or even listen to audiobooks.
Sonos Beam also supports a variety of home theatre audio formats so connecting it to a video device becomes easy. Other unique features include Trueplay and Speech Enhancement.
Can you connect the soundbar to a projector?
Yes, you can connect a Sonos soundbar to a projector. However, one needs to take the help of a third device (mediator) for the same. You must have an HDMI Matrix Hub to connect a Sonos Beam to the projector.
This is because projectors are display-only equipment, and you require a secondary audio transmitter. Unlike a TV that can handle both audio and video, a projector only has video capabilities. For this reason, a separate external device is needed to split the audio from the video when transmitted to the projector.
The HDMI matric Hub thus works as an audio splitter.
How to connect Sonos beam soundbar to a projector?
To connect a Sonos beam to a projector, all you need is:
- A projector with HDMI video input port
- HDMI video source like Firestick, set up box, blue ray
- HDMI matrix hub/switch with HDMI ARC/eARC, or optical output port
- HDMI cables (one comes with Sonos Beam only)
Do you see 4×2 in specifications when buying an HDMI Matrix hub? This means that the hub has 4 HDMI video inputs i.e. it can accept video from sources like Blue-ray, setup box, Firestick, PS5, etc. and it has 2 outputs i.e. it can receive two HDMI-equipped displays.
Once you have all the needed equipment, connecting a Sonos Beam to a projector is super easy.
If your HDMI Matrix has an HDMI cable input:
- Firstly, use the HDMI cable and plug it first onto the video source like set up box, Play Station, etc. (i.e. to the video device you want the content to be displayed from).
- Connect the other end of the same HDMI cable to the HDMI Matrix Switch/Hub
- Use another HDMI cable to connect the projector to the HDMI Matrix Switch/Hub. For this, plug one end of the cable into the HDMI matrix video output port and the other end into the projector’s video input port.
- Now, use the HDMI cable provided with Sonos Beam to connect Beam to the HDMI Matrix as well. Plug one end of the HDMI ARC cable to the Matrix output source port and the other end to the Sonos Beam input port.
The setup is now complete. You can play the content from your video source, and you should see it displayed where the projector faces. You could also be hearing the audio from the Sonos Beam soundbar.
If your HDMI Matrix has an optical audio jack (i.e. does not HDMI ARC port):
The process of connecting the projector to Sonos Beam is almost the same only you will be using the optical audio cable instead of the HDMI ARC cable.
The steps are:
- Connect your video source to HDMI Matrix using the HDMI cable.
- Connect the projector to HDMI Matrix using the desired cable
- Connect the Sonos Beam to HDMI Matrix using the optical audio cable. Plug one end of the cable to the HDMI Matrix and the other end to the Sonos beam input port.
When using an optical cable, you will be enjoying Dolby Digital Plus audio from Sonos Beam instead of Dolby Atmos. You can still enjoy a 5.1 surround sound experience by adding other compatible speakers to the setup.
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How to connect the Sonos beam to the projector without using HDMI Matrix?
You can actually connect Sonos Beam to a projector without using HDMI Matrix as well. This is possible if you are looking forward to using only a single video source feed like a setup box, play station, and blue ray of these.
When using just a single video source, you can replace the HDMI Matrix with HDFury Arcana. As HDFury Arcana supports HDMI eARC, it is suitable to use it with Sonos Beam to extract its full potential.
This smart gadget is capable of splitting an eARC feed. It sends video to the projector and sends Dolby Atmos audio to Sonos Beam through e-ARC output. Another benefit of using this gadget over the HDMI Matrix is it eliminates any chances of lip-syncing troubles. Both the projector and Sonos Beam receive video and audio respectively at the same time, thus no time lag between the same.
One can also fix the lip-syncing issues using the Sonos app. If you are using HDMI Matrix and the video is ahead of the audio, you can set it right using the Sonos app. For this:
- Open the Sonos app on your mobile device
- Go to Settings > System
- Choose the room and Sonos device. Sonos Beam in this case
- Within the room, scroll down to the TV Dialog Sync feature.
- Tap on it and use the slider to adjust the audio delay.
Conclusion
Connecting Sonos Beam to the projector is smooth. You only have to take notice of two things. Your projector should be HDMI input and the HDMI Matrix should support the desired HDMI as well. The number of HDMI input jack on the HDMI Matrix should be depending on the number of video feed you are using.