SOUND OF SUMMER

Music In The Garden - Sonos ZP90 and Soundcast Outdoor Speaker Bundle

We are in for a heat wave say the experts so it time to get outdoors and prepare for some summer partying.

The recent hot sunny weather has meant that many of us have been outdoors in the garden entertaining friends and having fun. We were relaxed and enjoying the weather, so we set up the barbecue and the outdoor table in readiness for a long and lazy day with friends and family on the Sunday afternoon with a delicious barbecue supper on the menu for a balmy evening.

We had great food lined up, the candles in the lanterns were lit and our friends were arriving – but what about the music?

How many times have you toyed with extension wires, balancing speakers on garden furniture, while fearful of guests tripping over the cables. This is before ensuring that your system has enough power and volume to fill the garden, while not sounding tinny or having too much bass.

Not us though, our music was drifting across the lawn and sounding great helping create the perfect party atmosphere.

As we were serving drinks another track started playing from our stored 'party' playlist,

We were being quizzed – how are you receiving music?, there are no wires to the speaker?

We explained it was the Sonos multi-room music system indoors, which enabled the music to be played outside through our Soundcast outdoor speaker, both of these were wirelessly connected to each other.

For the rest of the evening our friends passed round our Sonos wireless controller while they searched for their favourite tracks and added them to the music queue. It became a bit of a game seeing if they could catch out our Sonos system with a track it couldn’t find. As we subscribed to on-line music sites like Napster this gives us access to literally millions of songs, so there was only ever going to be one winner!.

Our small tubular outdoor speaker from Soundcast sounds great and really packs a punch in performance, with both volume and bass. It's totally weatherproof and has a rechargeable battery pack that is good for up to 12 hours of play. As it is portable it allows us to listen to music where we are so as the light dimmed the Outcast took centre stage with its inbuilt mood lighting. We all moved to the decking area and someone picked up the Outcast and placed it nearby. When we are not entertaining in the garden, the Outcast lives in the kitchen, so we can make the most of our purchase during the winter months.

"We currently have 4 rooms of music with our Sonos system and because it is wireless, we just might add another 2 zones later this year so we will have music in all the key areas of our home. We were really grateful for the help and advice we received when planning our Sonos system and how we could easily send music around the home and out to the garden. Anthony Molloy. June 2009"

Sonos experts Garry Pearson and Karen Tuffy have a wealth of experience in Sonos music systems (and barbecues!):

“Wireless speakers like Soundcast work terrifically well with Sonos and can transform an outdoor party or barbecue. It really is simple to set up and really has the wow factor. If it rains, with Sonos you can have all the music you want, all over you house. When we are not entertaining in the garden, the Soundcast lives in the kitchen, so we can make the most of our purchase during the winter months.”