Just hours before the CEDIA Expo show floor opened, Sonos expanded the conversation around its custom-installation business with a set of new products that push the brand deeper into home theater, flexible listening, and personal entertainment.
The late-breaking introductions, part of the brand’s Fall release, include Beam Ultra, a new 7.1.2 immersive soundbar; multi-functional portable Sonos speakers that can serve as wireless home theater surrounds before moving back into standalone use; and Ace Ultra, a premium over-ear headphone designed to extend the Sonos experience from shared rooms to private listening. Together, the products give integrators new ways to think about Sonos systems beyond traditional distributed audio.
Beam Ultra is positioned as the centerpiece of that expanded home entertainment story. The new soundbar is designed to deliver Dolby Atmos performance for a home’s primary entertainment space, with a 7.1.2 configuration that gives dealers another option for clients who want immersive audio without committing to a more conventional component-based theater system.
For the custom channel, the more interesting twist may be what Sonos is building around Beam Ultra. The company’s new portable speakers can pair with the soundbar as wireless surrounds, then transition back to standalone speakers for listening elsewhere in the home or outdoors. That dual-role approach gives integrators a way to design rooms that feel more adaptable, particularly for homeowners who want theater performance in one moment and portable audio in the next.
The concept also fits the way many connected homes are now being used. Entertainment spaces are less likely to be single-purpose rooms, and clients often expect technology to move fluidly between family viewing, casual music, outdoor gatherings, and individual listening. A portable speaker that can operate as part of a theater system and then leave the room gives dealers another tool for designing around that behavior.
Ace Ultra extends that same idea into the personal-listening category. The new premium over-ear headphones are designed to let users transition audio between compatible Sonos speakers and Ace Ultra, and back again, without pausing playback or reconnecting devices. In practical terms, a client could move from watching or listening in a shared room to a private headphone experience with less friction.
That points to how the boundaries of whole-home audio are changing. For years, the category has largely been framed around speakers in rooms: in-ceiling audio, soundbars, architectural speakers, outdoor zones, and streaming control. Sonos’ latest introductions suggest a broader definition, one that follows the listener between public and private moments while keeping the experience within the same ecosystem.
Amp Multi remains part of the larger CEDIA story, but it is no longer the only headline for dealers. The now-shipping professional-grade multizone streaming amplifier gives Sonos an installed-audio backbone for residential and light commercial projects, with eight amplified 125-watt outputs configurable across up to four independent zones. Each output can power up to three Sonos Architectural speakers.
Because many integrators already understand Amp Multi’s role in the rack, the fresh CEDIA Expo angle is how Sonos is surrounding that backbone with more client-facing experiences. Beam Ultra can anchor an immersive media room, the portable speakers can shift between surround and standalone roles, and Ace Ultra can carry entertainment into a personal mode without forcing the user out of the Sonos environment.
For dealers, that combination could create more natural upgrade paths. A project that begins as a distributed audio installation can expand into theater. A theater system can add portable listening. A shared entertainment experience can hand off to headphones when the room’s needs change. The connective tissue is not just audio quality, but continuity across spaces, devices, and use cases.
At CEDIA Expo, Sonos plans to demonstrate Beam Ultra with the new portable speakers in a dedicated home theater section of its exhibit. The timing underscores the point: Sonos is arriving at the show with more than an install product. It is presenting a wider entertainment portfolio that gives integrators more ways to personalize audio for the way clients live now.
