The Polk Command Bar arrived on our shores in August 2018 as one of the first soundbars to be integrated with Amazon Alexa, and this latest update again marks it as a trendsetter in the home audio department.
Alexa MRM was launched in 2017 with the aim to provide voice-based controls over Amazon speaker in the entire home ecosystem, therefore allowing each device to play a different track in a different room or play the same music in perfect sync across the homegroup.
It was expected that Amazon would roll out MRM support for third-party Alexa devices and now these products are reaching the market.
Through the Alexa app, the Polk Command Bar can be added to groups that include other MRM-enabled devices — for example Echo Dot etc.
Polk’s Command Bar is the first third-party audio product that can connect with and play music from both first-and third-party products.
Sonos and Denon’s Heos proprietary multi-room systems can be controlled by Alexa. However, neither of their systems allow users to connect third-party devices to their multi-room control.
This new feature only increases the Command Bar’s already impressive feature set which includes multiple HDMI inputs, wireless subwoofer, and 4K HDR compatibility.
It’s likely that Polk will not be alone with this new feature, as Amazon and Google continue pushing their voice assistants and respective features into more and more products.
Polk Command Bar is available now from JB Hi-Fi for $649.
