HomeKit Setup and questions (what device for hub, Sonos/homepod, family share music playlists, etc.)

[Treebark]

So I may have gone overboard, but what we have / have coming:

• Older hue lights, lots of them. Ordered HomeKit compatible hub
• Older Sonos Play 3, 5, and 2 connects going to AudioEngine speakers. Ordered a Play One to see if I can bridge Sonos system to Homekit
• New Lutron light switches and a couple of outlets
• Homepods...lots of them (but may return)
• multiple iPhones, iPads and in Apple TV
• Family share plan for iCloud and Apple Music, myself as organizer

What I want to know:

1. What device, assuming you should only have one, should be the HomeKit hub? AppleTV 4th gen, one of the Homepods, or we have a 2018 regular iPad that now has a permanent home in the kitchen for recipes and calendars
2. What devices am I missing that are essential/ add a lot to the capabilities. Thinking maybe motion sensors for triggers? Which are best, if so?
3. Homepod: If I set this up under my ID can my wife use voice commands to play her playlists from family music share plan? If not, can I set them up under her ID but the rest of the homekit under mine since I am the iCloud organizer?
4. Homepod: If we have multiple stereo pairs, but play the same music in all rooms which may have single homepods, will the stereo pairs still play in stereo?
5. Homepod: Does anyone have a bigger setup? Seems like most have 1-4...I’ve ordered 9! Any troubles with that many? Thiinking if the sound quality is there of yanking out all of the Sonos. 1-2 in kitchen which is open to a 1500 square foot great room that has a ceiling to floor brick chimney in it...stereo pair on opposite wall from kitchen (80 feet away?), 1 or stereo pair on other wall with TV, then the rest in bedroom, laundry room (1 only) and bathroom. Too many?
6. AppleTV sound is bad through our small 20-something inch TV (we don’t watch it much except movies). 1 homepod dedicated to it? A stereo pair? Or the new Sonos One if we keep Sonos?
7. Sonos, Homepod or a mix: Originally planned on mix, but seems like many have performance issues doing it this way. Anyone ditch their Sonos system with real speakers / connects for Homepods?
8. Bridges: So many! Hue has one, Sonos has one (Boost), Caseta has one, if I were to get an August Smart lock it would have one...seems like redundancy. Am I missing something? Like a unifying bridge?
   
   Any other tips?

Sorry for such a long post. Anyone make it this far?

 

[waw74]

you can airplay to the "one" and then join other sonos to that, effectively letting you airplay to older non-airplay sonos.

you can also airplay to the HomePod and the one, and connect your other sonos,

1 - you don't get to choose, they will all be hubs, one will be active. There is no hub setting, once you sign in to your apple account, it automagically becomes a hub.

4 - yes, the stereo pair behaves as a single unit.


i have one homepod, and have since added a bunch of sonos, i really only use the HomePod for yelling across the room at siri.
i have a beam with 2 play:1 for surrounds and a sub in the living room, a pair of ones in the bedroom (so i can airplay from the aTV, although i normally don't) and single play:1s in the kitchen and bath.

90% of the time i play through sonos app
the rest i'll airplay from phone to the beam, and let that stream everywhere else, mostly when i'm coming home or about to leave, so i don't have to find what i'm listening to on the other system.

from what i've seen, speaker integration in home kit is kinda meh, it doesn't really provide much function.

 

[recd]

6. I have a stereo pair of Home pods, and 4 Sonos ones, 1 Sonos 5, a Playbar, Beam, a Sub and a turntable pugged into a Sonos Connect. To listening to TV sound A sonos 5.1 group of Playbase OR Beam with a Sub and a pair of either 1s or Ones are much better solution than the Homepods.