Sonos, Inc.

Cameron Ellison Korb

Nicholas Maniskas

David Lawrence Bernstein

Govind Jeyaram

Ted M Lin

Richard Bannon

Govind Jevaram

Meng Wang

Richard John Bannon

Disclosed herein are playback devices, groups of playback devices, and methods of operating playback devices and groupings thereof to cause the playback devices in a group of playback devices communicating over a first network to play audio content received via second network.

Synchronizing playback of audio information received from other networks

In one aspect, a playback device is configured to (i) receive a first stream of audio data representing audio content from a computing system, (ii) detect an indication that a source of the audio content is to switch from the computing system to a user device; (iii) after detecting the indication, establish a point-to-point wireless link with the user device over which to receive a second stream of audio data; (iv) receive the second stream of audio data representing the audio content; (v) determine a future time at which to transition from playing back the audio content using the first stream of audio data to playing back the audio content using the second stream of audio data; and (vi) at the future time, transition from playing back the audio content using the first stream of audio data to playing back the audio content using the second stream of audio data.

Seamless transition of source of media content

Playback devices can support audio encoded using various encoding schemes. Playing back such content includes receiving, at a playback device, audio data from an audio source; and receiving an indication from the audio source that the audio data is encoded in the compressed audio format. The device determines, independently of receiving the indication from the audio source that the audio data is encoded in the compressed audio format, whether the audio data is encoded in a compressed audio format. If the audio data is determined to be encoded in the compressed audio format: the device selects a decoder from among a plurality of decoders; decodes the audio data using the selected decoder; and plays back the decoded audio data via the playback device. If the audio data is determined not to be encoded in the compressed audio format, the device inhibits playback of the audio data.

Systems and methods of audio decoder determination and selection

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Boston, MA, United States of America

Cameron Ellison Korb