Apple Inc.

David P Saracino

Gregory R Chapman

Thomas M Alsina

Johannes P Schmidt

Edward T Schmidt

Jonathan Anderson Bennett

Deepak R Iyer

Astrid Yi

Adam A Sonnanstine

Elena Leyfman

Shreyas Nandagudi Sreesha

Aparna S Akella

Nicholas James Paulson

Szu-Wen Huang

Steven P Bischoff

Simon Goldrei

Jeffrey L Robbin

Taylor Gerard Carrigan

William Martin Bachman

Steve Saro Gedikian

Jason P Ketterman

Eric S Lee

Kevin Shen

Sriram Hariharan

Christopher John Sanders

Roger N Pantos

Sean Anthony Ramprashad

John Samuel Bushell

Vijay Sundaram

Langford M Wasada

William M Bumgarner

Zhenheng Li

Davide Concion

Jarrad A Stallone

Daniel H Lloyd

Erik Turnquist

In some implementations a system can be configured to reduce the burden of pairing user devices with playback devices. For example, all users (or user devices) who commonly operate within a particular environment (e.g., a home) can be configured as authorized users of playback devices within the particular environment. When one of the authorized users pairs a user device with a playback device, all of the user devices for all authorized users can be automatically paired with the playback device as a result of the single pairing. Thus, only a single authorized user is burdened with the pairing process in order to pair all authorized users with the playback device.

Pairing devices by proxy

In some implementations, a system can be configured to allow remote control devices to quietly obtain status information related to various audio/video playback devices. For example, a streaming device (e.g., a user device, phone, etc.) can establish a streaming connection to a playback device. The playback device can be configured to only accept a single streaming connection (i.e., master connection). A remote control device (e.g., a user device, phone, etc.) can quietly connect (i.e., control connection) to the playback device without interrupting the master connection to obtain status information related to the playback device and or the media being streamed to the playback device. The remote control device can provide commands through the control connection to adjust the playback of the streamed media at the playback device.

Remotely controlling playback devices

Methods and systems provide synchronized sharing of multimedia between multiple devices. The multiple devices may form an ad-hoc network for sharing of multimedia. In an embodiment, group members may have playlist manipulation privileges such as pausing, rewinding, fast forwarding, or adding tracks to the playlist. A system may stream or distribute content according to the shared playlist. Playback may be synchronized for group members so that everyone is exposed to a same part of the content as the same time.

Synchronized playback and control of media

Control techniques are disclosed for devices that are members of ad hoc rendering networks. A first network device may receive a data record representing state of the network. The data record may contain data identifying device(s) that are members of the network, any grouping(s) of the device(s) defined for the network, and a play state of the device(s). When the first network device receives the data record, it may store the data record locally at the first player device. The first player device may determine whether the data record possesses a command altering a play state of a device. If so and if the command is addressed to the first player device, the first player device may execute the command at the first player device. The data record may be relayed among all devices in the ad hoc rendering network, and each device may perform this same process. In this manner, state updates propagate to all devices that are members of the rendering network, and all such devices store state data of all other devices.

Management of devices in ad hoc rendering networks

Methods and systems provide for coordinated control between multiple devices of playback of a media track or playlist. The multiple devices may form an ad-hoc network for sharing control of media. A control device may coordinate control of the playlist and facilitate playback of the media at a playback device. Then when the control device leaves the group, a second device in the group will seamlessly become the control device and control playback and playlist coordination. The playback device may also be the control device. The playback advice may be a network-enabled speaker. Where the playback device is separate from the control device, the playback device may maintain sufficient information to operate without a control device until a new control device is selected.

Coordinated control of media playback

In some implementations, a system can be configured to manage groups of playback devices. For example, playback devices can be dynamically grouped in a variety of ways. Each playback device can store attributes that define the group to which the playback device belongs. Each playback device can send its group attributes to remote control devices and the remote control devices can determine groups of playback devices based on the group attributes. The remote control devices can then configure and present graphical user interfaces that represent the various groups of playback devices. In some implementations, a group of playback devices can be configured as a persistent group. For example, a pair of playback devices (e.g., wireless speakers) can store and send attribute data indicating that the pair of playback devices is a persistent group so that remote control devices can present and control the persistent group as a single device.

Managing playback groups

In some implementations, a computing device can calibrate media playback channels for presenting media content through a media system by determining the media propagation latency through the media system. For example, the computing device can send calibration content (e.g., audio data, video data, etc.) to various playback devices (e.g., playback channels) of the media system and record a timestamp indicating when the calibration content was sent. When the playback devices present the calibration content, a sensor device (e.g., remote control device, smartphone, etc.) can detect the presentation of the calibration content. The sensor device can send calibration data (e.g., media samples that may include the calibration content and/or a timestamp indicating when the media sample was detected by the sensor device) to the computing device. The computing device can determine the propagation latency (e.g., presentation delay) based on the calibration data received from the sensor device.

Calibrating media playback channels for synchronized presentation

Video data with high frame rates may be displayed on devices with limited resources (e.g., decoder and/or display resources). These devices may have their resources devoted to other tasks or may not be capable to display the video data at the high frame rates. The coding method may include coding the frames such that additional droppable frames are included in the encoded video data. The decoding method may include dropping droppable frames before the encoded video data is decoded to reduce the number of frames that will be decoded and displayed. These methods may be applied to video data that has a variable frame rate and may be combined with processing the image sequence for slow motion playback.

Tuning video compression for high frame rate and variable frame rate capture

A method of switching media output includes receiving a first variant of a media item with a player, transmitting the first variant to a secondary device, and upon determining a change in operating conditions, switching from the first variant of the media item to a second variant of the media item by estimating a time to perform the switch to the second variant, transmitting to the secondary device a notification of a time to switch from the first variant to the second variant, and transmitting the second variant to the secondary device.

Distributed and synchronized media switching

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San Francisco, CA, United States of America

David P Saracino