Apple Inc.

Owen Imholte

Thomas M Alsina

Edward T Schmidt

Nicholas James Paulson

Szu-Wen Huang

Jason P Ketterman

Charles Magahern

Cody D Jorgensen

Elena Leyfman

Andrew J Sinesio

Cesar De Camargo Barscevicius

Harry Simmonds

Keith G Henrickson

Techniques are disclosed for managing media playback among an ad hoc group of playback devices. Such techniques may involve building a session among the playback devices in which playback devices communicate information regarding their playback capabilities. Based on the playback capabilities of the devices, playback mode may be derived for the session. Playback operations may be synchronized among the devices that are members of the session, in which devices receive identification of asset(s) to be rendered pursuant to the playback operation and timing information of playback of the asset. The devices may stream the playback assets directly from media sources when they are capable of doing so. In this manner, communication resources are conserved.

Encapsulating and synchronizing state interactions between devices

Growing community of inventors

Cupertino, CA, United States of America

Owen Imholte