Audio Network Master Device Zone Management
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing audio network systems face challenges in seamlessly controlling and synchronizing multiple audio devices across different zones in a household, requiring centralized management and efficient communication protocols to ensure interoperability and user experience.
Innovation Solution
A multi-zone audio communication network system featuring a master device and slave devices, utilizing a communication protocol that includes prioritized messages, dynamic zone configuration, and message synchronization to enable seamless control and audio streaming across zones, allowing for interoperability between different devices and zones.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a centralized audio network system is implemented to allow multiple rooms to share audio sources, then device interoperability and centralized control are improved, but system complexity and communication management difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system divides audio sources and playback devices into separate functional groups, with sources remaining in their original rooms and slave devices distributed to different zones. This segmentation allows independent control of each group while maintaining overall system interoperability through the communication network.
Solution Approach 2:
The master device serves multiple functions including source selection, zone management, and command routing to various slave devices. The slave devices are designed with universal interfaces that allow them to receive and process different types of audio commands from the master device, enabling flexible configuration across different room setups.
2Reliability
If real-time audio control and synchronization across multiple zones is implemented, then user experience and audio coherence are improved, but communication bandwidth requirements and message transmission complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts essential control information (playback state, volume, mute status) from complete audio data streams and transmits only these critical parameters across the network. This reduces communication bandwidth requirements while maintaining audio synchronization reliability between master and slave devices.
Solution Approach 2:
The master device polls slave devices at regular intervals to check their operational status and synchronize audio playback state. This periodic communication approach ensures audio coherence across zones while optimizing bandwidth usage by transmitting updates only when state changes occur between polling cycles.
3Adaptability or versatility
If dynamic zone configuration is allowed to accommodate different household needs, then system adaptability and user flexibility are improved, but control management complexity and device configuration difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
Slave devices automatically detect and join audio zones based on their physical location and network configuration, eliminating the need for manual zone assignment by users. The system self-configures by having slave devices report their status to the master device, which automatically organizes them into appropriate zones based on current playback requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
The zone configuration is designed to be dynamically adjustable during operation rather than fixed during setup. Users can add or remove slave devices from zones on-the-fly through simple commands, and the system automatically reconfigures audio routing and synchronization parameters to maintain optimal performance without requiring complex reconfiguration procedures.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for an audio system controls a number of audio devices from a master device over a wired network for at least one wired audio device and over a wireless network for at least one wireless device. The method receives a reply in response to a poll message from each of the wired audio devices and aggregate polling information indicative of the state of the wireless devices from one of the wireless devices.