Distributed Playback Architecture Synchronization via Beacon Interleaving
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Solution Overview
Problem
In the automotive infotainment industry, existing systems face challenges in achieving synchronized playback of multimedia content across multiple devices over low-bandwidth networks, requiring guaranteed bandwidth, low latencies, distributed A/V synchronization, block synchronization, and frame-synchronous presentation, while avoiding extensive proprietary wiring and ensuring network transparency and standardization.
Innovation Solution
A distributed playback architecture that includes a master element with a payload data source, beacon packet creator, and response packet evaluator, and a slave element with a network interface and beacon packet extractor, which interleave beacon packets with payload data packets to synchronize playback and adjust for network latency, ensuring synchronized presentation across multiple devices.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If uncompressed multimedia content is transmitted over the network to multiple devices, then synchronized playback quality is improved, but network bandwidth requirements increase beyond available capacity
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the multimedia content into individual frames or blocks that are transmitted separately to multiple slave devices. Each slave receives and processes only the necessary segments independently, allowing synchronized playback without requiring the network to handle the entire uncompressed content stream simultaneously for all devices.
Solution Approach 2:
The master device performs preliminary decoding and processing of the multimedia content before transmission. By preparing and encoding the content in advance at the master device, the system reduces the bandwidth requirements for network transmission while ensuring that slave devices receive pre-processed data ready for immediate synchronized playback.
2Reliability
If dedicated high-bandwidth equipment and cables are used for transmitting audio and video signals to each unit, then transmission quality and reliability are improved, but system complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system employs a universal network interface and communication protocol that can be used across all devices in the distributed playback system. This multi-functional approach allows the same network infrastructure to handle multiple devices and content types, reducing the need for dedicated high-bandwidth equipment for each unit while maintaining transmission reliability through standardized protocols.
3Adaptability or versatility
If the entire multimedia content is transmitted to each slave device, then playback availability and independence are improved, but network bandwidth consumption increases beyond capacity
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts and transmits only the essential synchronization information and necessary content segments to slave devices, rather than transmitting the entire multimedia content. This extraction approach allows slave devices to maintain playback independence for their assigned content while significantly reducing network bandwidth consumption by eliminating redundant data transmission.
Data Source
AI summary
Master element for a distributed playback architecture for a media data, having: a payload data source for providing payload data packets; a beacon packet creator for creating beacon packets useable for synchronizing a playback process of the payload data packets at, at least one, slave element in the distributed playback architecture; and a network interface for transmitting an interleaved packet stream to the at least one slave element, the interleaved packet stream having the payload data packets provided by the payload data source and the beacon packets created by the beacon packet creator. A corresponding slave element, the distributed playback architecture, a method, and a computer program product are also disclosed.