Wireless Speaker Group Playback Across Different Networks
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing wireless speaker systems and video conferencing technologies struggle to enable group audio reproduction across geographically separated users, lacking a realistic shared experience and requiring cumbersome manual tune selection when users want to change the audio data.
Innovation Solution
A system comprising multiple wireless speaker systems and a media server that share a key ID for group management, allowing simultaneous audio data distribution and tune selection across different networks, facilitated by video conferencing or social networking services.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If wireless speaker systems use traditional group reproduction methods requiring all speakers to be on the same network, then group reproduction can be achieved, but geographically separated users cannot participate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a media server as an intermediary component that enables wireless speaker systems on different networks to communicate. The media server receives audio data and distributes it to multiple speakers via the internet, acting as a mediator that bridges the gap between speakers on different networks while maintaining synchronized reproduction.
2Productivity
If users manually request streaming reproduction of desired tunes, then audio data can be reproduced, but the operation becomes troublesome and time-consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a tune selection screen that allows any user to independently select and request reproduction of desired tunes. The system automatically processes the request, retrieves the audio data, and distributes it to all speakers in the group without requiring manual intervention from other users, enabling self-service operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The system provides real-time feedback to users through the tune selection screen, displaying available tunes and confirming reproduction status. This feedback mechanism allows users to make informed selections and understand the system's response, improving the ease of operation.
3Adaptability or versatility
If one user sets up a website for streaming reproduction, then audio data can be distributed, but other users cannot independently select tunes
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes the media server universal by enabling any user to act as a controller. The tune selection screen and request mechanism are available to all users equally, allowing any speaker in the group to independently select tunes and initiate reproduction, rather than requiring a dedicated controller user.
Data Source
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AI summary
To make it possible to perform group playback of audio data for the same song between a plurality of wireless speaker systems belonging to different networks, and to make it possible for each user of a plurality of wireless speaker systems belonging to the same group to easily change the song undergoing group playback. [Solution] A media server 4 simultaneously distributes audio data for the same song to a plurality of wireless speaker systems 1 that gained access using the same key ID. The media server 4 also transmits a song list to the above wireless speaker systems 1, and when a broadcast request is received from one of the wireless speaker systems 1, the broadcast of audio data being currently simultaneously broadcast is ended, and audio data for the song designated in the broadcast request is simultaneously broadcast to all wireless speaker systems 1 belonging to the same group as the source of the broadcast request.