Audio related system link management

• US 20050232602A1
• Filed: 03/25/2005
• Published: 10/20/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 03/26/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Harman International Industries Incorporated (Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Harman International Industries Incorporated (Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.)
• Inventors: Gardner, Scott, Hamling, Michael Douglas, Hatch, Steve, Lee, John, Stevenson, Andrew, Kreifeldt, Richard Allen, Shuttleworth, Timothy J., Plunkett, William A., Werf, Bruce Vander
• Granted Patent: US 8,473,844 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 386/239
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/04 Studio equipment; Interconnection of studios
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2227/003 Digital PA systems using, e.g. LAN or internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 27/00 Public address systems circuits for preventing acoustic reaction H04R3/02; circuits for distributing signals to loudspeakers H04R3/12; monitoring or testing arrangements for public address systems H04R29/007; amplifiers H03F

Abstract

A system for management and control of audio-related equipment. A link manager may be included in the system. The link manager may be configured to manage subscriptions to multiple other audio-related devices or control panel views. When the managed data variables change, the link manager module may notify other audio-related devices and/or control panel views of the change. In response to the notification, the other audio-related devices and/or control panels may subscribe to the audio-related device with the changed data variable, to request receipt of the updated data variable. In some examples, the link manager module may also be configured to lessen the subscription burden for a particular audio-related device.

Claims

1. A method for tracking changes to settings on an audio-related device, comprising:

providing a first device having a first state variable, the first audio-related device including a user interface operable to change a value of the first state variable;

building a first control panel view associated with the first audio-related device, the first control panel view operable to display the value of the state variable;

tracking changes to the value of the first state variable;

in response to a change in the value of the first state variable, notifying the first control panel view that the value of the first state variable has changed; and

in response to a notification that the value of the first state variable has changed, the first control panel view querying the first audio-related device for the value of the first state variable.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising establishing a subscription between a second control panel view and the first state variable.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising notifying the second control panel view in response to a change in the value of the first state variable.

4. The method of claim 3, where the second control panel view queries the first audio-related device for the value of the state variable in response to a notification that the value of the first state variable has changed.

5. The method of claim 1, where the first control panel view includes a user interface adapted to change the value of the first state variable.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising notifying the first audio-related device that the value of the state variable has been changed by the first control panel view in response to a change in the value of the state variable by the first control panel view.

7. The method of claim 6, where the first audio-related device queries the first control panel view for the value of the first state variable in response to a notification that the first control panel view has changed the value of the first state variable.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising establishing a subscription between a second audio-related device and the first state variable of the first audio-related device, the second audio-related device having a second state variable.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising notifying the second audio-related device in response to a change in the value of the first state variable.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising notifying the first audio-related device of changes to the second state variable if the first audio-related device has established a subscription to the second state variable.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining the processing availability of the first audio-related device in response to the query of the first control panel view for the value of the first state variable.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising forwarding the query from the first control panel view to another device with which the first audio-related device is configured to communicate if the first audio-related device does not have sufficient processing availability.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising responding to the first control panel view with the value of the first state variable in response to receiving a forwarded query regarding the first state variable from the first audio-related device.

14. The method of claim 8, further comprising storing the first control panel view and the second control panel view to a memory.

15. The method of claim 8, further comprising storing the value of the first state variable and the value of the second state variable to a memory.

16. The method of claim 5, further comprising allowing a user to select between a first type of graphical user interface element of the user interface of the first control panel view and a second type of graphical user interface element of the user interface of the first control panel view to adjust the value of the first state variable.

17. The method of claim 8, where the first control panel view includes a user interface operable to change the value of the first state variable and the value of the second state variable.

18. A method of providing and selecting from a display of an audio-related system having a GUI and a selection device, comprising:

determining whether the graphical user interface is in a venue view or a product view;

if in the venue view, retrieving a virtual device list representing each audio-related device connected to a network and displaying the virtual device list on the display;

or

if in the product view, retrieving a state variable list for an object and displaying the state variable list on the display.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising receiving a selection signal indicative of the selection device pointing at a selected virtual device from the virtual device list if in the venue view.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising retrieving an object list for the selected virtual device in response to the signal selecting the selected virtual device and displaying the object list for the selected virtual device.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising receiving a selection signal indicative of the selection device pointing at a selected object from the object list, in response to the signal selecting the selected object, retrieving a state variable list for the selected object and displaying the state variable list for the selected object.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising controlling a first state variable and a second state variable from the state variable list with a single graphical user interface element.

23. The method of claim 22, where the first state variable and the second state variable have different data types.

24. The method of claim 23, where the graphical user interface element is selected from the group consisting of a slider, a button, a knob, a button, a rotary encoder and a list box.

25. The method of claim 18, further comprising, retrieving a state variable list for a selected object and displaying the state variable list for the selected object in response to a signal associated with the selected object.

26. The method of claim 18, further comprising retrieving an object list associated with the state variable list for a menu if in the product view and displaying the menu.

27. A performance equipment manager for use with audio-related devices, comprising:

a plurality of plugins in which each of the product plugins is associated with an audio-related device;

a GUI core configured to query a node structure of the audio-related device

a plugin interface interface configured to interface communications between the plurality of plugins in the GUI core; and

a network interface configured to communicate with the audio-related device;

where the plurality of plugins is configured to instantiate communications with the plugin interface.

28. The performance equipment manager of claim 27, where the GUI core comprises a link manager configured to manage subscriptions between the audio-related device and a control panel view.

29. The performance equipment manager of claim 28, where the link manager comprises an event engine configured to track changes in a state variable of the audio-related device.

30. The performance equipment manager of claim 29, where the link manager comprises a link engine configured to notify the control panel view in response to changes in the state variable determined by the event engine