Zone group control

• US 9,467,737 B2
• Filed: 07/14/2014
• Issued: 10/11/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 07/14/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sonos, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Sonos, Inc.
• Inventors: Coburn, Arthur IV, Liu, Sherwin
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Hemant
• Application Number:
  US14/330,871
• Publication Number:
  US 20140324203A1
• Time in Patent Office: 820 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2809 indicating that an appliance service is present in a home automation network monitoring functionality H04L43/0817; discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services, H04L67/51
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/2849 Audio/video appliances
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4227 Providing Remote input by a user located remotely from the client device, e.g. at work
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43615 Interfacing a Home Network, e.g. for connecting the client to a plurality of peripherals home Audio Video Interoperability [HAVI] data switching networks H04L12/2805
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44227 Monitoring of local network, e.g. connection or bandwidth variations; Detecting new devices in the local network configuring of peripheral devices in general G06F9/4411; monitoring connectivity in data switched networks H04L43/0811
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4516 involving client characteristics, e.g. Set-Top-Box type, software version or amount of memory available
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4825 using a list of items to be played back in a given order, e.g. playlists
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/485 End-user interface for client configuration
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8113 comprising music, e.g. song in MP3 format

Abstract

Method and systems are provided for detecting and handling, by a controller device, a loss of control of a playback queue of a zone group of a media playback system. Detection of loss of control of the playback queue of the zone group may involve one or more of determining (i) that the zone group no longer exists, (ii) that a queue identifier is no longer assigned to a playback queue of the zone group, and (iii) that the controller device is no longer in communication with the media playback system, among others. Handling of the loss of control may involve one or more of (i) unsubscribing from messages relating to the zone group, (ii) ceasing to send commands to the zone group, and (iii) updating a user interface to indicate that the controller device no longer has control of the playback queue of the zone group, among others.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

sending, via a controller device to a playback device in a zone group of a media playback system, data that indicates (i) a queue identifier assigned to a playback queue of the zone group, and (ii) a queue owner identification corresponding to the playback queue, wherein the queue owner identification authorizes the controller device to control the playback queue while the queue identifier is assigned to the playback queue;

receiving, via the controller device, a transmission indicating that the playback device is no longer part of the zone group; and

based on the received transmission, causing, via the controller device, a graphical display to display an indication that the queue identifier is no longer assigned to the playback queue.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the playback device is a playback device that coordinates synchronous playback of media content by one or more playback devices in the zone group.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the transmission comprises data indicating a network topology of playback devices in the media playback system, and wherein the method further comprises:

based on the network topology, determining, by the controller device, that the playback device is no longer a part of the zone group.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein based on the network topology, determining, via the controller device, that the playback device is no longer a part of the zone group further comprises:

determining, by the controller device, that the zone group no longer exists.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the playback device is a first playback device, and wherein the transmission is received from a second playback device in the media playback system.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the transmission is received from the playback device in the zone group.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the transmission comprises a message indicating that the playback device has left the zone group.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

based on the transmission, unsubscribing, via the controller device, from transmissions of the zone group such that the controller device ignores transmissions indicating playback states of the zone group.

9. A device comprising:

a processor; and

memory having stored thereon instructions executable by the processor to cause the device to perform functions comprising;

receiving from a playback device in a zone group of a media playback system, data indicating a playback state of the zone group, wherein the data indicates a first queue identifier assigned to a playback queue of the zone group;

determining that the first queue identifier is different from a second queue identifier, wherein the second queue identifier was previously assigned to the playback queue; and

based on the determination that the first queue identifier is different from the second queue identifier, unsubscribing from transmissions of the zone group such that the device ignores transmissions indicating playback states of the zone group.

10. The device of claim 9, wherein the playback device is a first playback device, and wherein the functions further comprise:

prior to receiving the data indicating the playback state of the zone group, sending to a second playback device, data indicating the second queue identifier.

11. The device of claim 10, wherein the first playback device and the second playback device are the same device.

12. The device of claim 9, wherein the functions further comprise:

based on the determination that the first queue identifier is different from the second queue identifier, causing a graphical display to display an indication that the second queue identifier is no longer assigned to the playback queue.

13. The device of claim 9, wherein the playback device is a playback device that coordinates synchronous playback of media content by one or more playback devices in the zone group.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon instructions executable by a computing device to cause the computing device to perform functions comprising:

sending to a playback device in a zone group of a media playback system, data that indicates (i) a queue identifier assigned to a playback queue of the zone group, and (ii) a queue owner identification corresponding to the playback queue, wherein the queue owner identification authorizes the computing device to control the playback queue while the queue identifier is assigned to the playback queue;

determining that the computing device is no longer in communication with the media playback system; and

based on determining that the computing device is no longer in communication with the media playback system, causing a graphical display to display an indication that the computing device is disconnected from the media playback system.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the functions further comprise:

upon re-establishing communication between the computing device and the media playback system, determining that the queue identifier is still assigned to the playback queue; and

responsively, causing the graphical display to display an indication that the computing device is authorized to control the zone group.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the function of determining that the playback queue is associated with the zone group further comprises:

receiving from the playback device, a queue identifier that identifies the playback queue.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the function of determining that the playback queue is associated with the zone group further comprises:

sending a transmission indicating the queue owner identification corresponding to the playback queue.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the playback device is a playback device that coordinates synchronous playback of media content by one or more playback devices in the zone group.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the function of determining that the computing device is no longer in communication with the media playback system comprises:

determining that no transmission has been received from the media playback system for a predetermined duration of time.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the function of determining that the computing device is no longer in communication with the media playback system comprises:

receiving an input to deactivate a wireless communication interface of the computing device.