Distributed control of synchronized content
A method for processing a transport command at a local content controller to control the playback of shared content in synchrony with other, remote content controllers commences by first determining whether a received transport command originated from the local content controller or from at least one remote content controller. In the event of a locally originated transport command, the local content controller will prioritize the locally originated transport command with recently received transport commands. Thereafter, the local controller will transmit the locally originated transport command to at least one remote content controller for execution thereby if the locally originated transport command has priority. In the event of a remotely originated transport command, the local controller will prioritize the remotely originated transport command with recently received transport commands and then execute the prioritized transport commands in accordance with the latency between content controllers.
1. A method, to be performed at a local content controller, comprising:
prioritizing a received transport command with yet unexecuted transport commands by taking account of an issuing time of said received transport command and issuing times of said yet unexecuted transport commands, said received transport command and said yet unexecuted transport commands being adapted to control a playback of a content shared by said local content controller and at least one remote content controller;
when said received transport command has been issued by the local content controller and has priority on said yet unexecuted transport commands, transmitting the received transport command to said at least one remote content controller;
executing the prioritized transport commands in accordance with a latency between said local and/or remote content controllers; and
during a hold-off interval after an issued command, delaying execution of a transport command issued by one of said remote content controllers in case it has priority, and ignoring the transport command issued by one of said remote content controllers in case it does not have priority.
2. The method according to claim 1 wherein the latency between said content controllers is determined in accordance with a round-trip time for a signal to travel one of said local and/or said remote controllers to and from another of said local and/or said remote controllers.
3. The method according to claim 1 wherein the yet unexecuted commands include at least one transport command issued by said local content controller.
4. The method according to claim 1 wherein the yet unexecuted commands include at least one transport command issued by at least one of said remote content controller.
5. The method of claim 1 wherein the transport commands issued by said local controller and transport commands issued by at least one of said remote content controllers include a respective timestamp indicating their issuing time.
6. A method, to be performed at a local content controller comprising:
determining whether a first transport command received at the local content controller has priority with respect to a previously received second transport command, said first and second transport commands being adapted to control a playback of a content shared by said local controller and by at least one remote controller, said determining taking account of issuing times of said first and second transport command;
when the first transport command has priority, executing the first transport command at the local content controller; but when the second transport command has priority, not executing the first transport command at the local content controller; and
during a hold-off interval after an issued command, delaying execution of a transport command issued by said at least one remote content controller in case it has priority, and ignoring the transport command issued by said at least one emote content controller in case it does not have priority.
7. The method of claim 6 , wherein when the first transport command is issued by said local content controller, the method comprises transmitting the first transport command to said at least one remote content controller.
8. The method of claim 6 , wherein the priority of the first transport command is determined in accordance with which of a plurality of content controllers issued the first transport command.
9. The method of claim 6 wherein the first and second transport commands each include a respective timestamp indicating their issuing time.
10. The method of claim 6 , wherein:
i) if the first command issued before the second command, the first command has priority;
ii) if the first command did not issue before the second command and the first and second commands are issued by the same content controller, the first command has priority;
iii) if the first command issued after the second command by at least a first amount of time and the first and second commands are issued by different content controllers, the first command has priority;
iv) if the first command issued after the second command by less than a first time value and the first and second commands are issued by different content controllers, the first command does not have priority,
v) if the first command issued at the same time as the second command, determining whether the first transport command has priority based other than when the first and second transport commands were issued.
11. The method of claim 6 wherein
i) if the first command issued before the second command by less than a time value, the execution of the first command overrides a previous execution of the second command; and,
ii) otherwise the execution of the first command does not override the previous execution of the second command.