COORDINATING STATE CHANGES AMONG MULTIPLE MEDIA DEVICES

1 . A system for coordinating state changes among multiple media devices, comprising:

a state manager comprising a plurality of software programming instructions stored in a memory and operating on a processor of a computing device, and configured to produce, transmit, and receive a plurality of data packets via a network, at least a portion of the plurality of data packets conforming to a state management protocol;

wherein the computing device is further configured for media playback, the media playback comprising at least rendering media content via connected hardware devices;

wherein the state manager is further configured to, upon receiving a state message comprising at least a data packet conforming to the state management protocol, produce a response to the state message using the state management protocol, the response comprising at least an identifier of the computing device and information regarding a media playback state of the computing device; and

wherein the state manager is further configured to, upon receiving a state message comprising at least a data packet conforming to the state management protocol, change at least the media playback state of the computing device based at least in part on the state message.

2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the computing device operates as a media source device, wherein the media content rendering comprises at least transmitting the media content via a wireless network to a plurality of media playback devices.

3 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the computing device is configured to operate as a media playback device, wherein the media content rendering comprises at least wirelessly receiving and playing audio-based media content via a speaker.

4 . The system of claim 3 , wherein the media playback state comprises at least a volume level of the speaker.

5 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the computing device is configured to operate as a media playback device, wherein the media content rendering comprises at least wirelessly receiving and playing video media content via the display.

6 . A method for coordinating state changes among multiple media devices, the method comprising the steps of:

transmitting, using a first state manager comprising a plurality of software programming instructions stored in a memory and operating on a processor of a first computing device, and configured to produce, transmit, and receive a plurality of data packets via a network, at least a portion of the plurality of data packets conforming to a state management protocol, a state message comprising at least a data packet conforming to a state management protocol;

receiving, at a second state manager comprising a plurality of software programming instructions stored in a memory and operating on a processor of a second computing device, and configured to produce, transmit, and receive a plurality of data packets via a network, at least a portion of the plurality of data packets conforming to a state management protocol, the state message; and

changing at least a media playback state parameter of the second computing device based at least in part on the state message.

7 . The method of claim 6 , further comprising the steps of:

transmitting, from the second state manager, a state message response comprising at least a data packet conforming to a state management protocol;

receiving, at the first state manager, the state message response; and

changing at least a media playback state parameter of the first computing device based at least in part on the state message response.