Cloud queue synchronization protocol

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9654459-B2
Application number	US-201514616332-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 6, 2015
Priority date	Jun 4, 2014
Publication date	May 16, 2017
Grant date	May 16, 2017

Abstract

An example implementation may involve a playback device of a media playback system sending a request for an indication of at least one media item from a remote queue of media items and an indication of a particular media item that is being played by the playback device. The implementation may also involve the playback device receiving an indication of one or more media items from the remote queue of media items. The one or more media items may include the particular media item is being played by the playback device. The implementation may further involve the playback device incorporating an indication of the one or more media items into a local queue of media items.

First claim

We claim:

1. A playback device comprising:
a network interface;
at least one processor;
a data storage; and
a program logic stored in the data storage and executable by the at least one processor to:
while playing back a particular media item from a local queue of media items, send, to a remote server over the network interface, (i) a request for an indication of media items from a cloud queue of media items that is accessible to the playback device via a wide area network, and (ii) an indication of the particular media item that is being played by the playback device, wherein the local queue is stored in data storage of the playback device;
receive, over the network interface, an indication of two or more media items from the cloud queue of media items, wherein the two or more media items include the particular media item that is being played by the playback device; and
incorporate an indication of at least one of the two or more media items into the local queue of media items.

2. The playback device of claim 1 , wherein receiving the indication of two or more media items from the cloud queue of media items comprises receiving a sequence of two or more media items from the cloud queue, wherein the sequence includes the particular media item that is being played by the playback device.

3. The playback device of claim 2 , wherein incorporating an indication of the at least one of the two or more media items into the local queue comprises adding an indication of the at least one of the two or more media items from the cloud queue into the local queue according to the sequence.

4. The playback device of claim 2 , wherein sending the request for an indication of media items from the cloud queue of media items further comprises sending, to the remote server over the network interface, an indication of a number of media items to include in the sequence.

5. The playback device of claim 1 , wherein sending the request for an indication of media items from the cloud queue of media items further comprises sending, to the remote server over the network interface, an identifier indicating the cloud queue from among one or more cloud queues.

6. The playback device of claim 1 , wherein the program logic is further executable to:
after receiving the indication of two or more media items from the cloud queue of media items, send, to one or more additional playback devices over the network interface, an indication of the two or more media items from the cloud queue of media items.

7. The playback device of claim 1 , wherein the program logic is further executable to:
receive, from a control device over the network interface, a request for an indication of at least one of the two or more media items from the cloud queue of media items for display, wherein the control device is configured to control playback by the playback device; and
responsively, send, to the control device over the network interface, an indication of at least one of the two or more media items from the cloud queue of media items.

8. The playback device of claim 1 , wherein the program logic is further executable to:
receive a request for the playback device to send another request for an indication of media items from the cloud queue of media items;
detect that another media item of the local queue is being played by the playback device; and
responsively, send, to the remote server over the network interface, (i) another request for an indication of media items from the cloud queue of media items, and (ii) an indication of the detected media item of the local queue, wherein the detected media item is the media item that is being played by the playback device.

9. The playback device of claim 1 , wherein the program logic is further executable to:
detect that playback of the particular media item has finished; and
send, to the remote server over the network interface, a message indicating that playback of the particular media item has finished.

10. The playback device of claim 1 , wherein the cloud queue is an active cloud queue that is currently playing back at the playback device, and wherein the program logic is further executable to:
receive a message modifying the active queue of the playback device from the cloud queue to another queue; and
send, to the remote server over the network interface, a message indicating that the cloud queue is not the active queue at the playback device.

11. The playback device of claim 1 , wherein the local queue is a local mirror of the cloud queue.

12. A method comprising:
while playing back a particular media item from a local queue of media items, sending, by a playback device to a remote server over a network interface, (i) a request for an indication of media items from a cloud queue of media items that is accessible to the playback device via a wide area network, and (ii) an indication of the particular media item that is being played by the playback device, wherein the local queue is stored in data storage of the playback device;
receiving, by the playback device over the network interface, an indication of two or more media items from the cloud queue of media items, wherein the two or more media items include the particular media item that is being played by the playback device; and
incorporating, via the playback device, an indication of at least one of the two or more media items into the local queue of media items.

13. A method comprising:
receiving, via a computing system over a network interface from a media playback system that comprises one or more playback devices, (i) a request for an indication of media items from a cloud queue of media items, and (ii) an indication of a particular media item that is being played back by a given playback device of the media playback system, wherein the cloud queue is accessible to the playback device via a wide area network;
identifying two or more media items from the cloud queue, wherein the two or more media items includes the particular media item; and
causing, via the computing system, an indication of at least one of the two or more media items to be incorporated into a local queue of media items, wherein the local queue is stored in a data storage of the media playback system, and wherein causing the indication of at least one of the two or more media items to be incorporated into the local queue of media items comprises sending, over the network interface, an indication of the identified two or more media items from the cloud queue to the media playback system.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein identifying the two or more media items from the cloud queue comprises
determining a sequence of two or more media items from the cloud queue, wherein the sequence includes the particular media item.

15. The method of claim 13 , further comprising:
detecting a modification to the cloud queue that affects that the identified two or more media items from the cloud queue; and
in response to detecting the modification to the cloud queue that affects that the identified two or more media items, sending, to the media playback system over the network interface, a message indicating that the identified two or more media items from the cloud queue have been modified.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein sending the message indicating that the identified two or more items from the cloud queue have been modified comprises:
sending, to the media playback system over the network interface, a request for the media playback system to send another request for an indication of items from the cloud queue of media items.

17

Assignees

• Sonos Inc

Inventors

• Coburn Iv Arthur L
• Beckhardt Steven
• Schulert Andrew J

Classifications

• H04N21/4627

  Rights management {associated to the content (security in data switching network management H04L41/28; security management or policies for network security H04L63/20; access security in wireless networks H04W12/08)} · CPC title

• H04N21/6377

  directed to server {(one-way streaming services wherein the source is controlled by the destination H04L65/613)} · CPC title

• H04N21/658

  Transmission by the client directed to the server · CPC title

• H04N21/654

  Transmission by server directed to the client · CPC title

• G06F21/44

  Program or device authentication · CPC title