US 11,812,253 B2
Wireless multi-channel headphone systems and methods
Steven Beckhardt, Boston, MA (US)
Assigned to Sonos, Inc., Santa Barbara, CA (US)
Filed by Sonos, Inc., Santa Barbara, CA (US)
Filed on Nov. 1, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/516,391.
Application 17/516,391 is a continuation of application No. 16/415,783, filed on May 17, 2019, granted, now 11,178,504.
Prior Publication US 2022/0167113 A1, May 26, 2022
Int. Cl. H04S 7/00 (2006.01); H04R 5/033 (2006.01); H04R 5/04 (2006.01); H04S 3/00 (2006.01); H04R 1/10 (2006.01); H04R 3/12 (2006.01); H04R 3/02 (2006.01)
CPC H04S 7/304 (2013.01) [H04R 1/1041 (2013.01); H04R 3/02 (2013.01); H04R 5/033 (2013.01); H04R 5/04 (2013.01); H04S 3/008 (2013.01); H04R 2420/07 (2013.01); H04S 2400/01 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A computing device comprising:
one or more processors;
one or more network interfaces configured to receive multichannel audio information from a multichannel audio information source and communicatively couple the computing device to a wireless local area network (LAN); and
tangible, non-transitory computer-readable media comprising program instructions stored therein, wherein the program instructions are executable by the one or more processors such that the computing device is configured to:
responsive to determining that the multichannel audio information is only required to be provided to a single pair of headphones, provide the multichannel audio information to only a single pair of headphones, use a first Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS) to transmit a first channel stream comprising first multichannel audio information at a first throughput rate and with a first wireless link margin to the single pair of headphones via the one or more network interfaces; and
responsive to determining that the multichannel audio information is required to be provided to more than one pair of headphones, provide the multichannel audio information to two pairs of headphones, use a second MCS to (a) transmit the first channel stream comprising the first multichannel audio information to a first of the two pairs of headphones at a second throughput that is greater than the first throughput and with a second wireless link margin that is lower than the first wireless link margin via the one or more network interfaces and (b) transmit a second channel stream comprising second multichannel audio information to a second of the two pairs of headphones at the second throughput and with the second wireless link margin via the one or more network interfaces, wherein the first multichannel audio information differs from the second multichannel audio information.