US 6,778,869 · Granted 2004-08-17

Sony's Blueprint for Streaming Entertainment Across Your Home

Imagine your computer downloading movies and music from the internet, then sending them wirelessly to your TV and speakers anywhere in your house while you control it all from a remote. That's what this patent covers—the core mechanics of turning a PC into a whole-home entertainment hub.

Curated and verified by the IsItPatented Editorial team

The plain-English version

What it protects

The claim covers a system where a personal computer receives audio and audiovisual content over the internet, stores it locally, and then transmits that content over a digital connection to speakers and monitors in different rooms. What's protected here is the combination of internet delivery, local storage, remote distribution through a digital link, and the remote control interface that lets users select and manage what plays where.

Why it matters

This patent captures the foundational architecture of home streaming and distributed media—concepts that would become central to how people consume entertainment in the 2000s and beyond. By securing the method of pulling content from the internet to a central device and pushing it to multiple endpoints in the home, Sony positioned itself in a critical technology space as broadband adoption accelerated and digital media consumption shifted from physical discs to downloaded files.

Real-world use

Every time you stream a Netflix show from your living room TV while music plays in your kitchen from the same source, you're using technology descended from this patent's core idea.

Original USPTO abstract

A personal computer connected to the Internet can receive and store audio and audiovisual data or programming from the Internet. This audio and audiovisual programming can be provided by the computer over a digital connection to speakers and/or a monitor located away from the computer at a location convenient for a user. A remote control unit allows the user to send signals back over the digital connection to the computer to control the computer to provide the audio or audiovisual programming that the user desires over the digital connection to the speakers and/or monitor located where the user is. The computer may send a listing of the available programming to the remote control unit from which the user can make selections.

Patent details

Publication number: US 6,778,869
Filing date: 2000-12-11
Grant date: 2004-08-17
Assignee: Sony Corporation / Sony Electronics, Inc.
Inventor(s): CHAMPION MARK
CPC class: H04H20/82

View original record on Google Patents →

Want to file your own patent?

If you're designing a new way to stream media or control entertainment across rooms, check our free patent scanner to see what's already locked down in your space.

Free patentability scan