Patent ID: 8718537

Claim:
A communication system having a controller for transmitting data to be played back by a plurality of playback devices corresponding to a plurality of channels, and a plurality of adapters for executing playback by the plurality of playback devices, the controller comprising: a first determination unit configured to determine whether each of the plurality of adapters receives data via wired transmission or wireless transmission; a second determination unit configured to determine a delay count value of the data to be received by an adapter of the plurality of adapters for receiving the data via the wireless transmission determined by the first determination unit; a setting unit configured to set data to be played back by the plurality of playback devices and control information for indicating a delay period, corresponding to the delay count value determined by adding delay time differences between a maximum delay time and delay times of respective adapters to a processing delay time of a delay time adjustment processing circuit, to be delayed upon playback of the data to be played back in time slots of a sync transmission frame, wherein the delay period is indicated based on a frame length of the sync transmission frame; and a transmission unit configured to transmit the sync transmission frame set by the setting unit to the plurality of adapters, wherein each of the plurality of adapters comprises: a reception unit configured to receive the sync transmission frame transmitted by the transmission unit; and a playback control unit configured to extract data corresponding to the channel to be played back by the adapter from the sync transmission frame, and control a playback timing of the data based on control information corresponding to the data.