Patent ID: 7733858

Claim:
An audio control surface comprising: a memory; a plurality of meters; a network interface for connecting to a network and providing a network connection for communicating with a host computer, and having an address and an input for communicating data with the host computer; a processor connected to the memory, the network interface and the plurality of meters, and configured to: process packets received through the network interface from the host computer, wherein the packets received include a first type and a second type, wherein after receipt of a packet of the first type the processor sends an acknowledgment packet through the network interface to the host computer, and wherein after receipt of a packet of the second type an acknowledgment packet is not sent to the host computer; and in response to each packet of the second type, update any meters affected by the each packet in the plurality of meters with state information provided in the each packet; wherein packets of the first and second types comprise: a wrap field, including a packet type field, wherein data in the packet type field indicates a type from among a plurality of types, wherein the plurality of types comprises the first type and the second type, and a body field comprising one or more messages, each message in a packet of the second type including state information for meters among the plurality of meters.