Patent ID: 8670651

Claim:
An editing device comprising: a setting unit which selectively sets a respective functional role for the editing device, including a director role for that editing device whereby the user of that editing device instructs one or more users of other editing devices to operate those other editing devices in a worker role to perform predetermined editing processing, for respective ones of said other editing devices, all of said editing devices operating in a hierarchy constituted by a director and one or more workers; and an executing unit included in the editing device to execute at least one editing processing of an overall editing operation, wherein the editing processing and overall editing operation are defined in advance on the basis of the role set by the setting unit for that editing device under the control of instructions from the director, wherein the director sends instructions to the setting unit of a respective editing device to operate in a worker role, the instructions defining the editing processing to be executed by said executing unit when the editing device that includes said executing unit is set by the director to function in a worker role, and wherein selected editing processings of predetermined editing devices that function in a worker role are inhibited by the director from conflicting with the editing processing of other editing devices in the overall editing operation.