Patent ID: 7739718

Claim:
A system comprising: a local node comprising a plurality of tuners to distribute multimedia content to a plurality of remote nodes, wherein each of the plurality of remote nodes comprises; configuration data to associate a power usage level of a multimedia device coupled to the remote node with respective operational states of the multimedia device, a power detection module to detect a power usage level of the multimedia device coupled to the respective remote node, a power analysis module to determine, based on the configuration data and the detected power usage level of the multimedia device, whether the multimedia device is in a first operational state or a second operational state, and a transmitter to transmit an indication of the detected operational state of the multimedia device to the local node; wherein configuration data of a first one of the plurality of remote nodes associates a first operational state with a first power usage level of a first multimedia device, and wherein configuration data of a second one of the plurality of remote nodes associates the first operational state with a second, different power usage level of a second multimedia device, and wherein the local node allocates multimedia processing resources to the plurality of remote nodes based on the detected operational state of the respective multimedia devices coupled to the plurality of remote nodes.