Patent ID: 7423670

Claim:
A control method for controlling an image pickup apparatus in an image delivery system that delivers images acquired from the image pickup apparatus to at least one of external devices, the image pickup apparatus being remotely controllable by the external devices, the method comprising: controlling the image pickup apparatus based on a schedule which includes a set of control data to control the image pickup apparatus and a priority level of the schedule; comparing, in a case where a request for remotely controlling the image pickup apparatus is received from one of the external devices when the image pickup apparatus is controlled based on the schedule, a priority level of the requesting external device with the priority level of the schedule including the set of control data used at the time when the request is received; inhibiting remote control of the image pickup apparatus by the requesting external device if the priority level of the schedule is higher than the priority level of the requesting external device as a comparison result; and allowing the requesting external device to control the image pickup apparatus if the priority level of the schedule is lower than the priority level of the requesting external device as a comparison result.