Patent ID: 7779142

Claim:
A method, comprising: determining that a buffer fill event has occurred; sending, in response to the determining, a message requesting allocation of high bandwidth delivery of a media stream; setting a first buffer size, for buffering a first portion of the media stream delivered, to a first duration of time, according to a first network service level agreement, where the first duration of time is based on the transmission rate of the first portion of the media stream; setting a second buffer size, for buffering a second portion of the media stream delivered, to a second duration of time, according to a second network service level agreement, where the second duration of time is greater than the first duration of time, where the first network service level agreement comprises a better service quality than the second network service level agreement, and where the first buffer size is smaller than the second buffer size buffering the first portion of the media stream in a buffer, where the buffer has the first buffer size; buffering the second portion of the media stream in the buffer, where the buffer has the second buffer size; retrieving the buffered first and second portions of the media stream; and playing the first and second portions of the media stream using a media playback system.