Patent ID: 8058994

Claim:
A method for synchronizing transmissions of a plurality of units in an electronic article surveillance (EAS) system, said method comprising: receiving timing information from each of the plurality of units in order to synchronize transmissions for each of the plurality of units, the plurality of units including a master unit and at least one non-master unit, the timing information of each of the plurality of units being based on a time period from receiving a broadcast message to a next interrogation/deactivation transmission of the corresponding unit to corresponding EAS tags; determining transmission timing differences for each of the non-master units from which timing information was received, the transmission timing difference for each unit being based on the received timing information from the corresponding unit; and transmitting a delay amount for each of the non-master units based on the determined timing difference for the corresponding unit, thereby synchronizing the transmissions for each of the units based on the transmission timing difference; wherein the transmission timing difference for each non-master unit is based on the difference in timing information between the master synchronizing unit and the corresponding non-master unit.