Patent ID: 7533271

Claim:
A method for remote control and monitoring of a multimedia system, the method comprises: transmitting, by a hand held device of the multimedia system, a remote control/monitoring request regarding at least one of a plurality of clients of the multimedia system to a server of the multimedia system; when a communication path is established between the hand held device and the server, determining, by the server, remote control and monitoring privileges of the hand held device; when the server determines that the hand held device has at least a minimum level of remote control and monitoring privileges, processing, by the server, the remote control/monitoring request with respect to the at least one of the plurality of clients to produce operational monitoring data; and providing, by the server, the operational monitoring data to the hand held device via the communication path; establishing a communication path between the hand held device and the server by: transmitting, by the hand held device, the remote control/monitoring request to the server via a local connection; and when the server receives the remote control/monitoring request via the local connection, establishing the communication via the local connection; determining, by the hand held device, whether operational monitoring data is received within a predetermined response time period; when the operational monitoring data is not received within the predetermined response time period, transmitting, by the hand held device, the remote control/monitoring request to the server via a wide area network by: determining an internet protocol (IP) address of the server; and formatting the remote control/monitoring request in accordance with a protocol of the wide area network to produce a formatted request, wherein the formatted request includes the IP address of the server as a destination address and an IP address of the hand held device as a source address; and when the server receives the remote control/monitoring request via the wide area network, establishing the communication path via the wide area network.