Patent ID: 8301340

Claim:
A method for jointly controlling a plurality n, n being an integer greater than 1, of devices connected to a same communication channel, each of said devices D l , l=1, . . . , n, being capable of assuming a number m l of states, the method comprising the steps of: unambiguously assigning to each combination of states of said n devices an integer code number M, wherein M ∈ [ x , x + ∏ l = 1 n ⁢ ⁢ m l [ , x being an arbitrary number; for a combination of states to be set in the devices, selecting the code number M assigned to said combination (m 5 ); broadcasting (m 2 ) said code number M to all devices D l , l=1, . . . , n via said communication channel; decoding (s 2 ), in each device, the state to be set in that device from said code number M; and setting (s 3 ) the decoded state in each device.