Patent ID: 8452030

Claim:
An external equipment controlling apparatus, comprising: a connecting unit, connected to at least one of a plurality of external equipment via an interface to input/receive data into/from at least one of the plurality of the external equipment, the at least one of the plurality of external equipment to which audio data is input and which performs an acoustic process to a sound corresponding to the audio data and causes a speaker to emit the sound; an audio data outputting unit, operable to generate the audio data, and operable to output the audio data to the at least one of the plurality of external equipment; an identification information acquiring unit, configured to acquire identification information for specifying one of the plurality of external equipment from the plurality of external equipment; a program acquiring unit, configured to acquire, from a server which stores a plurality control programs corresponding to the plurality of external equipment respectively via a network, one of the plurality of control programs which corresponds to the one of the plurality of external equipment specified by the identification information; a video data outputting unit, operable to generate video data for displaying a setting screen for setting the acoustic process on a displaying unit, and operable to output the video data to the displaying unit; and a controlling unit, by executing the one of the plurality of control programs, configured to control a content of the video data and to control the one of the plurality of external equipment by setting the acoustic process in response to command information to be input.