System control method and system control apparatus

A system control apparatus comprising:

• a plurality of multimedia devices;
• and
• a control device for controlling said plurality of multimedia devices,
• said plurality of multimedia devices and said control device being connected to a network in such a manner that said plurality of multimedia devices and said control device can communicate a message and data based on an object-oriented technique between each of said plurality of multimedia devices and said control device via the network,
• said control device for controlling said plurality of peripheral devices including data input and output relationship specifying means and data format acceptability determining means, the data format acceptability determining means being arranged to determine, when a data input and output relationship is specified between arbitrary multimedia devices selected from among said plurality of multimedia devices, whether there is a data format acceptable to the selected, arbitrary multimedia devices.

A multimedia control system comprising:

• multimedia devices;
• and
• a multimedia controller for unitarily managing said multimedia devices,
• said multimedia devices and said multimedia controller being connected to each other via a communication line,
• said multimedia devices each including a first interface control unit which functions to supervise communication with said multimedia controller,
• the first interface control unit including an interface controller for controlling communication at a physical or logical low level and a first system controller for executing communication with a device function unit of each of said multimedia devices and control of the interface control unit,
• said multimedia controller including a second interface control unit for controlling communication with each of said multimedia devices,
• the second interface control unit including:
• an interface controller for controlling communication at a physical or logical low level;
• device connection/disconnection signal processing means for processing a device connection signal indicative of a connection of any of said multimedia devices which connection is detected by the interface controller or a device disconnection signal indicative of a disconnection of any of said multimedia devices which disconnection is detected by the interface controller;
• storage means for storing a device connection management table which is to be referred to and updated in the device connection/disconnection signal processing means;
• and
• a second system controller for executing communication with a controller function unit of said multimedia controller and the second interface control unit.