CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED THE APPLICATION

This application is based on and claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119 to Korean Patent Application No. 10-2018-0046081 filed on Apr. 20, 2018 in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

Field

The present disclosure relates to an electronic apparatus used for communication with a plurality of terminals in a network system and a control method thereof, and more particularly to an electronic apparatus, which has a structure for transmitting streaming content received from the outside (external source) to an electronic device, and a control method thereof.

Description of the Related Art

To compute and process predetermined information in accordance with certain processes, an electronic apparatus basically includes a central processing unit (CPU), a chipset, a memory, and the like electronic components for computation. Such an electronic apparatus may be variously classified in accordance with what information will be processed. For example, the electronic apparatus is classified into an information processing apparatus such as a personal computer (PC), a server or the like for processing general information; and an image processing apparatus for processing image information. Various electronic apparatuses such as an image processing apparatus, a display apparatus, an information processing apparatus, etc. are provided as entities to perform previously given functions by themselves.

Meanwhile, a plurality of electronic apparatuses are connected to perform communication with one another and form a network system, and the electronic apparatuses collaborate with one another under such a system to thereby perform various extended functions that cannot be performed by each individual entity. As a general and simple example of the network system, there is a home network established in a home. Here, the network system may involve not only electronic apparatuses in usual acceptation, but also an electric light bulb and the like entities, each of which corresponds to a simple function and includes a sensor and a communication module so as to be under the network system. As an example of such a concept, there is Internet of things (IoT).

As one of methods of constructing the network system, there is an infrastructure construction. In the network system having the infrastructure construction, a certain electronic apparatus among the plurality of electronic apparatuses serves as a hub, a gateway or a communication relay for communication and relays the communication between other electronic apparatuses. A representative example of such an electronic apparatus is an access point (AP) for supporting wireless communication such as Wi-Fi. The AP is connected to a wireless area network (WAN) by a wire, and performs wireless communication with a plurality of terminals, thereby allowing each terminal to access the WAN.

To make a certain electronic device reproduce multimedia content which is streaming from a predetermined streaming server through the WAN, the multimedia content received in the gateway has to be transmitted to the electronic device. Conventionally, a certain electronic device within the network system displays a user interface (UI) for allowing a user to designate a specific electronic device or designate connection among a plurality of electronic devices, and the gateway transmits the streaming data to a specific electronic device in accordance with settings designated through the UI. However, such a method may be inconvenient for a user because the user has to manually designate a streaming target in accordance with multimedia content.

Thus, the network system may demand a method of streaming multimedia content received in the gateway to an electronic device desired by a user without manual settings of the user.

SUMMARY

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, there is provided an electronic apparatus including: a communicator configured to communicate with a plurality of electronic devices; and a processor. The processor is configured to: obtain information about multimedia content in response to an event occurring in relation the multimedia content, select at least one electronic device among the plurality of electronic devices based on the obtained information about the multimedia content and reference information referring to multimedia contents previously designated in correspondence with the plurality of electronic devices, respectively, and control the communicator to transmit the multimedia content to the selected at least one electronic device.

The processor may select the at least one electronic device by searching the reference information and as a result of the searching, the at least electronic device is matched in correspondence with a preset attribute of the multimedia content in relation to which the event has occurred.

The processor may store the reference information which is input through a user interface (UI) designate the at least one electronic device corresponding to the preset attribute of the multimedia content, and may call the reference information when the event occurs.

The UI may further display a sub menu including items to select one electronic device among the plurality of electronic devices with regard to a designated attribute of the multimedia content, and an item unselectable by a user, the item corresponding to a respective one electronic device among the plurality of electronic devices using which the multimedia content is unreproducible.

The item unselectable by user on the sub menu may be determined based on device information of the respective electronic device among plurality of device information provided from the plurality of electronic devices, respectively.

The preset attribute of the multimedia content may includes a genre of the multimedia content or a media type of the multimedia content.

The processor may identify the preset attribute of the multimedia content from metadata of the multimedia content.

The processor may select the electronic device based on the reference information of a currently identified user among a plurality of pieces of the reference information respectively provided with regard to a plurality of users.

The processor may select the electronic device based on reference information of another user when the electronic device is unselectable based on the reference information of the currently identified user.

The processor may receive the multimedia content from another apparatus through the communicator or obtains the multimedia content which is stored in a storage.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure a method of controlling an electronic apparatus, the method including: obtaining information about multimedia content in response to an event occurring in relation the multimedia content; selecting at least one electronic device among a plurality of electronic devices based on the obtained information about the multimedia content and reference information referring to multimedia contents previously designated in correspondence with the plurality of electronic devices, respectivley; and controlling the multimedia content to be transmitted to the selected at least one electronic device.

The at least one electronic device may be selected by searching the reference information and as a result of the searching, the at least electronic device is matched in correspondence with a preset attribute of the multimedia content in relation to which the event has occurred.

The method may further including storing the reference information which is input through a user interface (UI) provided to designate the at least one electronic device corresponding to the preset attribute of the multimedia content, and calling the reference information when the event occurs.

The UI may further display a sub menu including items to select one electronic device among the plurality of electronic devices with regard to a designated attribute of the multimedia content, and an item unselectable by a user, the item corresponding to a respective one electronic device among the plurality of electronic devices using which the multimedia content is unreproducible.

The item unselectable by the user on the sub menu may be determined based on device information of the respective electronic device among plurality of device information provided from the plurality of electronic devices, respectively.

The preset attribute of the multimedia content may includes a genre of the multimedia content or a media type of the multimedia content.

The method may further including identifying the preset attribute of the multimedia content from metadata of the multimedia content.

The method may further including selecting the electronic device based on the reference information of a currently identified user among a plurality of pieces of the reference information respectively provided with regard to a plurality of users.

The method may further including selecting the electronic device based on reference information of another user when the electronic device is unselectable based on the reference information of the currently identified user.

The method may further including receiving the multimedia content from another apparatus through the communicator or obtaining the multimedia content which is stored in a storage.

