US Patent 9154877 Collaborative sound system

In general, techniques are described for forming a collaborative sound system. A headend device comprising one or more processors may perform the techniques. The processors may be configured to identify mobile devices that each includes a speaker and that are available to participate in a collaborative surround sound system. The processors may configure the collaborative surround sound system to utilize the speaker of each of the mobile devices as one or more virtual speakers of this system and then render audio signals from an audio source such that when the audio signals are played by the speakers of the mobile devices the audio playback of the audio signals appears to originate from the one or more virtual speakers of the collaborative surround sound system. The processors may then transmit the processed audio signals rendered to the mobile device participating in the collaborative surround sound system.