U.S. Philips Corporation

Erik J Van Dort

Handoko Kohar

The invention relates to an information distribution system with a plurality of stations (100, 102, 104) and at least one shared resource (120, 122), such as an audio channel. Access to a shared resource is managed in a distributed manner. Each station comprises a controller 154. If a station requires a shared resource, the controller 154 of the station checks resource status information stored in a local memory 156 to determine whether the shared resource is available. If the resource is available, the controller 154 selects the available shared resource and uses communication means 150 to send a status message informing other ones of the stations that the station uses the selected resource. Next, the controller 154 uses access means 152, such as an audio selector, to access the selected resource. Upon receiving the status message, controllers 154 of the other stations update the resource status information stored in the local memory 156 according to a received status message.

Information distribution system

A system for equipment control comprises a plurality of equipment units and actuator units. These units are linked by a common communication channel, for example a wired bus. Each of the units has a unique address and further associated with a programmable memory for storing therein an event table. The event table comprises event fields, and associated address fields and instruction fields. When the unit changes state--called an event--addresses of other units and corresponding instructions are retrieved from the event table and transmitted to said other units via the common communication channel. The transmitted instructions cause the corresponding other units to change state, for example to be switched on or off.

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Eindhoven, Netherlands

Erik J Van Dort