The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Oct. 26, 1999
Filed:
Sep. 16, 1996
Bruce Minoru Wakai, Cypress, CA (US);
Robert Troxel, Brea, CA (US);
Marc Booth, La Habra, CA (US);
Kaz Takata, Placentia, CA (US);
Karen Evensen, Lake Forest, CA (US);
Loi Ninh, Ranch, CA (US);
Sony Corporation, Tokyo, JP;
Sony Trans Com Inc., Irvine, CA (US);
Abstract
An in-flight passenger entertainment system has a first digital network for communication among components of a headend system including a data server, media controller, one or more media servers, system interface unit, system manager unit and attendant control panel. The in-flight entertainment system is coupled to an aircraft's existing systems through the system interface unit and the system manager unit. The components of the headend system are all coupled to a network switch for routing data within the first network. The network switch is also coupled to one or more zone bridge units, each of which is coupled to multiple seat electronics units. The zone bridge units and the seat electronics units together form a second digital network. The first digital network is preferably an ATM network with fibre optic cables used to carry the data. The second digital network is preferably an IEEE 1394 serial bus network. The zone bridge units control all communications between the networks, converting all communications into the format required by the respective network. A first audio path for transmitting audio content from the headend system is routed to predetermined seat entertainment units through the network switch and the zone bridge units. A second audio path for transmitting audio from the system interface unit is routed to the seat entertainment units through the zone bridge units.