RF System for Distribution of Over the Air Content for In-Building Applications

Abstract

A system is described for distributing over the air (OTA) channels within buildings and homes. The system can implement one or more active multi-mode antennas for improved performance and reliability. The system can be configured as a mesh network where multiple nodes are distributed to improve the probability of channel capture across the VHF and UHF frequencies used for over the air TV distribution. A node consists of a beam steering antenna that operates at the VHF and UHF frequencies for TV signal reception, a receiver and demodulation circuit, a transcoder to convert the received information for re-distribution, and a transceiver capable of operation at a secondary frequency band for use in re-distributing the information to communication devices in proximity of the node. The secondary frequency band can be the common WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) system such as Wi-Fi, with the Wi-Fi transceiver also containing beam steering antennas for improved in-building propagation of the re-distributed information.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.