Interactive multimedia presentation & communication system

A distribution system for distributing digital data to a receiver, said digital data comprising block data which includes blocks of data corresponding to predetermined amounts of information, stream data corresponding to a continuous flow of information obtained from a plurality of stream data sources, and control data for identifying said plurality of stream data sources, each of said stream data sources delivering said stream data on one or more stream data channels, said distribution system having means for preferentially multiplexing and distributing said stream data from selected ones of said stream data sources onto a single distribution channel along with said block data and said control data, comprising:

• (a) a clock controller for providing fixed time intervals along said single distribution channel, each of said time intervals defining a frame capable of being filled with digital data, said frame having one or more digital bytes of frame synchronization characters to define the start of said frame;
• (b) a data buffer wide enough to store one frame of said digital data;
• (c) a multiplexer controller for inserting a stream control character corresponding to a portion of said control data in each frame after said frame synchronization characters, said stream control characters of each frame being concatenated at said receiver to produce a control channel of information for identifying said selected ones of said stream data sources;
• (d) a time slot selector including an input data buffer, said time slot selector being responsive to said clock controller, said multiplexer controller and said stream control channel of information, for preferentially selecting particular ones of said stream data channels which correspond to said selected ones of said stream data sources and inserting them into said data buffer in such a manner that successive one byte increments of each of said stream data channels so selected are inserted in said data buffer after each of said stream control characters;
• (e) means responsive to said clock controller for consecutively inserting said block data in the remaining space of said data buffer;
• (f) means for outputting the digital data in said data buffer;
• and
• (g) a modulator capable of obtaining said digital data from said data buffer and modulating said data so multiplexed onto a base frequency for distribution along said single distribution channel.

A method for multiplexing and distributing digital data to a receiver along a single distribution channel wherein said digital data comprises block data which includes blocks of data representative of predetermined amounts of information, stream data available on one or more stream data channels, representative of continuous streams of information and control data, said method comprising the steps of:

• (a) providing fixed time intervals along said single distribution channel, each of said time intervals defining a frame capable of being filled with digital data;
• (b) providing one or more digital bytes of frame synchronization characters to define the start of said frame;
• (c) producing and inserting a stream control character in each frame after said frame synchronization characters, said stream control character of each frame being concatenated at said receiver to produce a stream control channel of information for identifying said one or more stream data channels;
• (d) preferentially inserting successive one byte increments of digital data from selected ones of said stream data channels in each successive frame after each of said stream control characters;
• consecutively inserting and block data in the remaining space of each of said successive frames;
• and
• (f) modulating each frame of said digital data so multiplexed onto a base frequency for distribution along said single distribution channel.