Integrated video and audio signal distribution system and method for use on commercial aircraft and other vehicles

A passenger entertainment system for use on commercial aircraft and other vehicles comprising:

• a plurality of digital audio signal sources for generating a first plurality of compressed digital audio signals;
• a plurality of analog audio signal sources for generating a first plurality of analog audio signals;
• a plurality of video signal sources for generating a first plurality of analog video signals and a plurality of video sourced analog audio signals;
• a plurality of analog-to-digital converters for receiving said first plurality of analog audio signals and said plurality of video sourced analog audio signals and converting those signals to a digital format;
• a plurality of digital signal compression circuits for receiving said signals converted to a digital format from said analog-to-digital converters and compressing said signals converted to a digital format to a format compatible with said first plurality of compressed digital audio signals generated by said digital audio signal sources to produce a second plurality of compressed digital audio signals;
• a multiplexer for receiving said compressed digital audio signals generated by said digital audio signal sources and said digital signal compression circuits and multiplexing the signals delivered thereto to form a composite digital audio data signal;
• a plurality of video signal modulators for receiving said analog video signals generated by said video signal sources and modulating said analog video signals on a plurality of distinct carrier frequencies;
• a plurality of RF signal combiners for receiving said modulated analog video signals from said video signal modulators and combining the signals delivered thereto to form a composite RF video signal;
• a baseband/RF signal combiner for receiving said composite digital audio data signal and said composite RF video signal and combining said composite digital audio data signal and said composite RF video signal to produce a composite RF video/digital audio data signal;
• at least one RF signal separator for receiving said composite RF video/digital audio data signal and separating said composite RF video/digital audio data signal into its respective composite RF video and digital audio data components;
• a demultiplexer adapted for receiving said digital audio data component of said RF video/digital audio data signal from said baseband/RF signal separator and selecting a desired digital audio channel from said digital audio data component;
• a digital signal decompression circuit for receiving a selected digital audio channel from said demultiplexer and decompressing said selected channel from a compressed digital audio format to an expanded digital audio format;
• a digital-to-analog converter for receiving said expanded channel from said digital signal decompression circuit, converting said expanded channel to an analog format, and delivering said converted and expanded channel to an audio transducer;
• and
• an RF tuner for receiving said RF video component of said composite RF video/digital audio data signal from said RF signal separator, selecting a desired video channel from said RF video component, and providing a selected video channel to a video monitor for display;
• wherein
• said composite digital audio data signal comprises a plurality of compression blocks having F flames per block, C digital audio channels per frame, and P compression parameters per channel per block;
• said multiplexer is configured to allocate N time slots per frame for said compression parameters, N being an integer equal to or greater than (C.times.P)/F;
• and
• said multiplexer assigns selected groups comprising N of said compression parameters to selected frames within each compression block.