Passenger entertainment system having downconverter control signals and power supplied over output cables

A vehicle entertainment system, comprising:

• an antenna for receiving broadcast signals;
• a downconverter for producing intermediate frequency (IF) signals from the broadcast signals based on control signals, said downconverter supplying the IF signals over first and second transmission lines in a first direction and receiving said control signals over one of the first and second transmission lines in a second direction that is opposite to the first direction, wherein the downconverter includes a DC power supply receiving the DC power over the other one of the first and second transmission lines in the second direction that is opposite to the first direction;
• a decoder unit for deriving programming signals based on the IF signals;
• an antenna interface unit connected between the downconverter and the decoder unit, the antenna interface unit being connected to the downconverter over the first and second transmission lines and providing the control signals and the DC power over the first and second transmission lines in the second direction;
• and
• a network for distributing the programming signals to users of the vehicle entertainment system;
• wherein the downconverter further includes a first bias-T connector in the first transmission line and a second bias-T connector in the second transmission line, one of the first and second bias-T connectors receiving the control signals from the antenna interface unit, and the other one of the first and second bias-T connectors receiving the DC power from the antenna interface unit.