Digital headend and full service network for distribution video and audio programming

A full service distribution network for distributing combined national and local video and audio programming to customer locations comprising:

• a head end comprising:
• a plurality of receivers, at least one of the plurality of receivers receiving digital signals sent by satellite transmission;
• at least one antenna for receiving over-the-air analog signals as baseband composite video and audio signals;
• a digital router for receiving the digital signals;
• a digital splitter for receiving the digital signals from the digital router;
• a plurality of decoders coupled to the digital splitter for converting the digital signals into baseband video and audio signals, the digital splitter automatically routing each of the digital signals to the appropriate decoder based on the encoding scheme of the digital signals;
• an analog audio and video router for receiving audio and video from the plurality of decoders and the at least one antenna;
• an analog switch configured to receive an output from the analog router;
• a decoder connected to the at least one receiver for converting received satellite signals into baseband video and audio signals;
• at least one MPEG encoder coupled to the analog switch for encoding the baseband video and audio composite signals into multiplexed Single Program Transport Streams (SPTS);
• a remultiplexer arranged to ATM encapsulate the SPTS;
• and
• an ATM switch for outputting the ATM encapsulated SPTS;
• and
• a central office connected to the head end via a fiber optic network for receiving the ATM encapsulated SPTS output by the ATM switch, the central office including a broadband access system for selectively distributing received ATM encapsulated SPTS to at least one optical network unit or DSLAM connected to a customer location.