An aircraft entertainment
system employing a
hybrid video
distribution system that permits distribution of
direct broadcast satellite television programming to passengers of the aircraft. The aircraft entertainment
system has a video control center 11, a plurality of groups of set display units 40, and a plurality of audio and video processors 20 that control routing of
programming to each seat display unit. A plurality of seat junction boxes 30 may be interposed between the audio and video processors 20 and the groups of seat display units 40. An antenna 12 is receives
programming from a
satellite, and a splitter 13 generates a plurality of channels of
programming received by the antenna 12. A decoder 14
decodes the channels to provide video and audio signals, and an
RF modulator 16 modulates the decoded audio and video signals for distribution. Each seat display unit 40 has a keypad 44 for selecting channels and controlling audio volume, a logic circuit 45 for outputting channel addresses of the selected channels, an
address decoder 47 for decoding the channel addresses, and a channel display 46 for displaying the number of the selected channel. A video display 53 displays the
television programming, and an audio
output device reproduces the audio signals. The audio and video processors 20 convert the modulated RF video signals to
baseband video for distribution to the seat display units 40. Each processor comprises a plurality of tuners 25, and non-blocking audio crosspoint switches 26, 27 having a predetermined number of audio and video outputs that are a selected multiple of the number of inputs. A processor 28 is coupled to the audio and video crosspoint switches and to the
address decoder of each seat display unit for
processing the decoded channel addresses and selecting which channels are output to each seat display unit.