Method of distributing audio programming to passenger entertainment systems, and apparatus

Claim 3

Apparatus for distributing audio programs to passenger entertainment systems on-board a plurality of aircraft, comprising in combination: means for encoding audio data including a plurality of audio programs to produce compressed digitally coded audio data; means including first computer storage media for storing said compressed digitally coded data onto said first computer storage media; central facility transmitting means for transmitting the stored compressed digitally coded data from a central facility to a plurality of local facilities; local facilities receiving means for receiving the transmitted data at the plurality of local facilities; local facilities storage means including second computer storage media for storing the received data at the respective local facilities onto said second computer storage media; local facilities transmitting means for transmitting the locally stored data from the respective local facilities for being received by aircraft locally situated with respect to respective one of said local facilities transmitting means; aircraft receiving means for receiving the locally transmitted data by the locally situated aircraft; and aircraft storage means including third computer storage media resident in the passenger entertainment systems for storing the aircraft received data onto said third computer storage media.

Claim 4

Apparatus for distributing audio programs to passenger entertainment systems on-board a plurality of aircraft, comprising in combination: means for encoding audio data including a plurality of audio programs to produce compressed digitally coded audio data; means including first computer storage media for storing said compressed digitally coded data onto said first computer storage media; central facility transmitting means for transmitting the stored compressed digitally coded data from a central facility to a plurality of local facilities; local facilities receiving means for receiving the transmitted data at the plurality of local facilities; local facilities storage means including second computer storage media for storing the received data at the respective local facilities onto said second computer storage media; local facilities transmitting means for transmitting the locally stored data from the respective local facilities for being received by aircraft locally situated with respect to respective one of said local facilities transmitting means; aircraft receiving means for receiving the locally transmitted data by the locally situated aircraft; and aircraft storage means including third computer storage media resident in the passenger entertainment systems for storing the aircraft received data onto said third computer storage media.

Claim 5

The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein: said third computer storage media include a hard-disk array resident in each of the aircraft passenger entertainment systems.

Claim 6

The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said first computer storage media include a hard-disk array.

Claim 7

The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein: said second computer storage media include a hard-disk array at each of the local facilities.

Claim 10

The method according to claim 6, wherein: the step of distributing said locally stored data from said local facilities to said locally situated carriers includes the steps of producing auxiliary recordings of said locally stored data and delivering said recordings to said locally situated carriers.

Claim 11

The method according to claim 7, further including the step of: providing a passenger entertainment system on board each carrier of said plurality of carriers, each said passenger entertainment system including said computer controlled storage media.

Claim 12

The method according to claim 8, wherein: during the passenger entertainment system providing step, said computer controlled storage media in each said passenger entertainment system includes a hard-disk array; and during the step of storing said locally distributed data, said locally distributed data are stored onto said hard-disk array.

Claim 13

The method according to claim 6, wherein the step of distributing said locally stored data includes the steps of: transmitting said locally stored data from said local facilities for being received by said locally situated carriers; and receiving the locally transmitted data by said carriers.

Claim 14

The method according to claim 10, further including the steps of: providing a passenger entertainment system on-board each carrier of said plurality of carriers, each said passenger entertainment system including said computer controlled storage media; and decoding the data stored on said storage media and generating analog audio output signals therefrom.

Claim 15

The method according to claim 11, wherein: during the passenger entertainment system providing step, said computer controlled storage media in each said passenger entertainment system includes a hard-disk array; and during the step of storing the carrier received data, said carrier received data are stored onto said hard-disk array.

Claim 16

The method according to claim 6, wherein: the steps of transmitting the data from said central facility and receiving the data by said local facilities are implemented by telecommunications linking means.

Claim 17

The method according to claim 6, wherein: the steps of transmitting the data from said central facility and receiving the data by said local facilities are implemented by satellite communications linking means.

Claim 18

The method according to claim 10, wherein: the steps of transmitting the data from said local facilities and receiving the data by said carriers are implemented by radio-frequency communications linking means.