Vehicle entertainment system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9961373-B2
Application number	US-201514724585-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 28, 2015
Priority date	Jun 27, 2014
Publication date	May 1, 2018
Grant date	May 1, 2018

Abstract

A vehicle entertainment system including a server storing media files, and smart monitors. Each smart monitor presents media selections corresponding to the media files and receives an input from passengers for playing a selection. Each smart monitor includes local content storage storing a subset of the media files. A network connects the smart monitors and server. Program logic executed by each smart monitor performs tasks including determining if a media file corresponding to an input is available from a first source, and if available, playing the media file from the first source; if the media file is not available there, determining if the media file required is available from a second source and if available, playing the media file from the second source; and if the media file is not available from the second source, determining if the media file is available from a third source.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A system for providing entertainment on a vehicle for passengers, the system comprising:
a server disposed in the vehicle in which the server stores media files;
smart monitors disposed in the vehicle which are configured to present media selections to passengers corresponding to the media files stored by the server and receive an input from a passenger for playing one of the selections, each smart monitor including local content storage storing a subset of the media files stored by the server;
a network connecting the smart monitors and server; and
program logic executed by each smart monitor which after a smart monitor receives an input from a passenger for one of the selections, performs tasks including:
determining if a media file corresponding to the passenger's input is available from a first source, and if available, playing the media file from the first source;
if the media file corresponding to the passenger's input is not available from the first source, determining if a media file corresponding to the input is available from a second source and if available, playing the media file from the second source; and
if the media file corresponding to the passenger's input is not available from the second source, determining if a media file corresponding to the input is available from a third source and if available, playing the media file from the third source;

wherein the network comprises a sub-network connecting to a first group of the smart monitors and another sub-network connecting to a second group of the smart monitors, and each smart monitor comprises program logic that will ignore a request to stream a media file to a smart monitor on a different sub-network.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein a greater quantity of different media files are available from the server than that collectively available from media files stored on the smart monitors.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first source is local content storage of the smart monitor.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein if the program logic determines there is no communication available with the server over the network, the program logic declines requests for pay per view media files.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein if a smart monitor is receiving a media file being streamed from another smart monitor, the program logic determines if packet loss is in excess of an acceptable level and if the packet loss exceeds said level, the program logic requests the media file from a different source.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the local content storage of each smart monitor stores media files requiring an amount of storage space in bytes approximately equal on each of the other smart monitors.

7. A system for providing entertainment on a vehicle for passengers, the system comprising:
a server disposed in the vehicle in which the server stores media files;
smart monitors disposed in the vehicle in which each smart monitor is configured to present media selections to passengers corresponding to the media files stored by the server and receive an input from a passenger for playing one of the selections, each smart monitor including local content storage storing a subset of media files stored by the server;
a network connecting the smart monitors and server in communication with one another, the network including column sub-networks, each column sub-network including seat sub-networks with each seat sub-network connecting to a different group of smart monitors, in which the smart monitors of each group store identical media files to one another;
program logic executed by each smart monitor which after a smart monitor receives an input from a passenger for one of the selections, the program logic in the smart monitor performing tasks including:
determining if a media file corresponding to the passenger's input is available from a first source, and if available, playing the media file from the first source; and
if the media file corresponding to the passenger's input is not available from the first source, determining if a media file corresponding to the request is available from a second source, and if available, playing the media file from the second source;

wherein each smart monitor comprises program logic that will ignore a request to stream a media file to a smart monitor on a different column sub-network.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein if the media file corresponding to the passenger's input is not available from the second source, the program logic determines if the media file is available from a third source.

9. The system of claim 7 , wherein a greater quantity of different media files are available from the server than that collectively available from media files stored on the smart monitors.

10. The system of claim 7 , wherein if the program logic determines there is no communication available with the server over the network, the program logic declines requests for pay per view media files.

11. The system of claim 7 , wherein if a smart monitor is receiving a media file being streamed from another smart monitor, the program logic determines if packet loss is in excess of an acceptable level and if the packet loss exceeds said level, the program logic requests the media file from a different smart monitor.

12. The system of claim 7 , wherein the first source is local content storage of the smart monitor.

Assignees

• Panasonic Avionics Corp

Inventors

• Margis Paul
• Rhoads Cedric
• Watson Philip
• Blackwell Nigel
• Szilagyi Attila
• Bedekar Neil

Classifications

• H04N21/6143

  involving transmission via a satellite · CPC title

• H04N21/44209

  Monitoring of downstream path of the transmission network originating from a server, e.g. bandwidth variations of a wireless network (arrangements for maintenance or administration in data switching networks involving bandwidth and capacity management H04L41/0896) · CPC title

• H04N21/41422

  located in transportation means, e.g. personal vehicle (arrangements specially adapted for transportation systems in broadcast systems H04H20/62) · CPC title

• H04N21/2146 Primary

  located in mass transportation means, e.g. aircraft, train or bus (flight-deck installations for entertainment or communications B64D11/0015; arrangements specially adapted for transportation systems in broadcast systems H04H20/62; moving wireless networks H04W84/005) · CPC title

• H04N21/4622

  Retrieving content or additional data from different sources, e.g. from a broadcast channel and the Internet (web site content organization and management for information retrieval from the Internet G06F16/958; transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82; stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services including data channel over packet-switching network H04L12/1859) · CPC title