Entertainment system with looped daisy-chained network of docking stations
An entertainment system comprising a media server networked with a plurality of docking stations is presented. The media server and docking stations can be networked together into a looped daisy-chained network to provide for content distribution to docked media players. The looped daisy-chained network retains connectivity or continuity when media players are undocked or when a connection is broken. In preferred embodiments, the entertainment system can be deployed within an aircraft as an in-flight entertainment system.
1. A vehicular entertainment system, comprising:
a media server storing media content in a media database on computer readable media and having a first server port and a second server port;
a plurality of docking stations, each of which is disposed at a seatback, bulk head, ceiling, or wall panel of a vehicle, and each having at least a first station port and a second station port, and each docking station configured to receive a media player and adapted to allow any one of a plurality of removable embeddable media players to dock with the docking station, wherein each of the plurality of media players is configured to store at least some content locally;
wherein at least some of the plurality of docking stations comprise a media player bypass configured to direct network data between a docking stations first station port and second station port when a media player is undocked, wherein the media player bypass is configured to route network data among the first station port, the second station port, and media player port of the at least some of the plurality of docking stations when the media layer is docked;
wherein the media server directly connects with the plurality of docking stations forming a first looped daisy-chained network where the media server and the plurality docking stations are daisy chained directly via the media server's first server port and second server port and the plurality of docking stations' first station ports and second station ports; and
wherein the media server and the first looped daisy-chained network of docking stations are disposed within an aircraft or a ground vehicle, wherein when the media server and the first looped daisy-chained network of docking stations are disposed within the aircraft there are at least ten docking stations, and when the media server and the first looped daisy-chained network of docking stations are disposed within the ground vehicle there are at least two docking stations.
2. The vehicular entertainment system of claim 1 , wherein the media player bypass within the docking station comprises a network switch.
3. The vehicular entertainment system of claim 1 , wherein the media player bypass within the docking station comprises a bypass relay.
4. The vehicular entertainment system of claim 1 , wherein the first looped daisy-chained network comprises a packet-switched network.
5. The vehicular entertainment system of claim 4 , wherein the media server is configured to communicate with docked ones of the plurality of media players using a link layer protocol.
6. The vehicular entertainment system of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the first and the second server ports is configured to operate as a terminated end of the first looped daisy-chained network with respect to network data routing.
7. The vehicular entertainment system of claim 1 , wherein the media server comprises additional server ports coupled to a plurality of different looped daisy-chained networks of docking stations.
8. The vehicular entertainment system of claim 7 , the plurality of different looped daisy-chained networks of docking stations includes at least three different looped daisy-chained networks of docking stations.
9. The vehicular entertainment system of claim 1 , wherein the media server comprises at least one of the plurality of media players that is docked in its corresponding docking station.
10. The vehicular entertainment system of claim 1 , wherein the media server comprises an in-flight entertainment system head unit.
11. The vehicular entertainment system of claim 1 , wherein the media server and the first looped daisy-chained network of docking stations are disposed within the aircraft.
12. The vehicular entertainment system of claim 1 , wherein the media server and the first looped daisy-chained network of docking stations are disposed within the ground vehicle.
13. The vehicular entertainment system of claim 1 , wherein at least some of the plurality of docking stations are disposed within seat backs.
14. The vehicular entertainment system of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of docking stations includes at least 10 docking stations arranged in a column of seat backs in the first looped daisy-chained network.
15. The vehicular entertainment system of claim 14 , wherein the plurality of docking stations includes at least 50 docking stations arranged in the column of seat backs in the first looped daisy-chained network.
16. The vehicular entertainment system of claim 1 , wherein each of the media players is configured to allow local storage of content.