DIGITAL AUDIO DISTRIBUTION NETWORK

• US 20090232326A1
• Filed: 03/09/2009
• Published: 09/17/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/13/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kent L. Deines, Raymond L. Gordon
• Original Assignee: Kent L. Deines, Raymond L. Gordon
• Inventors: DEINES, KENT L., GORDON, RAYMOND L.
• Granted Patent: US 8,175,289 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 381/81
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 27/00 Public address systems circuits for preventing acoustic reaction H04R3/02; circuits for distributing signals to loudspeakers H04R3/12; monitoring or testing arrangements for public address systems H04R29/007; amplifiers H03F

Abstract

A digital audio distribution network includes a plurality of nodes and at least one transmission line that interconnects the nodes to form the digital audio distribution network. A first node in the plurality of nodes receives a user command, encodes the user command, and sends the encoded user command and digital audio over the transmission line. A second node in the plurality of nodes receives the encoded user command and the digital audio over the transmission line.

Claims

1. A digital audio distribution network comprising:

a plurality of nodes;

at least one transmission line that interconnects the nodes to form the digital audio distribution network;

a first node in the plurality of nodes for receiving a user command, encoding the user command, and sending the encoded user command and digital audio over the transmission line; and

a second node in the plurality of nodes for receiving the encoded user command and the digital audio over the transmission line.

2. The digital audio network of claim 1, the user command comprising a function to be performed in the digital audio distribution network by one of the first node and the second node.

3. The digital audio network of claim 1 further comprising metadata that incorporates the encoded user command.

4. The digital audio distribution network of claim 1, the encoded user command and the digital audio data sent over the transmission line by only a single unshielded twisted pair in the transmission line.

5. The digital audio distribution network of claim 2, the function comprising setting a volume level of a loudspeaker.

6. The digital audio distribution network of claim 2, the function comprising selecting an audio stream.

7. The digital audio distribution network of claim 2, the function performed by the second node comprising switching a loudspeaker between a first audio stream and a second audio stream.

8. The digital audio distribution network of claim 7, one of the first and second audio streams comprising a paging stream.

9. The digital audio distribution network of claim 2, the function comprising a condition that determines when the function is to be performed.

10. The digital audio distribution network of claim 2, the function comprising sending information requested by the user command over the transmission line.

11. The digital audio network of claim 2, the function comprising changing settings of a node.

12. The digital audio distribution network of claim 1 further comprising an attention-sensitive node for detecting an attention signal from a downstream node.

13. The digital audio distribution network of claim 12, the attention signal comprising a data collision.

14. The digital audio distribution network of claim 12, the user command comprising a function to be performed by the attention-sensitive node.

15. The digital audio distribution network of claim 14, the function comprising rerouting the network.

16. A digital audio distribution network comprising:

a plurality of nodes;

at least one transmission line that interconnects the nodes to form the digital audio distribution network; and

a self-routing hub in the plurality of nodes for detecting from each of a plurality of audio signal sources when an audio signal is being transmitted from one of the audio signal sources to the self-routing hub and for transmitting a digital audio datastream from the self-routing hub over the transmission line to at least one other node in the plurality of nodes.

17. The digital audio distribution network of claim 16, the digital audio datastream carrying the audio signal.

18. The digital audio network of claim 16, the audio signal comprising a digital audio datastream.

19. The digital audio network of claim 16, the audio signal comprising an analog audio signal.

20. The digital audio distribution network of claim 16, the digital audio datastream transmitted from the self-routing hub over the transmission line by only a single unshielded twisted pair in the transmission line.

21. The digital audio distribution network of claim 16 further comprising the self-routing hub for receiving a user command that indicates a function to be performed in the digital audio distribution network.

22. A digital audio distribution network comprising:

a plurality of nodes;

a plurality of transmission lines that interconnect the nodes for carrying a digital audio datastream between the nodes by only a single unshielded twisted pair in the transmission lines.

23. The digital audio distribution network of claim 22, the digital audio datastream comprising metadata.

24. The digital audio distribution network of claim 23 further comprising a control node for receiving the metadata, rewriting the metadata, and sending the rewritten metadata in the digital audio datastream over the transmission lines to at least one other node in the plurality of nodes.

25. The digital audio distribution network of claim 24, the control node rewriting only the metadata in the digital audio datastream.

26. The digital audio distribution network of claim 24, the control node beginning a control branch.

27. The digital audio distribution network of claim 26, the control node comprising a volume control node.

28. The digital audio network of claim 22 further comprising a loudspeaker node, the loudspeaker node comprising a loudspeaker and a volume control for controlling a volume level of the loudspeaker.

29. The digital audio distribution network of claim 22, the plurality of nodes comprising a distribution hub comprising only one input port and at least one output port.

30. The digital audio distribution network of claim 22, the plurality of nodes comprising a self-routing distribution hub comprising only one input port and at least one output port.

31. The digital audio distribution network of claim 22 further comprising a loudspeaker node for decoding the digital audio datastream and for reproducing an audible audio signal from the decoded digital audio datastream.

32. The digital audio distribution network of claim 23 further comprising a volume control node for writing a volume gain level in the metadata and for beginning a control branch, the control branch comprising a loudspeaker node for receiving the volume gain level written in the metadata and for reproducing an audible audio signal from the digital audio datastream in response to the volume gain level.

33. The digital audio distribution network of claim 32, further comprising the volume control node and the loudspeaker node constituting separate nodes.

34. The digital audio distribution network of claim 32, further comprising the volume control node and the loudspeaker node constituting a single node.

35. The digital audio distribution network of claim 22 further comprising a termination node for converting the digital audio datastream to an audio signal that conforms to a selected audio transmission standard.

36. The digital audio distribution network of claim 22 further comprising a termination node for converting an audio signal that conforms to a selected audio transmission standard to the digital audio datastream.

37. The digital audio distribution network of claim 22 further comprising a channel selector node comprising a selector switch for reproducing an audible audio signal from a single audio channel in an audio stream.

38. The digital audio distribution network of claim 37, the single audio channel comprising a left stereo channel.

39. The digital audio distribution network of claim 37, the single audio channel comprising a right stereo channel.

40. The digital audio distribution network of claim 37, the single channel comprising a combination of left and right stereo channels.

41. A digital audio distribution network comprising

a plurality of nodes located inside walls of a structure, at least one of the nodes comprising terminals for connecting to mains wiring inside the walls.

42. The digital audio distribution network of claim 41, at least one of the nodes comprising terminals for daisy chaining the mains wiring between the nodes.

43. The digital audio distribution network of claim 41, at least one of the nodes comprising punch down terminals for connecting a first transmission line to the node.

44. The digital audio distribution network of claim 41 further comprising additional punch down terminals for connecting a second transmission line to the node.