Patent ID: 7058967

Claim:
An integrated video distribution system for distributing video signals from a plurality of sources, comprising: a control bus; a video digitizer arrangement coupled to the control bus and having a plurality of analog video input ports and a plurality of digital video output ports, the digitizer arrangement configured and arranged to convert analog video signals to digital video data in YCrCb format at a first clock rate, each output port coupled to a respective first set of signal lines, wherein the video digitizer arrangement is arranged to input a plurality of analog video signals from a first plurality of video sources, respectively; a video data multiplexer arrangement having input ports coupled to output ports of the video digitizer arrangement, the multiplexer arrangement having a plurality of output ports, each coupled to a respective second set of signal lines, the multiplexer configured and arranged to multiplex the digital video data at a second clock rate that is less than the first clock rate, wherein a number of signal lines in each first set is greater than a number of signal lines in each second set; a digital video bus having a plurality of video channels coupled to respective output ports of the multiplexer, wherein each channel carries a stream of video data; and a plurality of terminal controllers responsive to an input signal coupled to the video bus and to the control bus, each terminal controller having a data input port and a video output port and configured and arranged to select one or more of the streams of video data for output; and a fail-safe video subsystem having a plurality of video signal input ports and a plurality of output ports, wherein selected ones of the input ports are coupled to output ports of the terminal controllers, and others of the input ports are arranged to input fail-safe analog video signals from a plurality of alternative video sources, respectively, wherein the alternative video sources are not in the first plurality of video sources, and the fail-safe video subsystem is configured and arranged to provide on the output ports video signals from the alternative video sources in absence of power to the fail-safe video subsystem.