Patent ID: 7920789

Claim:
A system for communication of video signals from a plurality of remote devices to one or more monitoring devices, and for communication of control signals from one or more control devices to the plurality of remote devices, the system comprising: a plurality of remote interface units each coupled to a corresponding one of the remote devices; a base unit coupled to the one or more monitoring devices and the one or more control devices; and a central hub coupled between the base unit and the plurality of remote interface units; wherein the central hub is coupled to the base unit by a first fiber optic link, and is coupled to the remote interface units by additional fiber optic links; the central hub combining video signals received from the remote interface units over the additional fiber optic links into a single downlink stream for transmission to the base unit over the first fiber optic link; the base unit processing the single downlink stream to obtain video signals for distribution to the one or more monitoring devices; the base unit combining control signals received from the one or more control devices into a single uplink stream for transmission to the central hub over the first fiber optic link; the central hub generating from the single uplink stream at least one additional uplink stream for delivery to the remote interface units over the additional fiber optic links; wherein at least one of the one or more control devices is operative to control a positioning of at least one of the plurality of remote devices; wherein a parallel-to-serial converter in the central hub forms the single downlink stream by time-division multiplexing a signature waveform and portions of the respective video signals in a designated sequence; and wherein a serial-to-parallel converter in the base unit determines the designated sequence by recognizing the signature waveform.