Patent ID: 7474852

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 the video signals are converted from parallel to serial form in respective ones of the remote interface units, transmitted in serial form over the respective additional fiber optic links to the central hub, and converted from serial to parallel form in the central hub; wherein the central hub forms the single downlink stream by time-division multiplexing portions of the respective video signals in parallel form in a designated sequence, and associating a given set of such portions in the downlink stream with separate reference information that allows the base unit to determine the designated sequence; wherein the base unit comprises a parallel to serial converter configured to convert the control signals from parallel to serial form; wherein the base unit combines the control signals with a master clock signal into the single uplink stream by clocking the parallel to serial converter with the master clock signal; and wherein the master clock signal is recovered in the central hub for use in combining the video signals into the single downlink stream.