Patent ID: 7458092

Claim:
Apparatus for providing video content to a plurality of televisions located at a site, comprising: a centralized gateway at a centralized gateway location within said site for connecting to said plurality of televisions and to a digital network supplying packet-based video content according to a plurality of selectable video feeds, wherein said centralized gateway comprises; a wide-area network interface in said centralized gateway for receiving network packets from said digital network; a processor in said centralized gateway coupled to said wide-area network interface for initiating requests for selected video feeds and for converting said received network packets into at least one compressed data stream; a plurality of decoders in said centralized gateway coupled to said processor for uncompressing a respective data stream; a plurality of television adapters in said centralized gateway coupled to said decoders and each adapted to be coupled to one of said televisions, said television adapters generating television signals usable by said televisions without further processing in response to a selected uncompressed data stream; at least one gateway-to-local-area network interface in said centralized gateway; and an address server in said centralized gateway for assigning IP addresses, each assigned IP address corresponding to a respective one of said televisions; and a plurality of port extender modules located separately from said centralized gateway, each associated with a respective television and responsive to a corresponding IP address, wherein said television signals are not processed by said port extender modules, and wherein each port extender module comprises; at least one peripheral device interface in said port extender module for connecting to a peripheral user device providing user data, said user data including selection data to be provided to said processor to identify selected video feeds for said requests; a local-area network interface in said port extender module coupled to said gateway-to-local-area network interface; and a protocol encapsulation processor in said port extender module for transporting said user data to said local-area network interface which forwards said user data to said processor in said centralized gateway.