Patent ID: 8000475

Claim:
A dual tier distribution method, comprising: encrypting and modulating, by a plurality of encrypting modulators of a remote media stream manager and provider (RMP), a plurality of source media streams to provide a plurality of encrypted and modulated media streams; de-modulating, by a plurality of non-decrypting demodulators of the RMP, the plurality of encrypted and modulated media streams to provide a plurality of encrypted and demodulated media streams; transmitting, to a second tier, the plurality of encrypted and demodulated media streams over multiple high speed networks coupled to multiple ports of the RMP; and wherein the RMP is adapted to determine which encrypted and demodulated media streams to transmit; modulating the plurality of encrypted and demodulated media streams, by at least one non-encrypting modulator of the second tier, to provide a plurality of second encrypted and modulated media streams; and transmitting the plurality of second encrypted and modulated media streams to a plurality of clients over a last-mile network; wherein neither one of the plurality of encrypted and modulated media streams, the plurality of encrypted and demodulated media streams, the plurality of second encrypted and modulated media streams are further encrypted before being transmitted to the plurality of clients.