Patent ID: 8613385

Claim:
A universal docking system, comprising: a plurality of media player docking stations, wherein said plurality of media player docking stations are each configured to receive any one media player from a plurality of swappable media players, the plurality of swappable media players being configured for use as stand alone devices and as embedded devices within the plurality of media player docking stations; and a structure having an interior portion, wherein said plurality of media player docking stations are installed at a plurality of docking station locations in said structure, wherein at least some of said plurality of docking stations are locally encoded with media player persona information that depends on said at least some of said plurality of docking stations' locations, wherein said at least some of said plurality of docking stations are configured to transfer said persona information to installed media players, where said persona information is configured to instruct said installed media players of their functional role at a corresponding receiving docking station location.