WITH INDEPENDENT AUDIO CONTROL

REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This is a continuation-in-part of United

States Application Serial No. 08/048,203 filed April 15, 1993 (SQUC-108) which is a continuation-in-part of United States Application Serial No. 07/956,901 filed October 2, 1992, which is a continuation-in-part of United States Application Serial No. 07/818,664 filed January 9, 1992 (SQUC-094), which is a continuation-in- part of United States Application Serial No. 07/639,507 filed January 9, 1991 (S^UC-Oβδ) , which issued on July 14, 1992 as U.S. Parent No. 5,131,048.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates generally to routing schemes for routing signals to designated facility areas (or "zones") and, more particularly, to signal distribution control arrangements for routing and controlling audio signals, paging signals, etc.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Home owners are rapidly becoming aware of the benefits of home audio distribution systems. These benefits include convenient access to audio signals throughout the home, more efficient use of space and savings in the form of fewer system components.

Audio distribution systems range from those distributing only stereo signals, to thoε corporating other functions such as doorbells and intercoms. These systems frequently utilize a switching matrix to distribute a signal, generated and amplified by a stereo system, to various rooms throughout the ^' ouse. Speakers in the various rooms typically receive the amplified signal through a distribution panel co-located in the room with the stereo system.

Prior art systems offering integrated functions such as distribution of stereo, doorbell and

intercom signals have several setbacks. For example, many of these prior art systems seeking to improve sound quality have utilized the home owner's high power stereo system and a switching matrix to distribute a pre- amplified stereo signal. Unfortunately, these systems are unable to effectively integrate other important features, such as doorbell and paging.

Another setback of prior art systems is the inconvenience of using the intercom. These systems typically have the page button and speaker/receiver located on the audio distribution wall unit. This requires the intercom user to go to the location of the intercom system, as opposed to accessing it from a more convenient location. Another inconvenience, which is prevalent in more recently introduced systems, is the inability to remotely control the volume setting for speakers in the various remote locations, without going to each location to manually adjust its volume control. Consider, for example, a user requesting that music be played throughout the facility and allowing page interruptions but no door-microphone interruptions to the music. Previously known audio distribution systems have required that the user manually adjust the volume control for the particular zone to turn down (or off) the volume while the door-microphone interruption occurs. Not only is this burdensome for a user who might be occupied at some distance from the volume control knob, but even with this type of manual control such systems provide no way to selectively and conveniently block the undesired interrupting signal.

Accordingly, a need exists for an audio distribution system that overcomes the aforementioned shortcomings.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a signal distribution and communication arrangement which overcomes the above deficiencies .

In one arrangement, the present invention provides a system for controlling the broadcast of a plurality of different types of signals through speakers located in various zones, using a control circuit which responds to various signal interface circuits by selecting which of the music, audio, page and doorbell signals from the interface circuits should be broadcast into selected zones. For each of the audio zones, the control circuit stores in memory the volume conditions requested by the user and permits the distribution of the audio to the zone according to the volume conditions stored in memory.

In one implementation of the present invention, a signal distribution and communication arrangement controls the broadcast of a plurality of different types of signals through speakers located in selected zones. Each zone retains independent control over the various characteristics of the volume including, for example, balance, bass and treble.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, an audio distribution system includes a main control unit for distributing audio signals to a plurality of zones using a remote programming unit and a plurality of zone input panels for commanding audio signals to be routed to the various zones. The remote programming unit includes a plurality of input switches, and a command sending circuit responsive to the input switches for sending a command selected by the switches to control the audio, page or doorbell in a selected zone. Each of the zone input panels includes a receiver for receiving the commands from the remote programming unit. The receiver is used to couple the received command to the main control unit. The main control unit receives the command from the zone input panel and

controls the audio for the selected zone independently from the other ones of the zones .

The above summary of the present invention is r.o intended to represent each embodiment, or every aspect, of the present invention. This is the purpose of the figures and the detailed description which follow.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Other aspects and advantages of the present invention may become apparent upon reading the following detailed description and upon reference to the drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an audio 'iistributicr system, according to he preset, invention; FIGS. 2a, 2b, 2c and 2d comprise a block diagram of a main control unit illustrated in FIG. 1, also in accordance with the present invention;

FIG 3a is a block diagram of a circuit for implementing a zone input panel, according to the present invention;

FIG. 3b is a front view of the zone input panel of FIG. 3a; and

FIG. 4 is a front view of a hand-held unit shown in FIG. 1.

While the present invention is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof have been shown by way of example in the drawings and will be described in detail below. This should be understood, however, that the intention is not to limit the invention to the particular forms described and illustrated. On the contrary, the intent to cover all modifications, equivalents and alternative forms fall within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Turning now to the figures and particularly FIG. 1, an audio distribution system is shown to include a main control unit 10 configured for routing audio between various zones A-E, door speaker assemblies 12, 14, 16, and an audio source 18. For example, the main control unit 10 receives audio from an audio source 18 and amplifies and distributes the audio to selected ones of the zones A-E. Within each zone A-E, there is included a zone input panel depicted as an in-wall unit 20 and at least one volume control panel 22 for playing audio through an associated speaker 24. Each in-wall unit 20 includes command-sending keys permitting the user for sending commands to the main control unit 10 to turn the system on, set audio levels and selected the do-not-disturb function. The volume control panel allows for multiple speakers to be associated with the zone, without excessive loading on the power amplifier. A remote programming unit, depicted as a hand-held remote 40, can also be used to send commands to the main control unit 10, via infrared to a targeted in-wall unit 20, so as to control the volume for the targeted zone A-E at a distance from the in-wall unit 20.

Audio may also be sourced from the door speaker assemblies 12, 14, 16 and from conventional telephones 28, 30. The main control unit 10 includes a telephone interface circuit 32 for communicatively interconnecting the telephones 28, 30, the central office 34 and a microcomputer unit (MPU) 36 within the main control unit. The MPU 36 is programmed to respond to commands provided from any of the telephones 28, 30, the in-wall units 20, and the hand-held remote 40.

The main control unit 10 is specially configured to provide customized control over the audio distribution by storing a status of the requested volume-control conditions for each zone independently of the other zones. These conditions are stored as data in

a memory 44, which is directly accessed by the MPU 36 of the main control unit 10.

For example, in a desirable mode a user in zone A can program the in-wall unit 20 to play stereo music with the audio level set so that left and right stereo signals provided from the audio source 18 are played via the volume control panels Al and A2 and their associated speakers 24. The user in zone A can also request via the in-wall unit 20, that only certain types of interrupting audio signals, such as a page from a telephone 28, 30 and a door-microphone signal from one of the speaker assemblies 12, 14, 16, be permitted to interrupt the stereo signal being played through speakers 24. The user can also send a command to the main control unit to instruct the main control unit 10 to override the manually-set volume control on the volume control panel 22, thereby permitting the stereo signal to be heard at a low volume level via the manually-set volume control and the interrupting audio signal (page and door-microphone signals) to be heard at a louder preset volume level. This volume override feature can be done by sending a current control signal to the volume control panels Al, A2(22) via a separate set of control leads, thereby instructing the volume control panels to override the volume control setting within each of the volume control panels. In U.S. Patent

Application Serial No. , entitled "AUDIO

DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM WITH CONTROLLABLE VOLUME OVERRIDE", Farinelli et al. (Docket No. SQUC:109, NBD-9), filed concurrently herewith, such an implementation is described and illustrated with exemplary circuits for generating the controlled current signal within the main control unit and for receiving the controlled current signal within the volume control panel.

FIG. 2a depicts the portion of the main control unit 10 (FIG. 1), including the MPU 36, the

memory 44 and several control circuits, for controlling and routing the main audio signal from the audio source (18 of FIG. 1) and for interrupting the main audio signal by generating page, door-microphone, doorbell and mute signals. Two pairs of RCA jacks (not shown) receive left and right audio channels at amplifiers 50 and 52, respectively. The respective left and right channel outputs from the amplifiers 50 and 52 are summed using left and right summing circuits 54 and 56 so as to add the respective left channels from the amplifiers 50 and 52 and the respective right channels from the amplifiers 50 and 52. Each of the summing circuits 54 and 56 is implemented using a conventional summing- resistor ladder feeding an input to an operational amplifier.

The respective outputs of the summing circuits 54 and 56 are provided directly to a summing circuit 58 and, via respective potentiometers 60 and 62, to left and right channel amplifiers 64 and 66. The summing circuit 58 is used to generate a monophonic signal, and this monophonic signal is used for two purposes. First, it is used by an audio detection circuit 68 which has an output connected to the MPU 36 for indicating when there is a signal on either the left channel or right channel from either of the terminal pairs connected to the audio source. Second, the monophonic signal is provided to the telephone interface circuit 32 of FIG. 2b, so that when a telephone call is placed on hold, the held listener will hear the main audio signal provided from the audio source as background music.

The potentiometers 60 and 62 are set during installation to fix the audio gain for each of the channels to be provided for the left and right channel amplifiers 64 and 66 and also for the power amplifiers 71-75 for each of the respective zones A-E. The outputs of the left and right channel amplifiers 64 and 66 are connected to an RCA jack from which the audio from the

audio source can be routed to external equipment. The left and right audio signals are routed to each of the power amplifiers 71-75 using respective signal selecting preamplifier circuits 81-85. Each of the preamplifier circuits 81-85 includes two pairs of input terminals. One pair of input terminals is used for receiving the left and right channels of the main audio signal, as provided via the summing circuits 54 and 56. The other pair of input terminals receives signals on two lines fed from a switch 90, and these lines are interconnected to provide the preamplifier circuit with an identical signal at each terminal. The signal provided by the switch 90 is an interrupting signal (page, door-microphone, doorbell or mute) which passes through the switch 90 in response to control signals (PDM1 and PDM2) from the MPU 36.

The MPU 36 also provides control signals 87A- 87E to enable and control each of the preamplifier circuits 81-85. There are five leads for controlling the preamplifier circuits 81-85. These five leads, which are implemented using a conventional I ² C bus, are depicted on leads SDA (Serial Data), SCL (Serial Clock) and CONT 0-2. The SDA line provides serial data for programming each preamplifier circuit 81-85, and the SCL line provide a clock signal for establishing the data- transfer rate for each preamplifier circuit 81-85. The address lines (CONT 0-2) provide an address for addressing the programming input for one of the five preamplifier circuits 81-85. Each preamplifier circuit 81-85 may be implemented using a Signetics preamplifier circuit, e.g., Signetics part No. TDA 8425.

Accordingly, in response to the MPU control signals provided to both the switch 90 and each of the preamplifier circuits 81-85, the main audio signal is routed from the audio source (18 of FIG. 1) to selected ones of the zones A-E and, in response to one of the interrupting audio signals, the main audio signal is

blocked by the preamplifier circuits 81-85 to permit the interrupting audio signal to be routed to selected ones of the zones A-E.

The MPU 36 also provide.s control for selectively muting audio signals through the power amplifiers 71-75. As shown in FIG. 2a, these signals which control the power amplifiers 71-75 are depicted as PMUTE 1-5. This muting function can be implemented by connecting each of the lines from the MPU's peripheral ports to the mute input port of the power amplifiers 71- 75. The power amplifiers can be implemented using a Signetics TDA 1625 part.

Amplifiers 92 and 94 of FIG. 2a are provided for respectively connecting the doorbell signal and the zone A amplified audio signal to external equipment.

The remainder of the main control unit (10 of FIG. 1) is shown in FIG. 2b to include a section surrounding summing circuit 102 for interfacing with the in-wall units (20 of FIG. 1), the previously-mentioned interface circuit 32, a section associated with a summing circuit 104 for controlling the doorbell signal, and a section for interfacing with and controlling the signals for the door speaker assemblies (12, 14 and 16 of FIG. 1) . The MPU 36 interfaces with the in-wall units

(20 of FIG. 1) using three control lines for each in- wall unit. Two of these lines are provided via peripheral output ports from the MPU 36 to control a multicolor LED, which is further discussed in connection with FIGS. 3a and 3b. The MPU 36 receives serial data from each in-wall unit in response to the user depressing keys on the front panel of the in-wall unit and in response to the in-wall unit receiving infrared signals from a hand-held remote (40 of FIG. 1). The MPU 36 is preferably implemented using a microcomputer which includes a digital capture array circuit for directly receiving and translating serial data from an infrared

beam. For example, a microcomputer identified by Signetics Part No. S87C51FB-4N40 includes a capture array circuit internal to the microcomputer for receiving and translating such a serial data stream directly.

The summing circuit 102, which is also implemented using a conventional resistor-ladder feeding an operational amplifier, provides the MPU 36 with an indication as to whether or not any of the in-wall units is sending a command to the main control unit. This summation forms the signal which is sent to the MPU to the IR output port for control of external source equipment.

In FIG. 2B, the phone interface circuit 32 enables the MPU 36 to control communication between the telephones (28, 30 of FIG. 1), the central office (34 of FIG. 1) and the five zones A-E. Leads 112 connect the telephones through the telephone interface circuit to either the central office via lines 114 or to a SLIC 116 for interfacing with the main control unit. A switch 118 is controlled by a peripheral output lead 120 provided by the MPU 36 to control the switch 118 so that the phone leads 112 are properly connected.

Telephone calls between the central office (34 of FIG. 1) and the main control unit are placed on hold using peripheral output lines 122 and 124 provided by the MPU 36. A transformer 126 is used to interface audio signals between the central office and the main control unit. A DTMF receiver/transmitter circuit, shown in two separate blocks 130 and 132, translates DTMF tones sourced from the central office into coded signals for the MPU 36 and encodes signals provided from the MPU 36 for the central office.

The microcomputer 36 engages a relay 133 via line 134 to send the main audio signal (or hold music (HM) signal) from the audio source to the transformer 126 for placing the telephone call connected to the

central office on hold. If the audio source equipment is turned off, however, no music is heard over the telephone,

A detection circuit 138 provides off-hook enable (OHE), switch hook detect (SHD) and ring detect (RDT) signals to the MPU 36 via leads 141, 142 and 143, respectively. For additional information concerning the implementation, operation and control functions of the telephone interface circuit 32, reference may be made to U.S. patent application Serial No. 08/048,203, entitled "IMPROVED AUDIO DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM HAVING PROGRAMMABLE ZONES", supra . , (SQUC:108, DL-57-4) assigned to the instant assignee and incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. For example, the arrangements describe and illustrated in connection with FIGS. 6A, 19, 21, 21A and 40 of the above application correspond to the configuration, operation and function related to the interface phone circuit 32 of FIG. 2b of the instant application.

The summing circuit 104 sums audio signals provided from any of three doorbell generators 150, 152 and 154. These doorbell generators 150, 152 and 154 are engaged (activated) using peripheral output lines provided by the MPU 36.

To interface to each of the door speaker assemblies 12, 14, 16, the main control unit includes three identical door speaker interface circuits 160, 162 and 164. Each interface circuit includes conventional amplification and buffer circuits for connecting an audio signal provided by the microphone at the door speaker assembly and for passing an audio signal from the main control unit for playing at a speaker associated with the door speaker assembly. When the doorbell button in the door-speaker assembly is engaged, a buffer circuit in the interface circuit presents a digital signal on lead 166 to the MPU 36 to inform the MPU 36 to engage the corresponding doorbell generator 150, 152 or 154. The interface circuit further includes

control circuitry for activating a door latch. Latch control for a selected speaker assembly is obtained by depressing the 0 digit on a telephone. Depressing any other digit causes a transfer back to the ELAN dial tone. For further information regarding an exemplary dialing plan, reference may be made to the appendix attached hereto.

The main control unit is commanded from one of the zones A-E to monitor any one of the microphones at the door speaker assemblies individually or to monitor all three microphones simultaneously. Individual monitoring is accommodated using a switch circuit 170 to route one of the microphone inputs to a summing circuit 172, from which a switch circuit 174 connects through to the telephone interface circuit via lead 176 or, as an interrupting audio signal, to the switch 90 (FIG. 2a) via line 178. The microcomputer controls which of the microphone signals is routed through switch circuit 170 using peripheral output leads 180, and the MPU 36 controls the routing through the switch circuit 174 via the peripheral output lead 182. For example, access to assembly number 1 is obtained by dialing #, 3, access to assembly number 2 is obtained by dialing #, 3, followed by 2, and access to assembly number 3 is obtained by dialing #, 3 followed by 3. Only one door speaker and associated latch can be addressed at a time.

The control signals PDM1 and PDM2, which control the switch 90, also control a switch 186 for routing one of the interrupting signals: the page signal (generated via the telephone interface circuit 32), the microphone signal, or the mute signal through to an amplifier 188. The output of the amplifier is connected to an RCA jack on the main control unit to permit connection to external equipment. The MPU 36 similarly controls routing of the door speaker signal and the door latch signal for any of the targeted door speaker assemblies using respective

switch circuits 192 and 194. The switch circuits 192 and 194 are controlled using MPU peripheral output lines 196 and 198, such that the door speaker signal and the door latch signal are routed to the door-speaker assembly which is selected by an address signal carried by lines 196 and 198.

A summing circuit 181 is used to sum the microphone signals from all of the door speaker assemblies (12, 14 and 16 of FIG. 1) so that the user, when desiring to do so, can monitor audio at all three door speaker assemblies simultaneously. This type of monitoring is provided in response to the MPU receiving the digits #, 3, * from a telephone. The output of the summing circuit 181 is passed through a switch 200, when selected via MPU peripheral output line 202, for routing via switch circuit 174, as previously discussed.

Door microphone audio can also be broadcast over the speakers in the zones A-E for hands-free monitoring by dialing digits #, 3, followed by {n}, where "n" is one of the following sequences: "1, 7, *, hang up" for door microphone 1 routed to all speakers; " * , 7, 1, hang up" for all three door microphones routed to zone A speakers; "3, 7, 2, 7, 9, hang up" for door microphone 3 routed to zones 2 and 9 only. This feature does not tie up the phone for use with outside calls, and to cancel the routings the user simply picks up the phone and depresses "#, #." The MPU is programmed accordingly.

In addition to passing either the output of the microphone select switch 170 or the output of the switch circuit 200 to the routing switch circuit 174, the summing circuit 172 sums the output of switch circuit 204, when enabled via MPU peripheral output line 206, so that the MPU 36 can send an MPU-generated tone through the telephone interface circuit 32 as a page to any or all of the zones A-E. The MPU-generated tone is useful for sending, for example, an emergency page

signal or warning signal or off-hook alarm signal to any of the selected zones. Because the MPU 36 controls the audio status for each of the zones, including "do-not- diεturb" requests from each of the zones (to block the audio to the zone), the MPU 36 maintains full control over whether or not audio will be routed to any particular zone.

Another important aspect of the present invention concerns presetting the audio level in each room. The hand-held remote (40 of FIG. 1) is used to program the main control unit initially to desired preset levels for page, doorbell and normal playing of music. The hand-held remote is also used to make adjustments to these preset levels once they have been initially programmed. In this manner, each room includes audio that is custom-tailored by the user (or the installer) while the user is in that zone or room.

Accordingly, with these preset levels stored in the memory 44 for the MPU 36, the MPU is capable of ramping up or down the audio for each zone A-E individually or simultaneously (preferably with the exception of those zones in which a do-not-disturb command has been received) . For example, a user may want the audio volume in all the zones ramped up to the preset level when he selects the ON, H whole house music key on the hand-held unit. By depressing the ON/OFF H keys on the hand-held unit, all keypads can be locked together for turning on each zone thereby allowing music to pass through the associated zone amplifier and for ramping up to the preset levels. Once initiated, all rooms respond in kind to a volume command received from any keypad. The "Off - H" command from the hand-held unit will unlock this volume tracking function, but not change any of the levels when the MX unit, as described herein, comes out of whole house music mode.

Additionally, depressing the "ON" button in any room

will turn on all rooms not in DND (do-not-disturb) mode to their preset level.

Referring now to FIGS. 3a and 3b, a block diagram view and a front perspective view are shown for the in-wall unit 20 of FIG. 1. In FIG. 3a the in-wall unit 20 is shown to include four momentary contact switches 221, 222, 223 and 224, and a conventional keypad switch matrix 226 for presenting these signals to an encoder circuit 228. The encoder circuit 228 may be implemented, for example, using a Signetics circuit, Part No. SAA-3004. The encoder circuit 228 provides serial data on a line 230 to a priority switch circuit 232, which connects the line 230 to line 234 to the MPU of the main control unit. The priority switch circuit 232 can also connect the output of an infrared (IR) receiver 236 to the line 234 when the encodf circuit 228 is not responding to the switches 221-22- . Using a priority signal on line 238, the priority switch circuit 232 insures that commands from the switches 221-224 are treated with priority when commands sent from the switches 221-224 and commands received from the hand¬ held remote through the IR receiver 236 occur simultaneously.

A multicolor LED 240 displays the status of the in-wall unit of FIGS. 3a and 3b. A conventional transistor driver circuit 242 on each in-wall unit controls the LED 240 in response to the two control signals (LED1 ON and LED1 STDBY) provided from the MPU's peripheral ports as previously mentioned. The multicolor LED 240 provides an indication of the status of whether the in-wall unit is activated, whether the do-not-disturb command is activated and the status recently input, if any, via switches 221-224.

For example, by controlling the LED 240 so that it displays solid red, this indicates that the zone is activated for control by the main control unit. By flashing the LED 240 a low duty cycle (80% off and 20%

red) , this indicates that the in-wall unit is activated and is operating under the do-not-disturb command (using switch 221 with shift-key depression via switch 222 of FIG. 3b). Similarly, a duty cycle of 20% off and 80% red for the LED 240 indicates that the in-wall unit is not activated in the do-not-disturb mode. A 50%/50% high duty cycle, flashing red on and off for up to two seconds, indicates that the shift-key has been depressed and that the in-wall unit is waiting for the next key to be depressed. A 50%/50% continuous high duty cycle indicates that the unit is in the program mode and is awaiting additional commands. Controlling the LED 240 to provide a blinking green signal indicates that the keypad button has been depressed or that the IR receiver is active while the in-wall unit is deactivated. A blinking yellow/orange indicates that the IR receiver is active while the in-wall unit is activated.

FIG. 3b shows the front panel 244 within which the in-wall unit 20 is mounted. Keypads (or switches) 221, 222, 223 and 224 are used to provide various volume-feature control commands. These commands are depicted with switch 221 providing ON/DND, switch 222 providing "shift" for alternative commands, switch 223 providing volu e-up, and switch 224 providing volu e- down. An IR window 246 is provided for coupling the IR signal transmitted from the hand-held remote to the IR receiver 236 of FIG. 3a.

The hand-held remote 40 of FIG. 1 is conventionally arranged as described and illustrated in U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 08/048,203, supra. The command set from the hand-held remote include commands requesting reception for monophonic signals, stereo signals, left and right balance, and level adjust up or down. The MX unit has up to 35 preset levels which can be selected via this level adjust. The presets may be used for setting volumes for doorbell, page and music, with the preset ranging from +6 DB to

-64 dB in two dB steps. The command set also includes do-not-disturb command, page, doorbell and telephone mute enable commands, spacial and/or simulated stereo effects, bass, treble and loudness equalization commands.

In certain installations, for example, outdoor applications, it may be desirable to disable the IR receiving function of the in-wall unit. For this reason, a jumper wire 237 is interposed between the IR receiver 236 in the priority switch circuit 232. To insure that the user maintains exclusive control over the commands transmitted to the main control unit, jumper wire 237 is cut.

The MPU can be programmed to provide certain other control features for the user. By dialing

" # , * , * , * , * " from the telephone, an assignment is made to disable the system's (Elan) internal dial tone and make a direct hard connect to other outside line. This is similar to turning the A.C. power off to the unit, in that both actions force a connection to the outside line. The ELAN tone is recovered by cycling the unit's A.C. power, or by dialing "*,*" on any keypad. This feature is useful in troubleshooting to help isolate the central office line and house wiring network problems. An emergency page into DND rooms can be implemented by dialing "#,7,*,*."

The following programming procedure has been defined based on using the hand-held remote control and an IR receiver in the in-wall unit. Only one room at a time is programmable, and it is intended that the installer walks from room to room with the hand-held remote and customizes each room in sequence.

With reference to the hand-held unit illustrated in FIG. 4, the programming sequence is as follows: a. Point the hand-held unit at an in-wall unit and press the "*, ELAN" buttons. The

system LED on the in-wall unit will begin to blink rapidly indicating the room is in the program mode. Existing music, page or doorbell signals will continue to be broadcast. b. While music is playing, find the customer's preferred listening location and adjust the room turn-on level with the ON, B/ON, G buttons, and adjust the balance for that spot via the ON, C/ON, H buttons. These buttons are used to send commands indicating music level adjust up or down. Whatever levels are present when the programming mode is exited are saved as the new preset levels . c. With a cordless phone, page into that room, and adjust the ON, D/ON, I buttons for page level. The "D/ON" and "I" buttons are used to send commands indicating page level adjust up or down. Page level can be set from zero to full volume. When set to the zero (or minimum) level, the page interrupt is also disabled for that room. d. Finally, for the door bell level adjust, depress the ON, 9 button, and door chime number 3 will ring continuously throughout the house. With the door bell ringing, press the ON, E/ON, J buttons on the hand-held for door bell level adjust. Door bell level can be set from 0 to full volume. When set to minimum, the door bell interrupt will also be disabled for that room. e. Once complete, press OFF, 9 to turn off the door bell, and then *, ELAN to bring the room out of the programming mode. f. Repeat this sequence for each room. To avoid hand-held IR commands from a user in

zone A adjusting another room's presets, only one zone at a time should be programmed, g. To escape from the programming sequence without saving, simply turn the room off via the ELAN key on the hand-held, or the ON button on the keypad. h. To recall factory defaults for a room (not the whole house) depress the ON, 0 button on the hand-held while in the program mode. i. To disable telephone mute for a room, depress: off, 7. To disable the room dialing plan and configure the system for whole house page and mute, depress: off, 8.

Once all the rooms are programmed, the user has the ability to adjust bass and treble, select flat equalization or a loudness bass boost curve, mono or stereo and special effects for any room.

Accordingly, the present invention has been described and illustrated in the form of an audio distribution method and system including several ways for sending commands to a main control unit for selectively establishing the volume signals to be routed to each zone. Those skilled in the art will readily recognize that various modifications and changes may be made to the present invention without departing from the true spirit and scope thereof, which is set forth in the following claims.

WHAT IS CLAIMED IS:

1. An audio distribution system distributing audio to a plurality of zones, the system comprising:

(a) at least one remote programming unit including a plurality of input switches, a command sending circuit responsive to the input switches for sending commands selected by the switches to control the audio in at least one selected zone;

(b) a main control unit routing the audio signals to the various zones;

(c) a plurality of zone input panels designated for a plurality of respective zones, each zone input panel including a circuit for receiving the commands from the remote programming unit and forwarding the received commands to the main control unit; and

(d) the main control unit receiving the command from the zone input panel and controlling the audio for the selected zone independently from the other ones of the zones.

2. An audio distribution system, according to claim 1, wherein the zone input panel has a front panel including a plurality of input keys for sending at least one command.

3. An audio, distribution system, according to claim 2, wherein the zone input panel has an internal connector configured for preventing the zone input panel from forwarding the commands from the remote programming unit.

4. An audio distribution system, according to claim 2, wherein the zone input panel includes a priority circuit for forwarding said at least one command in response to a command generated via the input keys of the zone input panel and for blocking a command