MULTI-STATION VIDEO/AUDIO DISTRIBUTION APPARATUS

A multi-station video/audio distribution apparatus having at least two preview stations, a data control mechanism, a preview station interface mechanism disposed between the preview stations and the data control mechanism, and a video display interface mechanism disposed between the preview stations and the data control mechanism. Each of the preview stations has a user input in the form of a bar code scanner to enter a video material selection, an audio output and a video display. The data control mechanism retrieves digitized video and audio material corresponding to each of the user's video material selections. The preview station interface mechanism transfers the user's inputs from each of the preview stations to the data control mechanism, receives the digitized audio materials corresponding to each user's input from the data control mechanism, converts the digital audio materials to analog audio signals and transfers the analog audio signals to each of the respective preview stations for the audio output. The video display interface mechanism receives the digitized video material corresponding to each user's input from the data control mechanism, converts the digital video material to a format acceptable to the video display and transfers the formatted video material to the video display.