be referred to as having a certain number of each type of component it is to be understood that any number of nodes and or components is possible the system 10 includes a satellite receiver 11 first second and third vod servers 12 14 and 16 and an ethernet switch 18 the satellite receiver 11 and the vod servers 12 14 and 16 are communicatively linked to the ethernet switch 18 via ethernet communication links the ethernet switch 18 directs ethernet frames to the appropriate components in the system 10 based on one or more of the following mac addresses of the frames multicast protocols broadcast protocols and ip addresses of the ip packets contained within the ethernet frames the system 10 also includes first second and third area distribution boxes adbs 20 22 and 24 each of which is communicatively linked via ethernet to the ethernet switch 18 proximate to each row of passenger seats in the aircraft is a seat electronic box seb 28 which is communicatively linked to one of the adbs via ethernet one or more digital video players u201c players u201d are connected to each seb via gigabit ethernet such that each passenger will have his or her own player each player may be stand alone or may be integrated with a video display unit such as the smart video display unit svdu described in u s application.