An aircraft cabin management system that provides passengers and crew with a number of entertainment and productivity enhancing options. Such options include, without limitation, audio, video, control and status of aircraft data systems and electro-mechanical devices. Located proximate to each seat and in various other strategic locations throughout the cabin is a control unit that acts as the primary means of passenger and crew interaction with the cabin management system. Using a multi-cast distribution methodology, over wired or wireless distribution, allows for an unlimited number of clients to have access to each available audio/video program. This allows the system to be fully scalable from a small 4 seat mobile platform to a large 800+ seat mobile platform. While particularly drawn to aircraft, the cabin management system is also applicable to other venues that have identifiable seating locations such as buses, passenger ships, hotels and auditoriums.