FocuS on inflight entertainment
Sally Gethin of Gethin’s Inflight News reports on the hot draw at this year’s Aircraft Interiors (AIX) Expo in Hamburg
IFE comes of age
Inflight entertainment (IFE) definitely came of age at this year’s AIX. Not only did IFE vendors have their own exhibition zone but the hot topic everywhere was IFE.
‘SEAT-CENTRIC’ was a major buzzword with the main benefit seen to be reduced onboard architecture, providing greater flexibility and lower costs. Seat-centric IFE consists of slimmed-down
IFE systems without the heavy architecture of old. Fewer seatboxes if any, less wiring, and no more large headends in the galley. Seat-centric systems have all the technology autonomously residing in each seat screen, with built-in redundancy. This means that if one screen goes down, it does not compromise an entire system with rows of seatback displays failing. The whole system tends to be more lightweight and a lot simpler to install. At the show, Airbus head of aircraft interiors marketing, Bob Lange, said seat-centric IFE creates more upgrade paths since it is more flexible with easier maintenance and installation. ‘We as airframers are reluctant to over-provision aircraft with unnecessary systems. But seat-centric allows simple integration,’ he said. The old legacy systems, where content was
distributed directly via the headend to the seat, often compromised the integrity of the entire system. But with seat-centric IFE this is no longer the case. Seat-centric IFE is available
from nearly all the major IFE vendors, including Thales. Most prominent though are The IMS company, Lumexis, and a new entrant to the field, Intelligent Avionics (IA). IA’s AURA is a ‘PC in the seat’ using
open hardware and software from recognised consumer brands such as Dell, Microsoft and Windows. Visitors could see a cabin mock-up fitted with 10 Economy seats featuring AURA’s inaugural 10.1” touch screen solution. Screen sizes will range from 7” to 22”.
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www.onboardhospitality.com
Above: Thales TouchPMU won the Crystal Cabin Judges Commendation Prize True to seat-centric form, the system consists
of just a handful of components: a 3.5 kg avionics controller; the crew and maintenance interface unit (CMIU); the intelligent power and data units; and the touch screens which incorporate the passenger controls. “It was important to lay out our system components at Hamburg for potential buyers to scrutinise,” said AURA founder Martin Cunnison. IA's chairman, Steve Cloran, added: "Feedback from the industy was overhwhelmingly positive."
Award Winner IMS won the Entertainment and
“Seat-centric IFE consists of slimmed-down systems without the heavy architecture of old. Fewer seatboxes, less wiring and no more large headends in the galley”
Communication Crystal Cabin Award for its seat-centric RAVE system. Each seatback display unit (SDU) contains all content, applications and playback functionality, just like portable solutions. SDUs avoid the single point of failure scenario. RAVE has been ordered by Air Berlin, Brussels Airlines and Sri Lankan and is on trial onboard Lufthansa.
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