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01 One size does not fit all
Martin Cunnison, Managing Director, Intelligent Avionics Limited, explains why a single IFE solution is not enough
01. The seat-centric AURA Works product on a narrowbody
02. The AURA Connected product will wirelessly deliver content and services to a range of passengers’ devices, like the iPhone
On any given day at airports around the world, aircraft parked at adjacent gates will have hugely varied interiors, including a wide range of inflight entertainment systems. The shiny new jet from a fast-growing carrier will have amazing IFE: touchscreens, SATCOM connection to the Internet, and a seemingly limitless suite of content. At the next gate, no IFE will be evident, because that airline, clearly on the cutting edge, has installed an onboard intranet to wirelessly stream content and services to
02
passengers’ tablets, smartphones, and laptops. One gate over, an airline that was proud to be an innovator 20 years ago is still flying overhead screens and a tape-based front end. And at the end of the concourse, a 90-seat RJ has no IFE, because when it was delivered just a few years ago it made no sense to put a 300 kg server on such a small plane, even though the jet routinely flies three- hour sectors. Too often, interior and other suppliers forget that what we conveniently call the “airline industry,” singular, is really a multiple set of businesses, operating in different kinds of markets, with differing financial circumstances, and enormously varied customer bases. Suppliers continue to believe that “one size fits all,” because that credo fits their needs. Newcomers to the business express amazement and disdain at this rigidity, but it has been this way for decades. Clearly, then, the airline industry needs the flexibility of multiple solutions. Producers are beginning to get the message. For example, two years ago, Intelligent Avionics,
began with a clean sheet, intent on developing a lighter, more reliable, more cost-effective, and more passenger-friendly IFE system. Its initial product, AURA Works, is an ultra lightweight embedded system that is gaining attention in the
marketplace, not least because it can fly without weight penalty on everything from the smallest RJ to the A380.
But as Intelligent Avionics began to meet with potential customers, it came to understand that a single solution was not enough – if it offered a single product, it would be regressing to the inflexibility it so
dislikes. So its engineers and
developers found two more clean sheets, and developed two more solutions. The first, AURA One, recognises the dozens of airlines that are still flying overhead IFE systems with tape drives. AURA One is a fast (literally overnight) and inexpensive way to replace analogue head-ends with digital IFE. Without touching wiring or overhead screens, customers get clearer audio and video, and airlines get content flexibility – and lose the headache and cost of tapes. The second solution, AURA Connected, expected later this
year, will be a lightweight, low-cost, simple-to-install wireless intranet system that will provide passengers with an extensive range of content, advertising, and digital products and services streamed to selected mobile devices. In-seat power supply is optional. AURA Connected interfaces with virtually any Internet connectivity solution but it works perfectly without a link. And because all three solutions use common components, AURA Connected can be deployed standalone, or as a complement to AURA One or AURA Works.
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