36
Next Generation IFEC Systems
Neil James, Executive Director, Corporate Sales and Product Management, Panasonic Avionics Corporation, looks at the possibilities for the future of IFEC
As our industry eagerly approaches next-generation aircraft, airlines are re-examining their approach to in-flight entertainment and continue to look for ways in which their IFEC systems can positively impact their business and marketing objectives. What if the world’s leading IFEC suppliers could develop the perfect solution, how would they approach it, and what would those systems look like? With most leading IFEC suppliers, it starts with the in-flight experience. For premium passengers, an airline might offer a highly personalised, high quality home theatre experience that allowed passengers to stay connected with friends, family, and colleagues. For economy travellers, the experience could include a high definition home theatre atmosphere with unprecedented space and comfort, high end games and connectivity right from their seat. With the latest advances in IFEC, an ideal solution could create a business platform that offered HD and 3D video, surround sound, global live television that included sports and news, integrated concierge devices, 1000s of applications, email, internet, video conferencing, onboard social networking, an immersive interactive and advanced console games. The next step would be to ensure that next-generation IFEC solution leverages the native connectivity of future aircraft. While corporate clients would benefit from the opportunity to use their laptop, mobile phones and other devices to be product during their flight, there is an opportunity to offer more than just wireless and GSM services to personal devices. With tomorrow’s IFEC systems leveraging native broadband connectivity, every passenger across all classes could stay in touch through the seatback with an airline’s own branded applications and seatback browsing. In order to help drive the lowest cost of operations, the systems could be monitored in real time from a central ground-based mission control centre and maintained by a global turn-key support organisation that keeps it fully operational and ensures that it will deliver against high passenger expectations at a minimum cost. While today’s IFEC systems are already incredibly reliable, connectivity has the potential to further improve the system availability, fostering passenger satisfaction and loyalty while minimising cost per available seat mile. Today’s passengers have grown up with cell phones, MP3 players, iPods®
, laptops, and even iPads® . They are
accustomed to sleek, elegant industrial designs and well thought-out user interfaces (UIs) from consumer devices, and they expect this type of user experience whether on the ground or at 35,000 feet. In order to address this market segment, IFEC vendors are looking at a fresh approach that
includes elegant industrial design with seamless interior integration. High definition throughout the cabin and even 3D displays in business and first class could incorporate capacitive touch and proximity sensors. They will also feature incredible viewing angles and next-generation processors for advanced, unmatched performance. These systems will support in-seat cameras and interoperable devices. They could also include new standard and video handsets with interfaces that are similar to today’s popular personal devices. In order to ensure a passenger experience that is as relevant as possible, these new systems could also incorporate an advanced media strategy that delivers content to the seatback as quickly as possible. IFEC vendors could reduce the cycle from 45 to 15 days, significantly lower content management costs and improve operational efficiency. Open platform architectures such as Android also hold much promise for the next generation IFEC systems. Google has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in a software architecture that may uniquely fit our industry’s needs. Android is a highly reliable, self-managing product that is designed for connected, low power, thin client networks. It supports low power, highly interactive devices. With an extensive, comprehensive development and support community, it offers access to thousands of applications. For airlines, this has the potential to offer a solid application environment where applications could be created and deployed much faster than currently possible. With the emergence of industry-specific application stores, airlines could also have custom applications made. Qualified content could be moved directly from an app store to the aircraft with no ATP qualification. This would mean airlines would have access with a significantly larger group of applications that could be deployed faster at a lower cost. By leveraging each of these strategies, tomorrow’s IFEC solutions could become true business platforms that would be long-term solutions for airlines that help drive brand loyalty. With advances such as real-time monitoring, solid- state technologies, the Android operating system and new hardware designs that reduced weight and lowered power consumption, they could offer a lower total cost of ownership. These highly personalised, always connected systems would be e-business solutions that would also offer new opportunities for expanded revenue generation. They would truly be an advanced IFEC solution that gave an airline an unparalleled advantage against the competition.
Panasonic Avionics Corporation, Stand 6F15
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170 |
Page 171 |
Page 172 |
Page 173 |
Page 174 |
Page 175 |
Page 176 |
Page 177 |
Page 178