Whilst having a cup of tea with IMDC’s Robert Smith at Aircraft Interiors in Hamburg we chatted about the impending  iPad Inflight Revolution and Robert had some thoughts that we liked and asked him to share with our readers. Here is what he told IFExpress: “On April 3, 2010 Apple released the iPad and effectively created a new type of consumer device. The touchscreen tablet sold 3 million units in its first 80 days on sale, passed 100 million units in 2012 and shipped an estimated 19.5 million devices in Q1 2013. Apple is now not the only major company in this sector.... [Read more]

Next APEX TC meeting focuses on Content In case you’ve not yet heard, next week’s APEX Technology Committee meeting is focused on Content, but there are a few IFEC Systems issues too. The agenda was being finalized as this edition was distributed, but we’ve asked two of the TC leadership team (Michael Childers and Rich Salter) to give a snapshot of what will be covered. Here’s what they provided: As you probably know, APEX’ TC has two main meetings each year. APEX is trying to focus its May-timeframe TC meeting on Content and hold them at venues in the Hollywood... [Read more]

During AIX, we had a long talk with Geoff and Claire Underwood of IFPL and traced out the tech steps and reasoning around NFC – Near Field Communication. When we got back, IFExpress reviewed a couple of articles that talked about the need for passenger identification on aircraft and realized that the passenger manifests are not the best passenger data device. The IFPL team noted that most people think of NFC as a payment device. Let’s face it, digitizing passenger data and having it available on the aircraft is probably one of the last parts of the airline... [Read more]

This year’s Aircraft Interiors Expo, which played host to the world’s largest display of aircraft interiors products and services, welcomed 8906 (pre-audit) visitors through its doors between April 9-11.  This was a 12% increase on the previous year. The exhibition featured over 500 exhibiting companies from 26 countries, covering a record floor space on 18,000 sq m – the largest footprint to date. Organized by Reed Exhibitions and taking place in Hamburg, Germany, the exhibition attracted over 750 airline representatives that were ideally placed to witness the... [Read more]

In last week’s edition of IFExpress we trumped up the Passenger Experience Conference, Day 1 event in Hamburg. We noted how good it was and since the folks at Reed Exhibitions have already sent out a questionnaire to improve next year’s event, IFExpress believes it will only get better. There was a lot of change in the air at AIX, and as you can imagine it was all about wireless connectivity – in cabin Wi-Fi, satcom connections, and linking various parts of the plane/crew with 802.11. This year we thought we would follow the trends for our readers and... [Read more]

The Aircraft Interiors Expo is over for another year and we thought a report on what we observed and overheard might be useful for readers who did not get the chance to attend, as well as, serve as an update for those who manned their company booth. To that end, we plan to cover the events in at least three issues of IFExpress. Also, we thought you might like to hear from your favorite IFE personalities so we will intersperse their thoughts about the show in the next few editions of IFExpress as well. Lets start at the beginning, The Passenger Experience Conference (PEC),... [Read more]

Aircraft Cabin Systems Booth: 6B18 Contact: Ben Ludlow Telephone: + 1 425 629 4129 Email: ben@aircraftcabinsystems.com ACS will be debuting our new overhead retractable monitors in 9.7” and 12” sizes. The new ACS retractable monitors are a direct replacement for the existing retractable systems for A320 aircraft. Considering the frequency of removals and high cost of repairs to the old systems, making the switch is easy. ACS’ patented design allows us to offer a 50,000 operational cycle guarantee and a 5 year warranty. Astronics Booth: 6C40 Contact: Dennis Markert Email:... [Read more]

Inflight Retail: GuestLogix Inc., the onboard retail and payment technology solution provider to airlines and the passenger travel industry, recently announced that it has partnered with in-flight entertainment and connectivity (IFEC) provider, Thales. The partnership involves the integration of GuestLogix’ Transaction Processing Engine (TPE) into Thales’ TopSeries® IFEC systems, enabling payment acceptance via seatback screens. Implementation of the joint solution will commence immediately with the first installation targeted for July 2013. The Thales’... [Read more]

Background Six months ago we did a story on a newly designed, commercial aircraft retractable monitor with its developer and designer, Yukio Sugimoto. If you have a technical bent you may remember that his product was an engineer’s dream, instead of the mechanical nightmare that historically plagues these devices. In all fairness, the restrictions and requirements on retractable monitors are moderately onerous, especially considering the fact that they must operate with power that is subject to dropping out… not to mention issues like the video display retract necessity... [Read more]

Some background: The first story we did on Custom Control Concepts was around 2002, some 4 years after they were born. When we discovered Kurt Mayhall and his band of doers in Seattle, they made one of the most reliable and capable, larger biz jet IFE systems in the aviation industry. We really were impressed with their ability to bring almost anything IFE to market. In 2005, we visited them again and they were about 30 people strong, and sure enough, they all had the same positive approach to business. That’s when we coined the moniker: “The Little Company... [Read more]

After almost 30 years in IFE, this has to be one of the most exciting and important Hot Topics that we have produced for our IFExpress readers. The subject is a radically new antenna (mostly) but before you delete this email and log on to Facebook hear us out. Kymeta is the Redmond, WA startup that was voted by MIT’s Technology Review as one of 2013′s Most Disruptive (technology) Companies. Our subject is airborne satellite Ka-band communication and the disruptive technology is based around something called metamaterial and is the disruptive heart of this revolutionary... [Read more]

One of the two InFlight Entertainment & Connectivity shows/meetings/exposition is about to convene in roughly one month – Aircraft Interiors, April 9 thru 11, in Hamburg, Germany and it is one you don’t want to miss. Technically billed as The Aircraft Interiors Expo – “Exclusively aircraft interiors”, it is the world’s largest exposition dedicated to this subject, so you need to go. Yes, it is also free to gain entrance just pre register here or you can sign-up at the expo but then you have to wait in line. AIX this year will cover... [Read more]

This Hot Topic turns out to be the longest we have ever run in IFExpress (2600+ words) and if you are at all put off by it’s length, we would like to beg your indulgence and offer a few free downloadable PC games at the end to appease our readers who don’t have time to read, but do have time to play games! Quite often, it a good thing to write outside of one’s comfort zone. In fact, this week we were a bit outside of our comfort zone but readers will, if nothing else, find this Hot Topic interesting and possibly outside their zone too. Our subject is... [Read more]

With all this attention to aircraft connectivity and Wi-Fi, the IFExpress team kicked around how the subject of user universal cell data and free Wi-Fi might affect the airborne application. Airline passengers seeking Internet access progressively upon their journey (at the airport, on the airplane, and in their hotel room) are confronted with different value propositions and with even more varied actual performance levels. Naturally, the subject of airport Wi-Fi came front and center because it represents a situation where a traveler may have a bit of free time, flying... [Read more]

IFExpress contacted digEcor last week to get a copy of their annual passenger survey which seems to track the trends in inflight entertainment and connectivity we have come to know and love so well. Now in its third year of publication, the 2012 survey of airline passengers that hail from around the globe queried everything from road warriors to once-a-year casual fliers… and everyone in between. The study/report provides relevant and up-to-date information for free to our industry and you might want to get your own copy. With multiple years of data presented, the results... [Read more]

Last week we outlined the cabin wireless developments at LiveCast, the folks who major in streaming connectivity in the cabin. After an overview last week, by the LiveCast CEO, William Mutual, we thought we would get the story on their BYOD TV product. Therefore, we asked Jennifer Blome, LiveCast VP Marketing, what products and services are offered to airlines by LiveCast and she told IFExpress: “BYOD TV is a new low cost, turn-key platform that enables airlines to provide real-time and updated on-demand entertainment content to passengers’ own devices, which... [Read more]

Perhaps you saw the Inmarsat streaming Wi-Fi demo at the last APEX conference. Sitting outside the booth was an unobtrusive laptop PC with what looked like a simple dipole antenna, and we probably would have missed it if we had our ‘Wi-Fi radar’ turned off! Upon asking we found out that a small company in Vancouver BC teamed with Inmarsat to develop the demo. Consequently, we contacted Inmarsat’s David Coiley about the ongoing testing of the future of SBTV service provision on: “Inmarsat continues to receive a hugely enthusiastic response from both... [Read more]

Astronics has moved into their new hillside headquarters in Kirkland, WA. We told our readers that we would cover the 1.5 mile move from Redmond, WA to 12950 Willows Road, Kirkland, WA. (Google that address and you get a pretty good idea of the two hillside buildings now converted into one) and thought a mini-plant tour would be appropriate. The relocation was completed over the holiday break. Mark Peabody commented, “The most amazing part of the move to our new, beautiful facility was the planning by our team, our customers, and our suppliers. We were back up in full... [Read more]

First, we had planned to write this Hot Topic around the recent Las Vegas CES (Consumer Electronics Show) and tekkie love fest but our volunteer IFExpress reporter dropped off the face of the earth… we suspect that he is in some off-the-strip keno parlor still trying to win back the money we fronted him. Moving on, besides all the crapgadget laptops, apps, games, the one item we found IFE-friendly was the surge in Ultra HD “4K” displays. While the ones at CES were gigantic (which is where “4K” shines), better screen quality is always a class... [Read more]

Happy New Year to all our readers and we hope that 2013 will be a little bit better than 2012, actually a lot better. As you might guess, this year will undoubtedly bring a lot of changes to this mad world if IFEC. Outside influences will be a big driver and economic conditions will still dictate the rate of change. Personal technology has never had so much influence on our business but this year, we are comfortable in predicting that we will see two major influences – Mobile and Other. Mobile is the eight-hundred-pound-gorilla and Other is just that, other influences... [Read more]

This weekly issue of IFExpress will be the last for 2012. We hope you have had a good year and we are signing out of 2012 with our newest IFExpress Feature dubbed “TekTopic”. The idea here is to present an IFE solution or service with slightly more emphasis on the technology. Don’t worry, we won’t over-tech your synapses, but rather, try to explain the underlying technology that drives the newsy product. This is exactly what Bill Baltra did with today’s feature and if you have an IFE product or service that could stand some exposure, let us... [Read more]

Unless you have been living under a rock the last couple months, we note (like every news source in existence) that the FAA and FCC are about to review the FAR’s and airline mindset for the use of Personal Electric Devices, beginning with a request for comments this past August. From the FAA documentation: “Current FAA regulations generally prohibit the use of all PEDs during flight, with the exception of portable voice recorders, hearing aids, heart pacemakers, and electric shavers.” Remembering that the FAA left the final call for usage up to the airlines:... [Read more]

This Hot Topic is all about Smartphones and the eventual complete immersion in, and interface with, the commercial airliner. We recently wrote a story about one IFE vendor (Thompson Aerospace) who has developed a Google-like Pay-Per-Click solution and that got us wondering about the future interactions between passengers and the plane’s wireless and/or wired systems. When we queried a number of IFExpress readers about this impending pax/plane interface we got a lot more data than we expected. For one thing, emerging technologies and industries will surely come to play... [Read more]

In case you slept thru the holidays you might be the last one in IFE to hear about the news: Zodiac has issued a letter of intent (LOI) to purchase seat-centric IFE system manufacturer, IMS. The deal should conclude by year-end, and from what we hear, Joe Renton is thrilled about the company and the agreement (Note: No purchase price was announced). The large French aerospace conglomerate has had a busy year and a financially rewarding one to boot. They recently purchased Heath Tecna and Contour (seating), and IFE is even more clearly in their sight as they have already... [Read more]

“The airline industry is a great industry, but it is also a terrible business.” – anonymous This Hot Topic began as a simple phone call to Thompson Aerospace as a result of the CEO’s request for a return call. Planning a standard set of questions about new hardware, airline take-up, weight (Oh, it does weigh 3.2 pounds per seat) our interview began as most. Mark Thompson (President & CEO) began the data run down and if you have met him, you just hang on because a LOT of data is coming your way. And it did, a lot. Somewhere in the middle of... [Read more]