Suffice it to say, the latest WAEA Single Focus Workshop on connectivity was a hit. If airline uptake is any indicator of the rush to provide inflight Internet, our money is on the success of the next “big thing” in onboard amenities. The real importance of this meeting lies not only in the value of the service to travelers, but as a result of the almost universal acceptance of new gadgets, airlines are willing to invest in connectivity. While the presentation papers for the most part were terrific, also were not available at this writing. They will be forthcoming... [Read more]

OK, it’s a slow news week, but the two topics have some relationship to IFE. We said “some”, not a lot!. Our first topic on inflight airbags is best understood by first reading the following NYT posting as background: New Planes Will Have Air Bags and Seats Less Apt to Rip Loose If you didn’t read it, the message is clear… inseat passenger airbags are here and more are coming. With all in service today in upper classes, you probably guessed the next question – what is the impact on IFE and the airlines? We asked a couple of “industry... [Read more]

digEplayer XLP - Source: digEcor Over the past year, we’ve reported several times about digEcor and product prototypes and enhancements. Well, all of their hard work and time has come to fruition again as digEcor announced last week the release of the digEplayer XLP, the third generation digEplayer (a comparison of the players can be found on their website). With an increased battery life at a record setting 16 hours, the XLP is designed to provide airlines with longer flight segments an affordable, lightweight, and flexible IFE platform. We caught up with President Brad... [Read more]

DTI, the inflight gaming & entertainment software house in Montreal has landed a big fish. We wondered when someone in our line of work would do so. Accordingly, interactive IFE will now get some of the best travel content ever. First, if you dont know DTI, check out their website. They cut their teeth on IFE gaming software and are now branching out into interactive entertainment, travel and information on airborne platforms. They have established a deal with Dorling Kinsersly, the DK people who have developed an incredible printed books called “Eyewitness”... [Read more]

If you have not seen the latest airliner sales projections from Boeing you might want to first check out their web offering of the Current Market Outlook (vs Airbus). As one might expect, both Boeing and Airbus see growth in the short term time frame, the current market conditions might temper their estimates later this year. Airbus calls an average growth of 4.9% per year while Boeing sees a 5% growth annually. While most Inflight Entertainment Marketing troops abide by this data, aircraft vendor backlog is just as important. Both Boeing and Airbus ooze optimism with Airbus... [Read more]

While streaming is still a hot topic, we wanted to return to our Hot Topic subject of a few weeks back. This whole subject began with an article we wrote about the possibility of streaming entertainment media to the aircraft. Obviously, even to the uninformed, bandwidth to the aircraft has to increase and the cost per bit has to SIGNIFICANTLY drop. One company who has remained on the periphery of aircraft broadband (physically and technically) is Voyant (www.voyant.aero). Their approach revolves around individual broadband beams of data, formed and steered to each aircraft,... [Read more]

Dear Readers… Just when we thought we had heard just about everything about connectivity and were sure the “Big Dogs” has everything sewed up, along comes a new and refreshing solution to getting bandwidth to the plane. Yes, it is ground-based and it is simplicity itself, but the idea is one that resonated with us because it is so cool and clever. On the ground (100 stations needed), Wi-Sky has developed an electrically steered beam forming antenna that delivers approximately 45 Mbps to each and every plane in its tracked sector – it has a beamwidth... [Read more]

With today’s tragic news about Air France 447, the subject of aircraft connectivity takes on a new and urgent meaning for the aviation industry. Given that the last contact with the Airbus A330 was via automatic condition monitors, connectivity now has dual interest – aircraft and passenger. The upcoming WAEA Single Focus Workshop, Tuesday, July 14 – Wednesday, July 15 2009 in Everett, Washington, USA has the passenger focus, and the WAEA noted in their communication; “This special two-day educational event will feature keynote and breakout sessions... [Read more]

Last week we introduced many of you to the Roku streaming TV device with an eye toward a short article about streaming video to the aircraft from satcom-based and terrestrial delivery sources. We told you that we would cover that subject this week – not! That’s next week because we wanted to get a bit more information about the existing delivery of streamed inflight entertainment onboard aircraft via the traditional IFE hardware. First we asked Rich Salter, Lumexis techno-guru, to tell us about the formats used today and he told us: “Most airlines are... [Read more]

This story grew out of proportions as we developed it and so we will run it in a couple parts to follow in succeeding issues of IFExpress. Our streaming video tale began innocently enough with our disgust with conventional TV and the “Paid Programming” channels on our home DirecTV service. We, and many others in the US, have also signed up for Netflix mailed DVD service as well for about ten bucks a month. A commercial-free movie helped us suffer thru our lower cost, DirecTV subscription. We learned thru our tech guru that Netflix subscribers could watch streamed... [Read more]

We asked an IFExpress field reporter to check out the newly installed Row44 Broadband installation and performance on Alaska Airlines during a recent trip. He sent along this report: “I boarded Alaska Flight 664 from SEA to DFW, a 3-3.5 hour flight. The tail number of our aircraft was #644. Let me also note that the flight outlasted my laptop battery and that there was no inseat power… a situation that may inhibit some users facing high price points. In my case, Alaska offered the service at a very respectable $5 (introductory fee) and this probably increased... [Read more]

No, this is not an April Fools Story… but it is out there! There is a subliminal reason why we did a pet story this week — see below — however, the event did start us thinking out of the box and this is what the Hot Topic is all about this week. We don’t know how pets are regarded in other countries, but in the US, dogs and cats are the new children. In fact, a 2007 study of US pet owner households showed that almost 50% considered the animals as a “family member.” As a $41 Billion dollar business, someone was bound to start an airline exclusively... [Read more]

Today’s Hot Topic should really be titled “Bluetooth v3.0″ but, to put the ongoing hardware convergence into perspective, we need to look at one concept driving PEDS, or in other terminology, Mobile Phones and Mobile Internet Devices (MID’s). And don’t worry, we have Inflight Entertainment impact…but we will get to that later. The CS-LL concept can be described as the next movement in the mobile chip world who’s goal is to increase the “gozinta’s” and “gozouta’s” of mobile devices. As we rely... [Read more]

Despite the economic downturn, The IMS Company is continuing a pattern of strategic growth initiatives with this week’s announcement that IMS has acquired Flight Deck Resources, a leading provider of turnkey Electronic Flight Bag solutions. As IMS chairman Joe Renton points out, this strategic acquisition enables IMS to “sell products and services to our customers not only in the back of the aircraft but also in the front of the aircraft.” This extends IMS’ product reach from passenger services to flight crew services, an area in which IMS has previously offered... [Read more]

Something is going on in Seattle. Sure, Boeing stock has dropped some 5% because of recent announcements of reduced earnings, reduced commercial aircraft production as a result of sluggish demand, and finally, proposed reductions in military spending by the Obama administration. The airline traffic decline will not rebound as easily as in the past. Further, when the turnaround does occur, oil prices and the cost of money will not aid the planemakers rebound. Internet blogs have their way with the Chicago aerospace manufacturers’ management while Airbus seems to plow... [Read more]

Wow, where did the time go at AIX in Hamburg last week? The three days at the Hamburg Messe showcased a lot of technology in the inflight entertainment and connectivity world. Presently, almost 8000 visitors attended and the final tally will not be made for a week or so. This puts the show on par with visitor numbers last year and for challenging airline times like these, the show sponsors should breathe a sigh of relief. We do think the overall airline participation was reduced (airline employees per airline visiting AIX) but if that is true, it would be because of the... [Read more]

Our stalwart party of trade show journalists have been busily snapping photos while they seek out the “hot scoop” in Hamburg. In between long days slogging across the show floor and their early evenings turning in to regenerate energy for the next day (Editor’s note: Yeah right, hello… bar photos?) they managed to find time to upload a few of their photos for your viewing pleasure. If you’d like to see just a tiny slice of all there is to see at AIX, head on over to our photo gallery hosted on Flickr.  Read More →

I bet you expected us to write about the Airline Interiors Expo in Hamburg didn’t you? Ok, you’d be partially correct — we are going to touch on that subject. That’s not our big news though. The big news — for us anyway — is that we’re launching a redesigned website and e-mail newsletter as part of our coverage of AIX 2009. This redesign is intended to be much more user friendly for you the reader, while at the same time providing us with the flexibility to post news and other information much more frequently. The new software underlying... [Read more]

We heard from a few companies about what they will be showing at the Aircraft Interiors Conference in Hamburg Germany, March 31 thru April 2. See the details. From an IFE perspective, you should go to this show! Not only is it the “other” IFE showcase, it is the biggest airplane interiors show in the world. There are lots of cheap fares, cheap hotel rooms and the show is free to visit and walk thru the displays. With respect to the show itself, we will be covering it in a new way so keep checking our new web presence… ’nuff said.   While there,... [Read more]

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!  Read More →

Our crack staff of IFE sleuths are about to jet their way halfway around the world in order to bring you the latest developments in the IFE industry. That’s right, we’re going to Hamburg! While we’re there we’ll be posting regular updates to our AIX Blog so be sure to check back regularly to get the inside scoop on what we find at the Aircraft Interiors Exp 2009.  Read More →

The bottom line is… we will keep this issue short because the story is still developing. This past week, Utah courts delivered a ruling on the Digecor vs. eDigital lawsuit which is far more complicated than it appears on the surface and deserves more space than we can devote to it here, therefore, we will provide links to dig deeper – you can Google the rest. The eDigital V.S. Digecor court battle has an initial ruling and the summary resulting Court Ruling. While we have not had time to dig deep on this subject we wanted our readers to get the story first. Among... [Read more]

  Readers: This issue is far from IFE and we apologize for that fact. We did think you might find this story interesting, not because of the intrigue involved, but rather its’ “suspicions confirmed” flavor. Admittedly, we have never worked on a story like this before, however, many of us wonder what is happening inside the Seattle planemaker, Boeing. Late delivery schedules have never been tolerated in the past and relatively recent moves; buyouts and management shuffles may have taken their toll. Our story starts with one dedicated Boeing employee who worked... [Read more]

Without much fanfare last month, Row44 and Alaska Airlines repeated connectivity history with hopes of changing your flight experience. They installed an external antenna, a satcom receiver/transmitter, and a couple of Wireless Access points (see image) and started flying their airborne Internet in an operational trial in a B737. Of course, the event we are talking about is the first US commercial airline install of some five years of work for the small California company know as Row44. Alaska Airlines saw the potential of airborne connectivity so we sought out Chase Craig... [Read more]

You are correct, pictured here is IFE’s Geoff Underwood (Inflight Peripherals) at a reception meeting HRH Elizabeth II after receiving the Queen’s Award for achievement in export or innovation. In Geoff’s words, “It doesn’t matter how big or small the company is… I guess it would be the same as a “Presidents Award” in the USA.  It’s the highest award that a company can get in the UK, and only a handful get it each year, so its pretty cool for our little company to receive this coveted award.” Right you are Mr. Underwood and we note that... [Read more]