There are a lot of IFE Conference happenings in the next month and a half and we wanted to point out a couple of them that we know and love – APEX in Anaheim CA, September 15 – 18, which we discussed last issue, and the Aircraft Interiors Passenger Experience Conference (and World Travel Catering & Onboard Services) in Seattle, Washington, October 15 and 16 at the Washington Convention Center in downtown Seattle. If you were there or read about last year’s Passenger Experience Conference, they did something that was quite novel. The show planners held a 3-for-1 feature on the first day of the 3 day show. That means that the first day, includes speakers in the morning, breakout sessions in the afternoon, and a reception/networking event hosted on the floor of the exhibition hall with all the cast of booth characters in the evening. If you only go to one day, be sure it’s Tuesday! See below:

Aircraft Interiors Expo Americas
Day 1 Tuesday, October 14, – 9:00 AM till Evening

Morning
The morning will explore future trends, before splitting into three concurrent breakouts in the afternoon, drilling into the detail of evolving the cabin experience. The day is timed to allow movement between sessions. Morning plenary Sessions will be looking at tomorrows world in air travel: the users guide to getting there, before asking can you generate a demand for your brand?
Introduction – Vern Alg, Moderator – Introduction to the opening plenary session exploring Tomorrow’s World in Air Travel: The Users’ Guide to Getting There. This session will feature three perspectives from design; travel and technology, on the future for consumer experiences and what that will mean for air travel.
The Paradox of the Chocolate Chip Cookie – Jeremy White, Head of Transport Design, Seymour Powell – “A presentation about the importance of the unimportant.”
How the Connected Traveller And Their Technology Will Define The Future Of Travel – Adam Luchsinger, Global Accounts Business Manager, Google- The level of connectivity in today’s world is a driving force for the evolution of the traveller. Google will share a perspective on three major directional shifts that we are seeing in the travel industry, driven by this increasingly connected traveler. They will explore trends in consumer behavior as well as the corresponding technological developments that will define travel product and marketing efforts in the future. Learn how to stay relevant and prosper in this evolving landscape and use technology as your biggest asset.
Q & A

Designing a Passenger Experience – Mark Krolick – Managing Director of Marketing and Product Development, UAL.
Panel Discussion: Changing the Focus. What Happens she We Start Designing the Experience rather than the Object?

Afternoon
The afternoon will feature 3 Breakout Very Complete Sessions:
1. Inflight Entertainment and Connectivity: Making better Connections with your Passengers for Great Onboard Experiences and Revenue Improvements
2. The Cabin: Backseat Economics and Innovation
3. The Cabin: Planning Cabin Modifications and Mitigating the Risk
Note: You can download the detailed program for the morning and afternoon.

Night
Industry Networking Party/Exhibition Preview
Taking place on the exhibition floor following the Passenger Experience Conference. This is the ideal opportunity to network with industry peers and other professionals in a relaxed yet professional environment.  This event will also double up as an exhibition preview with the exhibition formally opening the following morning on the 15th October.

The following two days (Oct 15 & 16) will feature the show floor exhibit visits so don’t miss that.

APEX

Wanna know whats going to be shown 2 weeks from now at APEX in the way of new technology? We got this from an IFE manufacturers website and it probably represents the the state of the technical economy at the conference: “At …, 3D is already here. In the near future, we expect to see Ultra HD, OLED, flexible displays that wrap the interior, gesture-controlled graphical user interfaces (GUIs), eye–tracking technology, and touch surfaces in IFE systems. Ultimately, our vision is to offer ubiquitous connectivity so that IFE systems and passenger devices can exchange data and be on the edge of the cloud, while in the clouds.” Beyond this, we expect a lot of Smart Device (PED) interfacing, Wi-Fi and possible Bluetooth connectivity , and a lot of streaming content solutions like Pandora et al.
And yes, with Apple pushing NFC in the iPhone 6, expect to see more ways to pay!

MORE
Looks like APEX will return to Hong Kong, 3 – 4 November, 2014 with 2 full days of educational events.

Heard about Flight Tonight? If you need a flight at a moments notice, this may be your website. The folks at Hopper who sponsors a Hotel Tonight for iOs, Android, and Windows App now have your immediate answer to a quickly needed flight. Flight Tonight takes you through the screens for choosing a departure, flight duration/length, and price. You can purchase the flights through airlines, Flight Tonight, and 3rd part booking agents like Travelocity. Flight Tonight App.

Shawn Raybell is now Vice President, Sales & Marketing at Armstrong Aerospace – 425 358-7333 or Shawn.Raybell@armstrongaerospace.com.

Did you notice that one of the 13 major sponsors for the 2014 APEX EXPO in Anaheim is AT&T? Now, why would they be involved… perhaps a connectivity announcement? If you remember they were in the air telephony game 10 years ago, but now they may be about to roll-out airborne LTE or even announce the beginnings of an acquisition. Stay tuned!

Remember our article on Aviation Scouts at www.aviationgate.com after last year’s AIX in Hamburg? They now have 100 aircraft ship-sets of airplane seats for your perusal. They are also touting a LinkedIn share function to show them to the boss and yes, you can still “spin” the pictures around to see the backsides of the seats! Nice.

Finally, you might watch out for some changes in the Thales Marketing Team – Looks to us the LiveTV crew will be involved!

Publishers Note:
“You probably know that this past July was the 60th anniversary of the Boeing B707 and you probably had no reason to celebrate that fact. But if you were around when the first prototype was given a “barrel roll” over the Seattle’s 1955 Seafair and Gold Cup Hydroplane Races held on Lake Washington on August 6, 1955, you probably thought Bill Allen, company President, Tex Johnson the Chief Test Pilot, and Ed Well, the Chief Engineer were just plain crazy… or just plane crazy. As it turns out the birth of the B707 was just the beginning of the story for the rest of us to come along in it’s contrails. And as history would have it, the story has been told about the “birth” of this important milestone in aviation history many times and by many authors and newspeople. The reason we are featuring it here in IFExpress is to tip off our readers to a terrific recounting of the planes birth by a true Renaissance Man, Robert (Bob) Bogash. Bob is a man who always looks for the truth in everything and in his own words, “I was a Boeing Engineer, and worked in Customer Support, Tech Pubs, Manufacturing, Flight Test, Sales, Marketing, Purchasing, Quality Control – plus a few other things I can’t even remember.” Here is his accounting of the story and we would be remiss in not telling you that this website account has gotten well over 1 million “reads” in the past few months!” – Terry Wiseman, Publisher

Farnborough was a big success for Airbus, who beat out Boeing almost 2 to 1, at least based on aircraft sales dollars there – $75.22B and $40.2B respectively, sort of! At show’s end, Airbus had some 496 aircraft orders/commitments from the show and Boeing chalked 201, but there were some deals in the works. There were 121 A330neo commitments, and 317 A320neo orders that included the 3,000th order of that family. Yes, Airbus beat Boeing “at the show” but a decision by Emirates in June to cancel 70 A350’s ($21B) and another decision in July to accept a Boeing deal for 150 B777x’s, with the right to purchase 50 more somewhat changes the picture. Since Emirates also cancelled the A350 orders, they might actually exercise the 50 B777 option. So where do they stand? While not technically a ‘Farnborough deal’, Emirates is purchasing 115 B777-9Xs and 35 B777-8Xs, the deal value adds over $70B to Boeing’s larder. Industry estimates say a big deal like this is only worth $31B, but if you add that to the $40.2B the show netted Boeing, it looks as if they are at least the July winner! (By the way, the Qatar 777X order announced at the show is indeed a firm order, so we are told.)

To help understand, we contacted Boeing and got this response: “There were no surprises on our end at the air show. We know that Airbus stockpiles orders specifically for the air show, while Boeing announces orders throughout the year. While the air show orders totals you list are correct, I should point out that Boeing went into the air show with more net orders for the year (Boeing 649, Airbus 290)—and we left the air show with more net orders for the year (Boeing 783, Airbus 648). The air show is simply one week out of 52″.

After reading Boeing’s Current Market Outlook we wondered how big the total IFE market over the next 20 years? Lets have some fun.

Below is the projected (20 years) airplane market in the study. We then made a seat number estimate at the average number of seats on each option. Finally, we picked an average seat IFE price of $5000 per seat with the assumption that each and every seat received IFE. Obviously our assumptions will not happen in real life; however, we wanted to get a feel for the cumulative market size, and based on a yearly IFE sale today of $2 – $3 Billion dollars, our dollar number estimate is roughly three quarters what is currently spent per year but we thought our readers would find the process interesting… and feel free to plug in your own numbers.

IFE 20-Year Market Growth Chart

If you look at the total seats from the aforementioned chart and multiply each seat by our $5,000 IFE estimate, you will get $36,208,250,000 as a total value of 20 years worth of seats. Now, divide by 20 years and the yearly total is $1.81B per year estimated average.

Lets stop for a minute and talk about the $5000 per seat for IFE. First, it is not realistic to assign IFE for every seat on the plane, on every plane, and the same value for every class of seat…we know that. And $5000 is probably good for a coach seat but we have heard numbers or upper class seats of at least $20,000… and we haven’t even mentioned inflation. Further, the aircraft seat numbers were arrived as an average number of seats per plane in the categories outlined in the Current Market Outlook. Our goal was not to give readers a NUMBER that reflects the some value that is slightly real today, but rather, a “water cooler” talkable number and a system to get there. Of course, real data clouds the result but we wanted a “number’ and thought this way, you could enter your own data and installation predictions/prices and show your boss how smart you are!

We should also note that the “number” does not include connectivity and new product developments and derivatives. Nor do we consider technology developments on the ground. If you look at IFE today and the consumer demand for IFE or connectivity, our numbers 20 years ago would seem way out of place today.

Then, for 20 years of IFE sales we average about $1.81B per year! We know the price per seat is going to go up, we know that there will be a lot of wireless connectivity and in-seat power and there will be many aircraft with no IFE. We also know an “average” seat count is not correct, and on and on. So don’t send us letters about how our assumptions are out of whack… we know it, we just wanted to get an average ‘feel’ of 20 years worth of value of the IFE business!

Along with the growth of the IFEC market value there is the growth in the design of IFEC, and the change in the content used. That is to say, in twenty years, IFEC will be different, and the content used in the new hardware will be different (i.e., 3D, 4D, “n”D, hi res., and so on). Make no mistake, it will change, not necessarily because the IFEC vendors want lighter weight hardware, not necessarily because airlines want different, higher quality content, but because passenger wants and needs will change just like they have over the last 10 years. If you think airlines are looking at HD video display because they want it, you might think again. It is the passenger home entertainment quality that keeps the demand for better movie quality. Today, if they are not satisfied with the screen, out comes the laptop, iPad, and in many cases, the personal telephone handset. What we are saying is, today it is the passenger that drives the IFEC requirements. If you need more proof, consider inflight Wi-Fi connectivity. Home Internet speeds are the driver that keeps the folks like Gogo, Panasonic and others awake at night. You climb aboard the most sophisticated flying machine ever invented and bring along a handheld device that has the fastest, lowest power consuming device/processor ever invented, and you just naturally expect the rest of the experience to be sterling because at your end, you have paid your dues. Guess what, connectivity to aircraft has not grown with the airplane technology, it came 90 years afterward so expecting it to develop at the same rate is unreasonable… it just is.

In reality, the IFE answer in the future could either be full-up everything, or nothing… based on what you believe passengers will bring aboard. In reality the answer may be both, and everything in between. If the past is any indicator, the aforementioned statement is probably going to be true. Want more proof, a reader sent us a link to one of the best airline position articles we have seen. As airlines become “hybrids” the world of aviation continues to change. It’s about Southwest, but we think you will get the message.

Next week we will have a look into the future with two if the best in IFE… Rich Salter and Michael Childers… don’t miss it.

For you history buffs, we supply a link and note we received in from a reader: “On Saturday, July 12, I led a walk-around tour at the Museum of Flight – covering the history of Boeing jetliners. My thrust was perhaps a little different from that which some may have expected. For me, the success of Boeing’s jet transport line was not the designing, and building, and flying of the 707 – it was something else – a subtle but profound attitude change inside Boeing. And the critical event was not the kick-off order for the 707 from Pan Am, but rather the later order from American Airlines – Bob Bogash.” The 707 is 60

As expected, the recent events in Malaysia have brought about a lot of connectivity solutions and we have been inundated with them. In the spirit of airline support for these initiatives, we bring a couple of them your way.

The tragic disappearance of flight MH370 is still very present in all of our minds. In an initiative to improve the handling of similar situations in the future the United Nations’ ITU (International Telecommunication Union) and the Government of Malaysia hosed an expert dialogue on May 26-27 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Panasonic Avionics was invited to participate in this event, contribute to their technical expertise, and present FlightLinkTM, a fully integrated aircraft communication, tracking and weather information solution. FlightLink has been provided free of charge to airlines from its launch in 2004. It offers Iridium Communications for cockpit voice, text and operational data as well as real-time fleet monitoring and simultaneously tracks all Panasonic equipped aircraft – 24/7/365 around the globe. Aircraft tracking services range from positioning reporting at no more than 5-minute intervals to live flight data streaming. Additionally, Panasonic Weather Solutions delivers real-time weather analytics and fleet monitoring by communicating data from TAMDAR weather sensors installed on over 300 aircraft. This is the only global satellite network dedicated to aeronautical connectivity, and with it, Panasonic enables passengers, crew and aircrafts to stay in touch with the ground throughout their flights. FMI contact brian.bardwell@panasonic.com

Along the same lines as the above story, we got an input this week from Teledyne Controls that caught our eye.

Speaking at the Expert Dialogue on Real-time Monitoring of Flight Data in Malaysia on Monday 26th May, William Cecil, Director of Business Development of Teledyne Controls presented a case for providing virtually unlimited real time flight data monitoring by using existing aircraft systems and better ‘connecting the dots’: “It could be very quickly possible to enable black box data streaming in flight for many existing aircraft without installing any new technology,” he says. “By simply connecting a broadband flight data IP router on board with the broadband satcom systems that airlines are increasingly installing for the primary purpose of Internet access for passengers, we believe this is possible, and are planning to work with partner airlines and OEMs to prove this concept.”Broadband flight data IP router capability already exists on an increasing number of aircraft. Teledyne Controls’ own Wireless GroundLink® (WGL Comm+) unit that has this routing capability is being rapidly adopted by airlines to improve post flight analysis for flight safety. By way of context, Wireless GroundLink® systems are currently being installed on over two thirds of new delivery Airbus A330 and A380, and Boeing 747-8 and 777 aircraft and this adoption rate is increasing. “Connecting WGL Comm+ units to broadband satcom systems will enable airlines to realise real time flight data monitoring in a very short space of time,” adds Mr. Masood Hassan, President of Teledyne Controls, “and in doing so will resolve one of the last major headaches that airlines face – understanding the causes of an aviation emergency within moments of an event taking place.”

In another tracking endeavor, the improved SD Flight Tracker now has integrated position reports generated by Swift Broadband and features richer mapping capability using Google Maps. Satcom Direct’s Flight Tracker is a state-of-the-art global mapping solution that graphically displays precise fleet coordinates. Its ability to track aircraft globally has been enhanced with an additional source of position data. Satcom Direct has exclusive access to this data from Inmarsat and blends it with position data received from other sources including the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), NavCanada and Satcom Direct’s own FlightDeck Freedom datalink to provide the most comprehensive flight tracking service available. “SwiftBroadband is updated every two minutes as compared to other sources. For some aircraft, this may be their only reliable source of position data. It allows our customers to track their aircraft worldwide and ensure they know its status at all times,” said Scott Hamilton, Satcom Direct chief strategy officer. “SwiftBroadband position reports are available globally whereas some sources, including the FAA and NavCanada, are only available regionally.” SD Flight Tracker also has been upgraded to use Google Maps which provides advanced mapping capabilities including street level maps which are useful for helicopter tracking. The SD Flight Tracker enhancements provide for a fast and intuitive user interface, and it can now be accessed on any mobile device. Previously, it was only available on PCs. Follow the link for more information regarding Satcom Direct.

You might have not heard about the IFEC.2014, but if not, here’s the story: More than ten local airlines from China have confirmed their participation at the 7th China IFEC Summit. The airlines confirmed are: Air China, China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines, Hainan Airlines, JuneYao Airlines, Lucky Air, Beijing Capital Airlines, Shandong Airlines, Shenzhen Airlines and etc. Based on your cutting edge technology, new innovations and professional experience in in-flight entertainment and connectivity, can you help these airlines solve the following problems? How innovative inflight services improve a passengers’ experience?

• How can airlines simplify the pricing models for in-flight connectivity?
• How to secure the data for inflight media streaming?
• How can airlines use in-flight media for marketing purposes?
• How can you provide IFEC services that run on passengers’ mobile devices?

You can join the China IFEC Summit 2014 here.

Global Eagle Entertainment Inc. (Nasdaq: ENT) announced today that it has been selected by Indonesia’s flag carrier, Garuda Indonesia, to provide inflight entertainment (IFE) content to its passengers. Global Eagle will provide Garuda Indonesia with movies from studios in Hollywood, the Middle East, Europe and Asia. In addition, the content package will feature television programming, music, streaming radio, games and original productions that include destination films, safety films and entertainment guides. Content will be provided via the audio video on-demand (AVOD) seat-back systems on their wide-bodied aircraft.

We got a note from John Courtright who makes some good points about US taxation of frequent flier miles. He wrote: “I know the link below does not have a “clean” IFE or air-to-ground (ATG) reference but I bet many of your IFExpress readers would like to know that the IRS is looking to tax your frequent flyer miles as income. How would taxing frequent flyer miles affect airline choice? The IFEC industry bases most, if not all, of its value equation on the premise that the better, more up-to-date IFEC experience is a major contributing factor to a passenger buy decisions and passenger loyalty. But studies have shown that flyers first select an airline on a.) price and b.) schedule, and then other factors such as loyalty programs and the perception of better IFEC service come in further down the selection criteria list. If the IRS is successful in getting airline miles taxed, will this make IFEC an even more important factor in carrier selection? I think that’s a very good question? My opinion: I think IFEC’s importance will rise if miles are taxed. But I’d like to see an economic sensitivity model on this topic.” (IRS Sets Sights on Frequent Flyer Miles, Hotel Points)

Lastly, perhaps you read about Boeing’s Chief Exec, James McNerneys comments in the Seattle Times on next-gen planes. Having worked there in the past we were a bit surprised at this step-back from the problems at hand: “Boeing chief executive Jim McNerney said Wednesday the jetmaker won’t shoot for the moon in the foreseeable future by launching risky, game-changing new airplanes like the 707 in the 1950s or the 787 Dreamliner 10 years ago.” Meaning the B787 was a little too advanced for the existing engineering and manufacturing expertise there? The article went on – “All of us have gotten religion,” said McNerney, speaking to Wall Street analysts at the annual investor conference in the Fairmont Olympic hotel in Seattle. “Every 25 years a big moonshot … and then produce a 707 or a 787 — that’s the wrong way to pursue this business. The more-for-less world will not let you pursue moonshots.” After pointing out the above logic (or mis-logic) reader, Bob Bogash, wrote us, “I wonder what Mr. McNerney thinks of the stuff Apple has popped on the world the past 10 years or so?” (Meaning products like the iPod, the iPad, the iPhone, just to name a few.) He went on; “Bill Allen and all the great Boeing pioneers must be spinning in their graves.”

Remember BAE Systems? They were the folks that introduced a new in-seat power system at a previous IFE show. Well, that device has seen further development with boxes that supply 4 USB 5 VDC and 4 110 AC, 2 Amp, outlets… sort of a smart power junction box. But this story is not about inseat power, it’s about their new IntelliCabin, next-gen cabin control system that is the cabin crew interface to in-seat power, IFE, LED lighting, dim-able windows, seat diagnostics, and cabin management. Jared Schoemaker, BAE Systems Director of Cabin Systems told IFExpress that he felt that IntelliCabin was not only their future vision for the cabin system, it integrates with Samsung devices! More on that in a minute. The IntelliCabin solution provides, power to passengers, delivers enhanced passenger experience via tablets, integrates the latest lighting technology, centralizes and simplifies crew control through mobile devices, improves diagnostics (implements prognostics – we need to find out more about this), and reduces acquisition and operating costs. If the IntelliCabin product sounds familiar, it was the BEA System folks who brought about the Attendant Control Panel that is the heart of the interior lighting control for the Boeing B737 Sky Interior. Now, back to Samsung – BAE Systems has an MOU with none other than Samsung… whose name is cropping up everywhere in the aviation – now space – business. BAE plans to integrate the Samsung device world into the IntellicCabin architecture with their latest devices (tablets, phones, whatever), and they will integrate that model into crew management. Lastly, they plan to integrate these efforts into BAE systems global support network. We will keep you posted as this all develops. The BAE system demonstrated operation with a 12.2” Galaxy NotePro, a Galaxy Tab 10.1”, a Galaxy Note 3, a Galaxy S5 and the great Gear 2 Smartwatch.

A recent trade pub (FierceWirelessTech) noted that industry associations are taking the side of inflight telephony in the US: “The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA), the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) and the Information Technology Industry Council (ITIC) said in a joint FCC filing that they support the commission’s proposal to remove what they called ‘outdated regulatory barriers for access to in-flight mobile connectivity.’ The commission’s plan has the potential to make in-flight mobile connectivity (IMC), “including data, text, and even voice connectivity,” available to consumers aboard airborne aircraft, the three trade groups noted. Despite public outcry over the FCC proposal, the groups contend that various stakeholders, “including IMC providers, off-board communications link providers, airlines and aircraft manufacturers, and industry associations, are generally supportive of enabling IMC in the United States.” Get ready to write your Congressperson.

We have been following Geoff Underwood’s Cashless Retail System (CRS) and we understand a trial is in work. When we asked him about an update, he cautiously responded; “We have been talking to Airlines about the system and are expecting a trial within the next month or so. That’s as much as I have today!”

While the Gogo – AT&T saga continues, we wanted to give our readers another couple inputs on the debate. Firstly, Gogo has countered the AT&T announcement with their own view of next-gen solution for US connectivity that should make competitors a bit nervous – read it here.

Next, we discovered another article about one of the Big Dogs in the telephony business and it got us thinking: It seems Ericsson has been testing moving cellular connectivity in an article referring to cellular testing on/for trains: ”First up is Ericsson, the world’s largest network equipment provider, which said it is testing two new features–Dynamic On/Off and Dual Connectivity–that are being considered for LTE Release 12. Ericsson said the functions are both geared toward lowering the power requirements of wireless network base stations. Ericsson said Dynamic On/Off is a feature that mutes a base station when it is not transmitting data. The benefit is two-fold: inter-cell interference reduction and the possibility for the base station to go in a lower power consumption state,” Ericsson said. As for Dual Connectivity, Ericsson said the technology would allow a user to receive data from two base stations simultaneously rather than only from one. “In some cases, users will be able to download a file twice as fast as today due to the dual connectivity to the LTE network. Because users are served faster, base stations are more often inactive and thus can go more frequently in a lower power consumption state,” the company said. Then we discovered how they were testing… in a jet plane! Draw your own conclusions but it looks like they could build AT&T’s hardware.

Ever heard of the Lockheed Model 10 Electra? One reader, Robert Bogash is the kind of a guy who does. His retired-Boeing-other-job is with Seattle’s Museum of Flight at Boeing Field. Bob’s vision was to get one of the twin prop workhorses into the museum and his website has documented the story of doing it… in pictures. Very nice restoration, Bob is a genius with vision. Check it out here – you won’t be disappointed!

And speaking of Oldies But Goodies – The Dash 80 rolled out 60 years ago last week – May 14, 1954. The Seattle P.I. had a nice photo spread.