Situation – Email between IFEXpress and Lumexis’s Rich Salter:

IFExpress: We just read about something called “Second Screen” and we understand it is a Lumexis development? What’s the story?

Rich Salter: We had a big coming out for it at AIX, and will feature it at APEX too… In fact it is a 2013 Finalists for the Passenger Choice Awards at APEX this year.

IFExpress: I guess we just missed it….

In an effort to catch up on Lumexis’s Second Screen (™) concept, we contacted Rich Salter and asked about the product, but first, a few words about what it is. The concept is so simple, you are probably using a similar concept at home while watching TV or reading this email. Sitting in front of almost any work or household screen (TV, computer, whatever) you probably have another connectivity device for checking mail, tweets, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. In other words you are multitasking, because you can. The beauty of the Lumexis Second Screen feature is easy to see. Along with using the installed IFE system like you normally would, a flier could be using an iPhone (or tablet, etc) checking weather, flight progress, just as if they were on the ground. We conjecture that what really happens when a flier screen multitasks during a flight, they pay less attention to the flight itself and a lot more attention to what they are watching on the IFE or doing on their PED’s because there is simply more going on while doing so. Gone are those ‘I wonder when this trip will be over’ moments. We like this idea a lot and it should be quite a boon to fliers… if the airline has a second screen feature installed.

Interestingly, there are two types of Second Screen content solutions proposed according to Lumexis – one is a display of traditional IFE content from the embedded IFE system, sent over wireless, to the passenger device, the other is new Second Screen content for passenger devices that is being developed for the at-home market. A combination of this one-two punch is what makes the second solution so effective. Below are some are some further Lumexis Second Screen content/operational possibilities that go beyond the two aforementioned information/entertainment categories:

• Remote control of the main screen

• Moving maps

• Food & drink menu/ordering

• Duty Free offerings/ordering

• 30+ Lumexis games

• Passenger surveys

• eBooks

• Five day weather forecast for airline destinations

• Daily news

• Daily comics

• In-seat yoga and meditation

• Airline informational webpages

• Advertising (changing daily)

• Custom downloadable apps

We understand that the offering can include information about movie scenes showing, Tweets from other passengers about the shown movie, and even advertising of products shown on the IFE movies. The beauty of the Lumexis solution is that it keeps content on the main screen at the same time, offering PEDs more on their second screen. Further, by not streaming movie videos to the PED, Lumexis Second Screen preserves precious PED power. Further, we suspect that the Wi-Fi WAP’s may be able to serve more passengers with lower data bandwidth requirements under the Second Screen no streaming situation. Lastly, the the passenger does not need to download a plug-in or app, their solution is browser based, it runs on html – nice!

Jon Norris, Lumexis VP Sales, told IFExpress, “We are very excited about this new development and we have not seen other IFE vendors offer such a feature and we will be gauging the feedback at the APEX event for airline interest.”

Be sure to check out second screen applications at APEX as we expect more to come.