Endicott, New York | September 29, 2015– For the first time, airline passengers will be able to enjoy movies fresh from theaters streamed to their personal devices on flights equipped with BAE Systems’ IntelliCabin® wireless In-Flight Entertainment (IFE) solution. IntelliCabin is the first IFE solution in the commercial airline industry to secure approval from a major Hollywood studio for the streaming of early window content — movies recently out of theaters, but not yet available for home viewing — to both passenger- and airline-owned devices.
“The IntelliCabin solution is the premium wireless IFE system on the market today,” said Jared Shoemaker, director of cabin systems at BAE Systems. “We are now able to provide airlines with the extraordinary capability to stream early window content to passengers’ devices. This is a game changer for our industry and will enable airlines to provide exceptional travel experiences to all its passengers.”
With this approval, the early window content will be streamed from a server locally installed on the aircraft. For approval to share such content, the IntelliCabin IFE system successfully satisfied rigorous data security requirements to safeguard copyrights.
BAE Systems’ wireless IFE solution is one component of the company’s IntelliCabin suite of products, which provides an integrated, scalable approach to aircraft cabin management through in-seat power, in-flight entertainment, and integrated cabin systems.
Los Angeles, CA | December 15, 2014– Global Eagle Entertainment Inc. (Nasdaq: ENT), a worldwide leading provider of content, connectivity and digital media solutions to airlines, today announced that it has been selected by WestJet to manage their inflight content services. WestJet Airlines is a Canadian low-cost carrier that provides scheduled and charter air service to 91 destinations in Canada, the United States, Europe, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean.
WestJet is currently overhauling its existing inflight entertainment (IFE) system and replacing it with a wireless IFE solution. Global Eagle Entertainment (GEE) will provide a broad array of content that can be accessed by passengers using their personal electronic devices or tablets rented from the airline. Through this long-term agreement, GEE will provide a selection of current movies and television, including a wide catalog of engaging and entertaining programs, beginning in Q1 2015.
“We’re delighted to enable the deployment of content for WestJet’s wireless IFE program,” commented Amir Samnani, SVP of Content Services at GEE. “This is a first for the airline as it has traditionally managed content services in-house. In this strategic relationship with WestJet, we are looking forward to supporting the airline with our extensive expertise in technical services and delivery of wireless content and solutions.”
Singapore | April 30, 2014– Portuguese operator Hi Fly has selected Flight Focus to provide a wireless in-flight entertainment system for its fleet of Airbus A330-200/300 aircraft. The airline and wet lease provider is taking a lead position among European charter operators and will offer wireless in-flight entertainment across their entire fleet. The solution will enhance the passenger experience by providing entertainment, information and shopping through the passengers’ own personal electronic device whilst opening up new ancillary revenue opportunities for Hi Fly’s airline customers.
“Hi Fly has extensively analyzed several wireless IFE options available on the market today and has chosen Flight Focus’ leading technology. We strongly believe that onboard wireless technology is the future and we are delighted to work with Flight Focus on this project.” said Paulo Mirpuri, Hi Fly President and CEO.
“Hi Fly is always committed to deliver the best IFE System to its customers.
Wireless Streaming In-flight Entertainment from Flight Focus will enable us to enhance our passengers’ experience with the use of their personal electronic devices in our A330s.” said António Penim, IFE Manager at Hi Fly.
The Flight Focus solution that Hi Fly will deploy is comprised of Flight Focus’s own FFP Server, NGA Wireless Access Points, and Cabin Control Panel. Together the Wireless Access Points and FFP Server have been proven capable of streaming video to every passenger simultaneously on both narrow and wide-body aircraft. The Cabin Control Panel can load content from physical media at speeds up to 400 Megabytes per second.
“We are excited to be working with Hi Fly. They are an innovative operator that is focused on providing the best possible service to their customers today and in the future. As passengers increasingly expect to use their own devices for IFE, onboard shopping, and communications, the Flight Focus system will have plenty of capacity to meet Hi Fly’s needs.” said David Borkowski, VP of Business Development at Flight Focus.
Seattle, WA | April 7, 2014– Skycast Solutions today announced plans to develop a Windows-based portable inflight entertainment (IFE) solution to meet the increasing demand for sophisticated tablet-based IFE solutions. Skycast and Microsoft are currently engaged in development work.
The solution will feature the powerful Dell Venue 8 Pro tablet with a quad-core Intel® Atom™ processor and a lightweight security shell/stand and together weigh less than one pound while delivering high resolution video on an 8″ screen. In addition to a wide array of entertainment offerings such as early-window movies, new releases, TV, music, digital magazines and an “XBOX Game Center,” the device will include robust capabilities including:
- Seamless Wi-Fi access (where applicable)
- ‘One touch’ integration with onboard server streaming content
- Simultaneous multiple screen operation
- Intra-cabin gaming/networking
- Usage analytics reporting
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM) capabilities
“We are thrilled to team with Microsoft on our next portable IFE offering,” said Bill Boyer, CEO of Skycast Solutions. “The Windows tablet with the Skycast IFE solution will meet the increasing demand from airlines to get more capability out of their supplied portables.”
The portable IFE offering will provide passengers an engaging and cutting-edge tablet-based experience with a wide array of entertainment options, travel resources, and productivity tools. For airlines, the offering will provide a highly branded platform and new avenue to enhance the customer experience and drive ancillary revenue.
“This new IFE solution continues Microsoft’s passion for innovation in the airline space and we are pleased to team with Skycast on this program,” said Greg Jones, director of Hospitality and Travel solutions at Microsoft. “Airlines are seeing the many advantages of Windows devices, whether supporting flight crews with productivity tools or offering a cutting edge entertainment experience for their passengers.”
Seattle-based Ratio, a leading multi-screen agency with deep Windows 8 expertise, has been engaged to create an industry-leading and user-friendly tablet experience.
'Future–proofing' the IFE installation means providing an onboard network with sufficient bandwidth that the airline will never have to tear apart their airplane to re-wire to install upgrades. Fiber-to-the-Seat™ provides a fiber optics network running at a gigabit per second – High-definition video is only the beginning – who knows what the hot, killer apps will be 10-20 years from now?!”