12 Inflight Entertainment Products, Facts and Figures

Panasonic, with B/E Aerospace, has created the Waterfront business-class seat, debuted at Aircraft Interiors Expo 2016. The seat connects the passenger experience from receiving the boarding pass to collecting luggage after landing. The seat features a 24-in. ultra-high-definition display screen with edge-to-edge coverage and wireless charging ports. Panasonic also offered the X series systems, which include a suite of monitors, handsets and servers. The eXW, from the series, consists of five line replaceable units (LRU), resulting in shorter installation time and reduced weight on the aircraft. 

Panasonic builds on an open platform architecture and is supplying developers with software development kits with a rack simulator, example code, developer tools and an application programming interface to further application building. In August 2016, SR Technics, an MRO service provider, completed cabin modifications for six Airbus A320s in Edelweiss’s fleet and installed the Panasonic’s wireless IFE systems.

JetBlue is restyling 130 of its Airbus A320 aircraft with a fully connected in-seat experience. The IFE system is supported by Thales STV+, built on the Google Android platform.

JetBlue's upgrades include a 10.1-in. touch screen, over 100 DirecTV channels, more than 300 movies, power in every seat and personal device pairing capabilities. The restyling will begin in 2017 with a targeted completion date of 2019. The announcement was originally made in 2014.

Inmarsat is working to launch the inflight broadband service GX Aviation. The service is powered by GX Constellation, which consists of three Global Express (GX) I-5 Ka-band satellites launched in 2013-15 and expected to have a commercial life of 15 years. And it is connected through Inmarsat’s hardware JetWave, a terminal including dual receivers that reduces interruption and downtime for users and increased performance above 40 deg. Lat. (which includes most European cities, Chicago and Montreal).

With this technology, passengers will be able to interact with their personal devices like they would on ground, sending real-time social media updates and video-conferencing while in flight. Honeywell Hardware received final certification for the GX Aviation inflight Wi-Fi in August.

In the white paper “Sky High Connectivity” published in September 2016, satellite operator SES states that “more than 50% of airline passengers say the availability and quality of Wi-Fi is increasingly a factor in their airline choice” and 72% of passengers would prefer to watch a movie or TV rather than sleep on a long-haul flight. Regarding security, SES says two-way communications between pilots and ground crews can “elevate the need for firewalls between cockpit data platforms and passenger internet access.” 

The electronic flight bag, aircraft interfaces and connectivity systems operate on isolated networks with firewalls and encryption technologies to increase security on operational data. According to Aviation Week's Aerospace Daily and Defense, SES and Thales have signed two agreements to offer connectivity over the Americas at “optic fiber-like” speed. The fully dedicated Thales FlytLive will launch in mid-2017 on SES’s two K_a-band satellites and a third is scheduled for launch in 2020.

JPA Design, headquartered in London, provides insight, strategy, product design and product realization for aircraft cabin redesigns, including IFE. After the IFE system is identified, JPA Design will work with the manufacturer for component information, then package those items for functionality (avoiding overheating, for example) and optimal passenger experience. “[IFE] is a serious investment,” says Ben Orson, managing director. “The challenge is to ensure it remains a good solution.” 

Orson says that with more passengers bringing their own devices on board, airlines may try to optimize the experience for those devices, instead of providing touch screens and tablets in the seat. Passengers could also eventually see their windows turn into a giant screen, be offered virtual-reality options on their flight (Qantas tested virtual reality for three months in 2015 for select flights) or experience a seat with vibration and smell enhancers to accompany the entertainment. JPA Design has over 20 aviation clients, including Cathay Pacific, American Airlines, Airbus and Singapore Airlines, in which they completed a Boeing 777-300ER and Airbus A380 premium economy redesign with 13.3-in. HD monitors.

The Rave system from Zodiac, featured on Brussels Airlines, Aer Lingus, Air France, Fly Dubai, Singapore Airlines and over 40 others, offers high-definition displays weighing less than 3 lb. per seat and using under 12 watts of energy per seat. The display system has two LRUs and can be removed from its dock and replaced with another by crew members. 

The Rave broadband system is supported by Honeywell’s Global Xpress K_a-band broadband system with download speeds up to 50 mbps and upload speeds up to 4.7 MB/s (megabytes per second). The systems are intended to last 6-10 years, typically the duration in between aircraft upgrades.

Brussels Airlines recently included updates to its IFE systems in its business and economy classes. The IFE screens include 15.3-in. and 9-in. Rave touch screens from Zodiac Aerospace, as well as Niceview, a 3-D virtual moving map system developed by Lufthansa. Niceview includes virtual camera views from the aircraft, a "lifelike" view through the cockpit and cabin windows, news, information and flight data such as wind and ground speeds.