Thales Tops is trumps at APEX

French avionics and in-flight entertainment and connectivity (IFEC) products manufacturer Thales gave a whole new meaning to ‘lending a hand’ at the recent Airline Passenger Experience (APEX) show in Long Beach California.

The OEM had a host of ‘gesture control’ technology on display, whereby users simply wave their hands to navigate through screens.

Aimed at premium class passengers in the first instance, the idea is that travellers can remain lying down while watching a movie, or avoid touching screens with their fingers.

The company’s hands-off technology attracted a great deal of attention. This was quite a feat considering that APEX saw almost 2,500 attendees stream through its doors – its highest gate yet.

Exhibitors came from a wide range of disciplines, including education, encoding, entertainment, flight crew services, in-flight entertainment and internet connectivity systems, in-flight lounge products and services, interactive content, IT, marketing, media, motion pictures, in-flight magazine publication, retail, seating, short subject production and distribution, software development and wireless communication.

Thales’s cool room was seriously chilled. With both gesture and eye control screens on display, plus surround sound audio and wireless IFE, the manufacturer’s booth was constantly packed.

The OEM also had plenty of good news for Middle East carriers. For example, Saudia Airlines opted for the firm as a key partner in its long-term transformation project. Saudia signed an agreement to install the Thales TopSeries system on 54 of its aircraft. This is a major step forward for both companies that introduces the award winning TopSeries AVANT system, TopConnect suite of connectivity and brand new TopSeries AVA, which adds wireless content streaming to the airline’s future aircraft. AVANT is an android-based, next-generation system that combines the strengths of earlier platforms with advanced technologies, such as high definition video, solid-state drives and faster processors, to deliver an enhanced passenger experience.

This latest arrangement between Thales and Saudia covers A320, A330, B777 and 787 fleets. In addition, the airline is soon to deploy a new passenger interface that offers new capabilities and what it describes as “stunning visuals”. The coordination and mutual commitment this project entails makes Thales one of the airline’s key strategic partners in a long-term transformation of its brand.

Tarik Sindi, Saudia’s vice president marketing and product management, said: “Passengers across the region are fast becoming extremely discerning and demand excellence from their in-cabin experience. Our goal is to take our place among the new breed of major global carriers for passenger satisfaction and customer service.”

Thales in-flight entertainment business CEO Alan Pellegrini added: “In-flight entertainment systems can have a direct and lasting impact on passenger perceptions of an airline’s service excellence, and carriers such as Saudia are now leading the world in designing and deploying the very best cabin experience.”

Thales also used APEX to announce that South American LAN Airlines would outfit one of its Airbus A320 aircraft with the newly-introduced TopSeries AVA system, starting in December this year.

The latest evolution in Thales’ TopSeries product line allows passengers and crews to use their own wirelessly-enabled portable electronic devices to access rich content and applications resident on the Thales TopSeries head-end server via wireless access points in the cabin.

Additionally, early in 2013, LAN will start trialling Thales’s GateSync system – a secure ground network for aircraft communications and content loading. GateSync uses Wi-Fi (802.11), WiMax (802.16) and GSM connectivity frequencies and can stream content and data across all three networks simultaneously or individually.

Android users will be able to download an app plug-in once in the air in order to access this content. However, for digital rights management reasons, passengers using iPads will be directed to download an app before they get on the aircraft. This will give them full access to the rich content, including movies. Those without the app will have web-browser access to a lot of the on-board content, but not encrypted movies.

Another huge story that will impact the IFEC industry worldwide was the Thales announcement that it is to partner with Honeywell to bring next-generation broadband connectivity to the global aviation market.

The two aerospace companies are working to integrate the Honeywell-developed GX aviation Ka-band satcom avionics and antenna systems, operating over Inmarsat’s GX aviation Ka-band satellite constellation with Thales’s cabin network solutions.

The combined offering will give commercial airline operators and their passengers four times the in-flight connectivity bandwidth available today, enabling real-time TV channel viewing and social media connectivity, as well as virtual office functionality for video conferencing.

Jack Jacobs, vice president, Honeywell said: “Inmarsat’s GX aviation Ka-band satellite connectivity system is a game changer. We expect it will provide airlines with significantly larger bandwidth at a cost-effective price.”

Stuart Dunleavy, Thales Avionics, VP of media and connectivity added: “GX aviation satellite constellation provides huge volumes of bandwidth and is optimised for mobile platforms, which guarantee seamless satellite handover and global systems management.”

He said that a fully certified and reliable end-to-end solution for both passenger communications (cellular, internet, intranet, streaming media) and e-enabled aircraft solutions (aircraft health monitoring, two-way messaging and progressive monitoring) would be critical to meeting both airlines’ and passengers’ expectations.

DigEcor, the manufacturer of the low-cost portable IFE solution digEplayer L7 and L10, also introduced several new future products and developments, ranging from wireless streaming, a ruggedised Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 with spare battery attached, to an embedded IFE solution using its existing products.

The wireless streaming system is expected to roll out soon, although no launch partners have been announced to date.

After initial trials of a partially embedded IFE solution with Gulf Air, the national carrier of the kingdom of Bahrain, digEcor is ready to move into the fully embedded market. The firm is working with undisclosed partners to bring the solution to market, and says the system will be available in the first quarter of 2013.

Gulf Air also announced that it had selected AMP International (AMP), a division of the Post Modern Group, to provide content management services for its fleet. Under the terms of the agreement, AMP will be responsible for programming for all systems from January 2013.

Amir Samnani, Post Modern Group’s COO said: “Our employees in our Middle East offices, as well as in Irvine, California, look forward to assisting the Gulf Air team in the continuous development of their in-flight passenger entertainment experience.”

Gulf Air operates a fleet of 39 aircraft to 48 cities across 30 countries from Europe to Asia and boasts the largest network in the Middle East. The company recently became the first airline in the world to offer full on-board connectivity to passengers. Meanwhile, Alawar Entertainment announced that its games are now available on Panasonic Avionics Corporation’s in-flight entertainment systems

Airlines operating select aircraft with compatible in-flight entertainment systems from Panasonic can now offer titles such as Treasures of Montezuma, Farm Frenzy and Hotel Mogul, from Alawar’s broad portfolio of industry‐leading games.

Dmitry Tarasov, Alawar Entertainment game channels development director said: “Cooperation with Panasonic and FlightBet/Ensemble Media gives us an opportunity to enter a new market niche for casual games – in-flight entertainment.”

Dubai-based Spitfire Creative Content had an interesting proposition for the industry. A pioneer of “augmented reality” (AR) in marketing, co-founder Brian Shepherd has worked in the media industry since 1985. He has several prestigious jobs under his belt, such as Madonna’s “Frozen” video, the highly acclaimed Guinness adverts and a Hollywood coup with “Gladiator”, which earned an Oscar for best visual effects.

AR is the latest industry buzzword. It is a live, direct or indirect, view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data – like that used in moving maps. As a result, the technology functions by enhancing your current perception of reality, as opposed to virtual reality, which replaces the real world with a simulated one. Augmentation is conventionally in real-time and in context with environmental elements, such as using your mobile phone to scan over a print advert to call up a web page.

Spitfire recently worked with Emirates to create an in-flight video using both computer-generated imagery and actors. Shepherd said: “Making a unique film such as this involved several challenges. The one that really stood out was how to cover such a wide range of subjects – information, communication and entertainment in a very short space of time. The solution was to combine a small amount of live action with a lot of animation.”

From show-stopping projects from the likes of Thales and Panasonic, to smaller niche ideas, APEX is the best place to see what will shape the industry for the coming year. It is also the venue for the coveted annual Passenger Choice Awards.

Airlines and service providers receive awards in 14 categories, ranging from best in-flight video to best ground experience, with Virgin America and Emirates receiving the top accolades this time: Best Overall Passenger Experience (up to 50 IFE equipped in fleet) and Best Overall Passenger Experience (over 50 IFE equipped in fleet) respectively.

Next year’s show will be in Anaheim. Given it wowed visitors with gesture control this year, we have to wonder what Thales has up its sleeve for 2013?