July 2011 Archives

Before I start getting accused of having some sort of an agenda - does that girl never stop singing the praises of in-flight high-speed Internet, (ahem)? - I want to tell you about technology that makes Inmarsat's SwiftBroadband (SBB) service faster.

The solution comes from Satcom1, a small firm headquartered on the grounds of Le Bourget airport in France. During the Paris air show, I visited with Satcom1, which demonstrated how its AvioIP software can aggregate two channels of Inmarsat's X-Stream streaming class of service (which delivers quality-of-service speeds of up to 280 kbps) to offer average speeds of 550 kbps, ensuring that video on the web, for instance, can load faster than the reading to provide a better fluidity of service.

Coupled with acceleration technology that can further improve the perception of the speed by using low-level caching and compression, the AvioIP solution is poised to be a hit in the business aviation community.

But what about airlines? Many carriers have fitted their aircraft - either through linefit or retrofit - with Inmarsat's regular SBB service, which does a good job supporting in-flight voice, texting and email everywhere except the poles. SBB also supports in-flight Wi-Fi, but is not a truly broadband solution (as perceived by the regular user), as its max speed is 432 kbps/channel. Aggregating four channels of up to 432kbps (allowed as of October this year) to the aircraft through one antenna can glean more bandwidth (click on the chart to see how Inmarsat is able to share the love right now).

Well, ultimately Satcom1 envisions tailoring its solution for such airlines to improve the speed of SBB service. Meanwhile, the company is already conducting testing for Vision's connected in-flight entertainment system, which will be installed on ATR Series 600 aircraft, and is poised to be brought to the Sukhoi SuperJet.

Below is my interview with Satcom1 CTO - consultancy and support manager Jean-Francois Gault, followed by a video showing the aggregation of 2 x X-Stream using the AvioIP software.

Satcom1 AvioIP aggregation of SBB Xstream by Satcom1

(Updated to include comment from TAM)

TAM made big news this week with the announcement that it will offer OnAir in-flight connectivity on 27 Airbus A350-900 XWBs, 10 A330s, and 12 Boeing 777-300ERs in addition to its A320 family of jets. The Brazilian carrier deserves kudos for recognizing the importance of offering in-flight connectivity to passengers.
 
But it should be pointed out that TAM's decision was likely colored by the fact that OnAir's Inmarsat SwiftBroadband (SBB)-supported mobile and Internet solutions are linefit offerable across Airbus' portfolio of aircraft.

OnAir is partly owned by Airbus, and for all intents and purposes represents the European airframer's in-house connectivity solution. So if you're an Airbus customer that wants to offer connectivity, your easiest point of entry is to take delivery of aircraft already fitted with the necessary kit. I wonder why OnAir rarely highlights this fact in the meat of its announcements.

In any case, Airbus has made one exception, and that is on the A350. The new design widebody aircraft is the only Airbus type that offers airlines the option of an alternative linefit connectivity solution.

A350 customers can pick between the following pairings: Panasonic Avionics in-flight entertainment with Panasonic's own connectivity platform and Ku-band-based mobile and Internet solutions; Panasonic IFE with Airbus' ALNA v2 connectivity platform plus OnAir's mobile and Internet solutions using two channels of SBB; or Thales IFE with Airbus ALNA v2 plus OnAir mobile and Internet with two channels of SBB.
 
So, in essence, at present A350 customers can pick between two connectivity hardware providers - Panasonic or Airbus. Panasonic's solution supports high-speed Internet, while Airbus' solution provides speeds of up to 432 kbps. TAM chose the latter.
 
Had TAM been in the position - or so inclined - to make its A350 connectivity decision at a later date, it would have had other options from which to choose.
 
Airbus is eyeing Inmarsat's superfast Ka-band-based Global Xpress for the A350 once the service becomes available (around 2014/2015 timeframe).

Critically, however, by the end of March 2011 (when Airbus convened an A350 catalog focus group), the airframer admitted to be studying three different IFE and Ka connectivity pairings and each will see the airframer play a critical role in the connectivity.

Airbus is studying: Panasonic IFE with the Airbus ALNA v2 connectivity platform and OnAir Mobile and Internet via Ka; Thales IFE with ALNA v2 connectivity platform and OnAir Mobile and Internet via Ka; and Thales IFE with a Thales/ALNA v2 connectivity platform plus OnAir Mobile and Thales Internet via Ka.

That's a very long-winded way of saying that Airbus has become an in-flight connectivity force to be reckoned with (even more so now that Boeing has stopped linefitting connectivity to its widebody aircraft.)

Meanwhile, TAM says it chose OnAir because of the services the Airbus/SITA JV offers and the timeframe in which the firm can offer those services.

Quote from TAM's Fabio Lopes:

"OnAir technology will be linefit on TAM's A350s only. For all the other aircraft types, it will be retrofitted. The retrofit will be done in TAM's MRO center in Brazil. There are several reasons why TAM chose OnAir, all of which are to do with the services OnAir offers and the ability to equip the aircraft in the specified timeframe. The company is also the only one to have all the relevant regulatory approvals from the Brazilian authorities, and roaming agreements with South American telecoms companies."

Those beers you order in flight? They are not charged in real time to your credit card. Nor are the sandwiches or the snack packs or the movies or the duty free you order from the flight attendants' trolley or via the in-flight entertainment system. Those transactions occur when the aircraft reaches the gate. After you've deplaned. And long after law enforcement can catch up with you.

Airlines don't like to discuss it, but collectively they lose some $50 million per year from in flight credit card theft (that's what they lose after the per-transaction warranty kicks in). Why? Because real-time credit card transactions are not regularly occurring in flight...yet.

Sure, any airline that offers in-flight connectivity to passengers is diligently working to ensure that goods purchased via credit card in the air are authorized in the air. Real-time in-flight credit card transactions are just around the corner.

But what do airlines do now to mitigate fraud, or "shrinkage" as retail stores refer to it? Virgin America, which does a lot of transacting through its in-flight entertainment systems - and offers Gogo's in-flight connectivity solution! - has "got some pretty creative things in place to minimize fraud", says Virgin America director of engineering Ken Bieler.

The carrier insists that it doesn't retain information about passengers (i.e. it doesn't record dud credit card numbers, which I find hard to believe), but it "has some security measures in place that identifies weird behavior", says Bieler.

I'm going to go out on a not-too-distant limb here and suggest that Virgin America is keeping a close eye on the amount of stuff you by in flight - how many beers you buy, how many sandwiches you shovel down your throat, how much premium content you order via the IFE. If you're acting "erratic" with your spending, I'm willing to bet that's a red flag.

If you're hoping to score SkyMall items via Virgin America's IFE with a dud credit card, you're out of luck. SkyMall transactions occur after landing "so there is no fraud on the shopping", says Virgin America.

Once credit cards can be processed in real time during flight, airlines will have the ability to offer an array of high end goods to passengers. Cars? Jewelery? Couture? The sky is the limit. In-flight gambling also becomes an option at that point.

Meanwhile, if you're a true criminal, you already know you can get away with stealing food/liquor/stuff in flight (i.e. I'm not telling you anything you don't already know). If you're not already a criminal, I do NOT suggest you turn to a life of in flight crime. They'll catch up with you eventually. :-)

(Photo above from S-ly's Flickr photo stream)

Do you envisage a day when every passenger on board an aircraft will be able to access wireless in-flight entertainment? A day when you and your fellow travelers won't need in-seat monitors to watch a wide variety of early release movies because they are being streamed to your fully powered tablets instead? Yeah, me too. But there are still technological hurdles to overcome before everybody can play.

Thales and more recently Gogo admitted that it is not yet feasible to simultaneously provide a planeload of passengers with a seamless, flawless streaming video experience, but they believe that the limitations of wireless IFE can ultimately be overcome.

That's clearly good enough for some low-frills carriers, including AirAsia X, which has teamed with Tune Box to bring a pay-for-service wireless IFE solution to passengers (the carrier will leverage its electronic flight bag (EFB) technology for the service). Tune Box has not specified how many passengers can be supported at one time, but says the service is "scalable" and the technology they've got "gets around" bandwidth issues and "should be sufficient". 

Meanwhile, AirAsia X, and frankly any medium- or long-haul carrier looking to offer wireless IFE (and/or in-flight connectivity), needs to give serious consideration to installing next gen in-seat power systems throughout their cabins for passengers to juice up their devices. Some in-seat power systems flying on aircraft today simply can't handle heavy usage, and that's a problem is you're a carrier bent on offering wireless IFE on a 14 hour flight.

Here are just some of the reasons why embedded IFE is not dead yet...
  

Ever since Southwest Airlines announced its merger with AirTran Airways, executives at Southwest and executives at Gogo have gotten to know each other better.

AirTran's entire fleet is fitted with Gogo's air-to-ground airborne Internet solution, while Southwest is in the process of equipping its aircraft with Row 44's Ku-band connectivity offering so naturally Southwest is now talking to Gogo.

Could Southwest be lured to the other side, convinced to join its merger partner in offering a consistent Gogo service instead of Row 44? If we knew the terms of Southwest's contract with Row 44, we'd be better placed to answer that question....obviously.

But one of the oft-stated reasons why Southwest opted for Row 44 in the first place is that the California-based company let the low-cost carrier put its stamp on the in-flight connectivity service. Gogo, on the other hand, pushed its brand out in front (and with good reason - it was financing a lot of installs for its airline partners).

Now Gogo has altered its strategy.
 
In announcing its multi-media platform - a fancy term for a fancy walled garden - Gogo executive vice president and chief marketing officer Ash ElDifrawi said:

"We heard loud and clear from our airline partners that they want this site and this platform to be ownable and brandable for them so they can create a differentiated experience that's aligned with their brand. So a clear deliverable was to give them what I call a canvass that they can have a differentiated experience that aligns with their brand, their messaging their customer experience."

But surely the move is about Gogo's fiscal and operational happiness as well, especially since the company is eyeing an eventual IPO. Certainly, in moving to a multi-media platform, the company stands to gain revenue share from movies and shopping, and become less reliant on the fragile pay-for-service Wi-Fi model, which it currently augments with various promos and advertising and, oh yes, sweet monthly deals covering Gogo service on thousands of business jets.

Additionally, by offering more non web-based functionality, Gogo is giving its bandwidth a breather. Perhaps it reasons (like many before it, including Inmarsat, interestingly) that if you give passengers a managed experience - a movie, a bit of social media, some shopping and planning options - many won't need unfettered access to the Internet.

Anyhoooooo, back to Southwest. I've got to believe that Gogo is in the process of designing a snazzy looking walled garden for Southwest as I write this blog, one that slaps Southwest's logo all over the shop.

But what else might Gogo have up its sleeve? Let's opine here for a second. Gogo is testing an AeroSat Ku-band antenna at its Illinois headquarters. Yours truly assumes that the Ku antenna is aimed at supporting overseas connectivity for one or more of Gogo's international airline partners, like American and Delta. But could Gogo be doing an intensive study with the aim of finally luring Ku (big bandwidth) lover Southwest? Stranger things have happened. (Incidentally, Row 44 launched its service with an AeroSat antenna, before moving to the Tecom/Qest antenna it now uses.)

OKAY, God help us that's enough stream of consciousness for one night!

Gogo, formerly known as Aircell, is quietly testing a Ku-band antenna at its Itasca, Illinois headquarters.

I saw the AeroSat-manufactured antenna, hooked up to all sorts of test equipment, when I took a little tour of said headquarters yesterday following a press event during which Gogo unveiled its new multi-media platform and wireless IFE solution.

Obviously, I asked Gogo execs what the devil they were doing with the antenna and why it was sitting alongside a big heaping radome looking oh-so-ready to be installed on an aircraft.

It turns out that the antenna will be mounted to an aircraft soon, but Gogo refused to say anything more about it, and did not allow me to snap a photo. Booooo. :-) The antenna looked a little something like the one you see to the right.

Now then, as anybody who has been following this industry knows, a Ku-band antenna is the only thing that can support in-flight high-speed Internet on overseas flights right now.

Certainly, when Inmarsat's Ka-band Global Xpress service launches around 2015, airlines will have the option of Ka. But Inmarsat's current SwiftBroadband (SBB) aeronautical solution does not make the cut; it is simply not high speed no matter which was you slice it. Yes, you can do clever things with accelerator technology to make SBB faster. We'll talk about that later. But even Aircell - which offers SBB-based connectivity to the business aviation market - will tell you that SBB-supported Wi-Fi does not make sense for a plane-load of passengers.

Key quote from Aircell CEO Michael Small:

"We do [offer] it on business aviation side. It's a great product and it's the best global solution, but at 432 kbps, it's not enough bandwidth to service a commercial aircraft except for very low-speed applications like expensive phone calls or text messages. On a business jet, it's usually one or two users so you can share 432 kbps one or two ways but you can't share it 120 ways, which is what you often need to do on a commercial jet." 

Of course, that hasn't stopped a number of airlines from offering SBB-based Wi-Fi to passengers, as the kit comes linefit on a number of Airbus types. I wonder if, on reflection, they think it was worth switching the Wi-Fi on.

But clearly I'm digressing. The headline for this blog is - Gogo is testing a Ku-band antenna so let's address that. Aircell rarely mentions Ku. It did admit in a recent press release that it will offer a Ku connectivity service to its airline partners IF they want to be able to offer service overseas before global Ka is available in 2015. In light of Aircell's Ku testing, it would seem that at least one partner is interested. But who?

Gogo has racked up several customers for its air-to-ground (ATG) service in the United States including domestic fleet-wide customer Delta Air Lines and  American Airlines, which is ramping up installs. Gogo also counts United and US Airways as customers for a portion of their fleets, though I get the strong sense that US Airways is giving careful consideration to extending equipage to other aircraft (praise the lord!). United, meanwhile, has been testing Row 44's Ku system on a 757 testbed (in addition to offer Gogo on its transcon 757s) and has yet to make a decision on whether it wants ATG or Ku for its domestic operations or none of the above! [Note, the Continental portion of United-Continental has picked ViaSat/LiveTV's domestic Ka for implementation next year.]

Any of these international carriers could take the plunge and test Aircell's Ku-band service on overseas flights, although I tend to see Delta as the most forward-thinking of the bunch.

In any case, with Lufthansa now offering Ku-band connectivity over the Atlantic through a partnership with Panasonic, US operators have further incentive to step up their game. And it would seem that Aircell is in a sweet spot to make that happen.  

During the Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg, Thales showcased its new 'Avant' Android-based in-flight entertainment system and award-winning touchscreen passenger unit;explained Avant's seat-centric qualities and talked about its ease of maintenance.

Angry Birds is just the tip of the iceberg....

"The AURA IFE system is absolutely state of the art - if the year is 2004."

So said a commenter to my April 22 blog about Intelligent Avionics, which at that time was allegedly working closely with Dell and Microsoft to bring the reality of a PC-in-the-seat to travelers under the name AURA.

Perhaps Intelligent Avionics took heed of such remarks because the firm yesterday announced a partnership with Factorydesign "to design in-seat hardware" and with Reactive "to develop the AURA user interface" for AURA.

And where does Dell fit in? It doesn't.

Intelligent Avionics business-development VP in the Americas, Rob Britton says:

"As we finalize the production spec for the seat units - what we're doing right now - the actual hardware components are shifting a bit, and at this point we have not announced the choice suppliers for the devices. 

"Thanks to our David Withers, a very talented Aussie (ex-Qantas and ex-Boeing) who wears two hats, as our VP Asia Pacific and VP Engineering, we've strengthened the design and architecture from prototype to the production version, which will deliver greater system reliability, and more capability in the seat unit (faster, more powerful processor, for example), and more.  It's getting to be one strong package.

"Software is firm, so to your second question, yes, Microsoft Windows 7 Embedded is still the OS, for lots of compelling reasons - flexibility, stability, huge development community, and more. On the sales front, things are clacking along. We're getting traction, which is really gratifying."

You may also recall that Intelligent Avionics had originally set a weight target "for everything" of around 1.5kg per passenger place for a typical 300-seat economy deployment. I asked Britton if this was still the target, and he said:  "We're staying close to the targets; the seat units have crept up a little, but we're still ultra lightweight."

So let me get this straight. The AURA system as displayed less than three months ago at the Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg is no longer being offered. Dell is no longer in the picture. The weight target has crept up. And darn near everything discussed in this video is now inaccurate?

Golly gee, maybe I should announce a new IFE system. I'll draw it on a chalk board and call it Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. Um diddle diddle diddle um diddle ay.

I've been travelling so much lately that I hardly know what time zone I'm in, but that hasn't stopped me from gathering in-flight entertainment and connectivity (IFEC) intell along the way. At times like these, when I've filled my coffers to max capacity, there is only one solution - an IFEC news and rumour roundup of course! And away we go with a stream of consciousness that includes a bit of both.

Despite saying it planned to imminently release a Service Bulletin to address the issue of Wi-Fi interference with Honeywell Phase 3 display units, Boeing has still not tabled its guidance. The US airframer says it is "still working on it". But what will the Service Bulletin entail? One deep source tells RWG that it appears Boeing is going to "ultimately do what everybody else is doing in retrofit" and that is to disallow transmitting devices in the cockpit. Well now, that would throw a wrench in some airlines' plans for real-time electronic flight bag (EFB) applications, wouldn't it? A recent ABC News report, in which Boeing's Dave Carson is quoted as saying it just takes a stray cell phone signal "in the right place at the right time" to create serious technological havoc in the cockpit, gives some idea as to the airframer's feelings on the matter. Of course, Carson must be aware of some real-world examples, such as what occurred during STC for installation of Gogo in-flight Internet on American Airlines' Boeing 737NG aircraft. Outside the United States, Emirates - which offers AeroMobile's in-flight mobile connectivity solution on many of its aircraft - already has placards in its cockpits. I hear it took about four high-powered phones in super close proximity to the Emirates displays for blanking to occur, but anything outside the cockpit was deemed okay. Emirates has not confirmed this information.

With questions about the susceptibility of avionics to interference still lingering you'd think that the equipage of in-flight connectivity on the world fleet was slowing. Think again. Even though Boeing is not linefitting connectivity to its aircraft, the airframer intends to participate in post-delivery modifications (which begs the question - do the Honeywell issue and well-timed ABC report offer a convenient 'out' for Boeing, i.e. the airframer can point to that as its reason for not providing tedious connectivity linefits, which might further hold up deliveries?)

Thales, which has been contracted to provide an Inmarsat SwiftBroadband-supported IFEC system for Qatar's Boeing 787s, originally hoped connectivity would be linefit to the twinjets. As did Qatar, whose management adviser Stephen Vella said in 2010 that Boeing was providing support to Qatar and Thales "to do what perhaps nobody has asked to do before the end of 2011", and that is to make the Thales connectivity solution linefit offerable on the 787. In a recent interview with RWG, however, Thales IFE chief Alan Pellegrini revealed the latest plan is for Boeing to provide some provisioning on a linefit basis, and then Thales will work with Boeing's Commercial Aviation Services for post-delivery mods as soon as the aircraft delivers. "The post-delivery mod includes installation of a second satellite communication radio and antenna; the installation of our on board Wi-Fi and mobile telephone system to support cell phone access," says Pellegrini. "From a linefit perspective, the fact that we'll be doing this with a post-delivery mod means that all the engineering work will have been done so even if an airline cannot get the system linefit from Boeing, we'll already have an engineering package and arrangement for post-delivery. It's less than ideal from an airline perspective, but better than the alternative of not having an option so this will be good precedent-setting and groundbreaking in getting the system installed on the aircraft." The first retrofits are expected to occur in early 2012 after first deliveries to Qatar. Generation three in-flight entertainment hardware will initially be on board the Qatar 787s. Thales' fourth generation Android-based AVANT IFEC system, of which Qatar is an announced customer for the 787, is expected to make its debut on the aircraft around 2013. However, AVANT is not yet offerable on the 787. "It's a challenge for Boeing to cut it in [to production] more so than Airbus to start with a clean sheet of paper. I suspect Boeing will want to be more assertive or aggressive with new IFEC technology once they get their feet on the ground with deliveries of the 787, recognizing that the product will be going into new aircraft but also via retrofit and on other Airbus platforms, including the A380 in 2012 so I think here will be market pressure to get the latest generation systems on Boeing aircraft," says Pellegrini.

Check out the older-looking Thales IFE on LOT's 787, with an all-too-cosy nine-abreast configuration.

Due to the 787 delay Panasonic Avionics is also seeing its older in-flight entertainment equipment being installed on the twinjet (the eX2 monitors have been flying on 777s for a couple of years) instead of its latest smart monitor integrated into slimline seats. However, United-Continental appears poised to receive the smart monitors early in the game. Once things start flowing more smoothly, the interiors in the cabin are expected to catch up, says Panasonic Avionics CEO Paul Margis. "I think right now it is a bit stalled because they [Boeing] are so focused on making sure the airplane itself is flying [in revenue service]. The connectivity is a tough one because of the antennas and all of that, but the interior will be the fasted thing moving because it's not that hard and airlines are pushing to be competitive."

That competitiveness is driving innovation in non-embedded in-flight entertainment solutions as well. Panasonic showed off a preliminary version of its wireless solution at the recent Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg. Thales, meanwhile, thinks wireless content distribution is an interesting concept and "I can say that we're certainly looking into it", says Pellegrini. The company should have a pretty firm position on the matter by the time that the big APEX show rolls around in September. As previously reported, Aircell, LiveTV, Siemens/Altran and Lufthansa Systems are among the other wireless IFE players readying for business.

These wireless IFE initiatives seem all the more important now that airlines are eyeing Apple iPad and Samsung Galaxy Tab-based portable IFE solutions for their cabins. However, the path for turning iPads into IFE, in particular, has been fraught with challenges. Apple's ecosystem is set up for the consumer space, and they have rules on how you manage content. Is Apple pleased with how BlueBox has handled the Jetstar arrangement? I'm hearing no, which makes me wonder - would it make more sense for Apple to reach some sort of formal agreement with one of the big manufacturers, like Panasonic or Thales? Don't be surprised if they do.