Recently in In-flight Entertainment/Communications Category

Do you remember when airborne antenna maker AeroSat said it was developing an in-flight Internet system based on an aircraft-to-aircraft relay communications system?

Well, AeroSat is not the only firm that is interested.

EMS, which provides darn near everything to an aircraft but the kitchen sink (see below) and, notably, is supplying the Ku-band antenna for Panasonic's Ku-band satellite-based eXConnect system, is "very interested in mesh networks", says EMS vice-president of strategy and innovation Gary Hebb.

Key quote:

"They are excellent for the military. But you've got to install a lot of them before it works. Is one airline enough to support a mesh network or would all [need to participate]?"

Good point!

So does Hebb rule out a mesh network for the commercial space?

Not exactly.

Hebb says EMS is keen to use every tool in the shed to find the most cost efficient way to send/receive data from an aircraft.

"Something that is its own infrastructure is inherently low-cost. I believe it will happen eventually. My grandchildren might enjoy it."

Cheeky monkey alert - how old are you Gary? I'm trying to get a lock on the timeline you're suggesting here...teeheehee.

What's the one thing that Continental Airlines pilots would absolutely love to have on board their aircraft?

Airborne telephony service, the likes of which was previously offered by now-defunct Verizon Airfone!

That's the revelation that Continental engineering project manager Brian Roland made at the recent World Airline Entertainment Association (WAEA) conference and exhibition in Palm Springs.

Airfone in 2006 ended its service on board commercial airline flights. The air-to-ground (ATG) service was featured on over 1,000 aircraft flying in the Americas for Continental, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and US Airways.

"Flight ops want the old voice communications back," said Roland.

As such, in 2007, the carrier inked a deal with Avionica to outfit nine Boeing 737-800 passenger aircraft with the firm's satLINK Iridium system, including antenna, wiring, structural elements and a control panel. The initial installations provide an Iridium phone handset in the cockpit.

In an update this year, IridiumEverywhere.com reported:



Continental must be pretty pleased. The carrier is "putting Iridium on a few of our fleets", revealed Roland at WAEA.

Roland also revealed that Continental "sees a future need to have streaming maintenance data off the aircraft".

But would Continental's Iridium arrangement position the carrier to take advantage of LiveTV's new Iridium-based Kiteline World global in-flight connectivity product?

Not exactly.

Regular Iridium is 2.4 Kbps and $1.50 per minute, which is used for cockpit voice. Iridium Aero Openport operates at 128 Kbps and is supporting Kiteline World.

Continental is, however, in the process of equipping its Boeing domestic fleet with LiveTV's latest generation live television product. And the carrier is set to experiment with LiveTV's ATG-based domestic Kiteline email service on roughly 30 aircraft in the first quarter.

The service will be free.

Who else loves this carrier?

Susanna Ray over at Bloomberg has written a bang-on good piece about how Rockwell Collins is seeking acquisitions.

Key pars (but do read the entire article):

Rockwell Collins Inc., the maker of cockpit instruments and radios, is looking for "bolt-on, tuck- in acquisitions" after generating a record level of operating cash flow, Chief Executive Officer Clay Jones said.

"There's a good pipeline of opportunities out there, and we're definitely looking for those opportunities," Jones said in an interview today, declining to specify which areas the company would target. "We have plenty of capacity."

This got me to thinking. In light of Rockwell Collins' recent comments to me about how it is interested in potentially offering seat-back IFE on single-aisle aircraft, should the company think about broaching Lumexis and/or IMS or others?

Rockwell Collins director of cabin systems marketing Andrew Mohr said the firm's vast experience in providing IFE and connectivity solutions to the business jet market means that there is "a lot of in-house technology that could be very applicable to enhancing either in-seat or overhead [commercial IFE] so we don't have to go with a partner" but he noted that there are "also good partnering opportunities as well".

Lumexis and IMS have some pretty nifty IFE offerings, including the fiber-to-the-screen (FTTS) system and RAVE, respectively, for example. I'm not suggesting for one second that either of them are asking to be bought, ahem.
 
But Rockwell Collins currently only offers drop-down IFE. Is it time for Rockwell Collins to get back into the seat-back IFE game?

In-flight entertainment and connectivity (IFEC) giant Thales has opened a new "Connectivity Suite" in London.

The brand new facility enables Thales to give a first hand experience of the latest airborne connectivity capabilities available from the manufacturer.

For example, Thales can demo its TopFlight satcom and TopConnect solutions, which provide Wi-Fi, VoIP, UMA, PBX and web browsing functions over Inmarsat's SwiftBroadband (SBB) aeronautical service.
 
The suite is designed to be interactive so users can try their own "connected devices" over the Wi-Fi & SBB link.

Word of the new Connectivity Suite comes as Air France has rolled out its new Airbus A380 with Thales IFE. Air France has not, however, elected to offer in-flight connectivity on its aircraft as yet.

Air France-KLM vice-president and general manager, USA Christine Ourmieres recently told me that the group's technology experts are studying what kind of solutions are available but have not made a decision.

Here's a key par from Thales on what Air France does offer on the A380:

Portable in-flight entertainment (IFE) specialist digEcor believes handhelds still have a long shelf life despite the proliferation of personal electronic devices (PEDs) among passengers.

To wit, the firm is working with Chinese partner Lefeel Media Technology to bring to market new 7in and 10in portables, the L7 and L10 respectively, which are thin, sleek and highly durable (pictured). The hardware is so strong that you can even toss a player on the ground without it breaking, according to digEcor.

For more information on the L7 and L10, read the following brochure: Lefeel Brochure.pdf

That portable IFE still has legs in today's PED-laden world must be good news to the Deseret Foundation, the Ensign Peak Foundation and the America Foundation.

Why? Because all three public charities own all the stock in digEcor and "all the revenue from the digEcor line goes to charity", according to company president CEO Brent Wood.

During a press briefing at the recent World Airline Entertainment Association (WAEA) conference and exhibition, Wood revealed that the Deseret Foundation, which promotes healthcare in the greater Salt Lake City area, and the Ensign Peak Foundation, which preserves historical sites, each own a 48% shareholding in digEcor. The America Foundation owns the remaining 4%.

"We continue to operate the companies under their direction - their board of trustees," said Wood.

The gifting of digEcor's ownership to charity came at a time when the firm was in a protracted legal dispute with former partner and rival e.Digital. That case finally saw some level of resolution when a Utah district court recently dismissed with prejudice all of digEcor's remaining claims against e.Digital, and ordered that it recover no damages or injunctive relief.

So I asked digEcor if one had anything to do with the other. "No. DigEcor's non-profit ownership is completely unrelated to any lawsuit," says a digEcor spokesman.

He points out that the Wood family, like many other members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has a long history of philanthropy. Brent Wood is, for example, president of Clear Horizons Academy, a special school for autistic children.

On 7 November Clear Horizons will hold its annual Gala Dinner and Auction to benefit the centre. For more information, call: 801-437-0490.

And, if you'd like a good view of the L7 and L10, check out the following video plus pics:
 

Boeing has far more important things to worry about than deciding what in-flight connectivity it will choose for the 787. Shouldn't it focus on getting the twinjet into the air first? That was the seemingly logical viewpoint expressed by many observers after learning that the airframer has issued a request for information for an Inmarsat SwiftBroadband-supported satcom interface and on-board mobile telephony installation for the 787. But such sentiment is short-sighted.

When Boeing finally delivers its first 787 in the fourth quarter of 2010, robust in-flight connectivity will already be offered on at least a couple of thousand aircraft, including some Northwest Airlines McDonnell Douglas DC-9s now operated by merger partner Delta Air Lines (I'm reminded of my very first blog post). Boeing could hardly lay claim to having the most state-of-the-art cabin in the market if the 787 doesn't have an in-flight connectivity solution akin to that which is offered on 40-year old aircraft. Just imagine the headlines: "I'm sitting on Boeing's new Dreamliner and can't even send a tweet!"

That Boeing has waited so long to issue an RFI for a 787 connectivity solution is understandable. The airframer was badly burned by its own failed foray into airborne internet, Connexion by Boeing, which was closed at the end of 2006. There is also little doubt that Boeing brainpower has been preoccupied of late. But with the issuance of its RFI, the airframer appears to be finally waking up from its connectivity coma. That's not just smart. It's necessary.

My above comment, which is running in this week's Flight International magazine, describes only one of the myriad reasons why Boeing needs to think seriously about connectivity for the 787 (there are, as you know, opportunities to create operational efficiencies and generate ancillary revenue through real-time credit card validation, for instance).

If you ask OnAir chief executive CEO Benoit Debains, however, he'll tell you that all of these things are secondary to what is truly important - cockpit communications.

Key quote:

"It would not surprise me that Boeing will conclude as Airbus that SwiftBroadband is the basic option they want to offer. The reason is that I think the people know that eventually they will need Swiftbroadband for the cockpit. Passenger connectivity is nice to have but it's not critical. The cockpit communication is critical."

Inmarsat's head of marketing, aeronautical Lars Ringertz adds:

"At the moment, Classic services are used for the cockpit. Currently, we allow two channels of SwiftBroadband to the aircraft, but as of 2013, we will allow four channels [which would support] two to the cockpit and two to the cabin."

So RWG, what you're saying is that the Boeing RFI has a whole other side to it, which involves the cockpit?

Correctamundo my friend.

Things that make you go hmmmm... 

Earlier this year, US technology firm Ambit Corp filed a lawsuit against Delta Air Lines and Aircell claiming patent infringement regarding the provision of Internet access onboard aircraft.

I debated whether to report on this event and ultimately decided to write this erudite paragraph, ahem:

Marsha, I mean Aircell, Aircell, Aircell. With all the news about Aircell, you might be wondering - what's up with Ambit's lawsuit against Aircell? Whose lawsuit? Ambit of course! If you want more details, I can dredge them up for ya. But, from what I hear, folks are not giving too much credence to this suit. Yeah, yeah, I know. Famous last words, right? Aircell says it does not comment on pending legislation. But I'm going to hazard a guess that Aircell did it's homework on this one.

Whether the suit has merit or not is beside the point right now. Why is that RWG?

Firstly, the legal action is still in play. Ambit president and co-founder Robert Crowley confirmed that much for me this morning. He declined further comment.
 
Secondly, I'm hearing that at least one airframer, Bombardier, is holding off on offering Aircell's air-to-ground (ATG)-based high-speed Internet system on its business aircraft until the case is settled.
 
As I reported in Flight magazine, two Learjet 60XRs equipped with Aircell's SwiftBroadband (SBB) solution - one outfitted in Bombardier's new "Red" interior and the other labelled "Black" - were on static display at the annual National Business Aviation Association meeting and convention in Orlando, Florida on 20-22 October (look closely at the pic above and you'll see the SBB antenna).

These birds were formerly destined for Jet Republic, which placed the largest ever SBB order and then went out of business (I am not suggesting one had anything to do with the other...cheeky monkey!).

A source on the ground at NBAA says Bombardier informed people at its booth that it is waiting to see how the Aircell patent lawsuit plays out before offering the ATG system on its business aircraft.

Needless to say, on hearing this bit of information, I knocked on everyone's door for comment.

Bombardier said only the following: "We haven't announced a supplier for connectivity."

A spokesman at Aircell's business aircraft division said: "On your question, unfortunately Aircell isn't able to comment on litigation or discussions that take place with its customers."

He did point out, however, that Aircell has scored some nice wins of late, including the newly-announced Hawker Beechcraft selection and a huge deal with Flight Options.

I also tapped Aircell's commercial side for comment (since Delta is named in the suit, and logic would dictate that if Ambit has a problem with Delta it might very well have a problem with other Gogo-equipped carriers).

A spokesman at Aircell's commercial division said: "Aircell cannot comment on pending litigation."

For more information about this case, read the following documents.

Ambit suit.pdf
Ambit suit 2.pdf
PatentSummaryInfo.doc

So, is Ambit's lawsuit against Aircell starting to bite? And is it time to take notice?

One industry insider, upon learning of the case in February, told me the following:
 

...the development is as surprising as it is disturbing, since it may be extended to other satellite-based aeronautical communications applications (e.g., GSM picocell) given its broad language and other mobile applications (e.g., maritime and land mobile) since the patent focuses on "vehicles" of all types.