Panasonic Avionics has unveiled a new hosting platform, Converix, at AIX in Hamburg to support not only increased in-flight entertainment and communications content, but also wider applications onboard the aircraft.
Middle Eastern carrier Saudia has signed to be the first customer for Converix. It will install the new hosted server platfrom across 39 Boeing 787 Dreamliners and the integrated system will enable the airline to manage all the non-critical cabin services on these aircraft from a single point.
Certification work is under way for the new server, which is envisaged for service entry in the 2027-28 timeframe.
“We need a collaboration of high-speed connectivity as well as a cache that can retain exponentially increasing amounts of data and content,” explained Panasonic Avionics senior vice-president of product and strategy, Andy Masson, during a briefing to unveil the new product at AIX on 8 April.
Masson says Converix offers eight times the performance and is a quarter of the size of existing servers and has been designed to complement content that is delivered via in-flight connectivity.
“As an IFE server it has enormous content capability and enormous storage both for traditional and for cached content.” Panasonic says a single Converix box on a twin-aisle aircraft can support four years of 4K media or 106 years of standard definition content. “Capacity we measure in years – we’re done measuring it in megabytes now, we’re measuring in years,” says Masson.
“But Converix is not just an IFE head-end. It is a hosted platform,” he adds. “It enables airlines to take control and manage their own third-party content and applications at their own cadence. Whether that is their mobile applications they want to bring onboard, efficient and sustainable crew applications, inventory management or operational management.”
Masson says Converix can be installed on all aircraft types and is compatible with its current Next servers. “That means if your airframe is being delivered today with Next servers, they are already being provisioned to operate with Converix in the future,” he says.
Panasonic Avionics chief executive Ken Sain says: “For the past two years, Panasonic Avionics has been focused on two strategic initiatives – to redefine the passenger experience and to reimagine the airline ownership experience.
“Converix builds on the success of our Astrova seat-end IFE solution, and is designed with the same commitment to innovation, industrial design, and modularity.”
