Bombardier believes there is "a good chance" that wireless in-flight entertainment (IFE) may be a viable solution for its CSeries when the aircraft enters into service in 2013.
"As we watch technology mature and as we listen to our customers we are starting to see a trend which would indicate that by 2013 a good portion of the common IFE systems (be that data, video, music, shopping, etc) could be transmitted 'wirelessly'," says Bombardier's new commercial aircraft programme director, Ben Boehm.
"The maturity isn't quite there yet to be definitive, but there is a good chance that by 2013, you could get on-board entertainment downloads to your laptop, or as a
minimum, we could only provide power to the seat back video monitors, but their content wouldn't need a second wire, it would be transmitted wirelessly instead."
At present, Bombardier is not directly in talks with IFE providers. "Instead we are monitoring the market and watching the trends, both from technology and customer demand point of view," says Boehm, adding: "We are not in a rush on this yet and as the technology evolves, we'll be able to get the latest for the CSeries when EIS nears. Our customers are saying the same."
Boeing in 2007 scuppered plans to fit wireless IFE technology to its 787. One concern was that the 802.11n technology's specification had not yet been ratified by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
"With the ratification of the 802.11n spec, this challenge has been overcome," Panasonic director of product marketing Cedric Rhoads said last year.
However, other issues persisted, he noted. One of the lessons that Panasonic learned during the 787 wireless IFE project was that ultimately the weight savings in moving to a wireless distribution architecture was not realized as originally envisioned. "The concern for us was that the value of wireless was not there and it represented a very big trade-off in bandwidth, and thus capability", said Rhoads.
Thales chief engineer Ken Brady agreed with this assessment, noting that if you choose to do wireless, you're certainly providing less potential capability.
Other manufacturers may also be considering wireless IFE. Airbus commissioned Bluebox Avionics to provide its wireless system for inclusion in the A380 demonstration mock-up in Hamburg. The test could assist Airbus in deciding if the technology makes sense for offerability on its A350.
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
