In-flight entertainment (IFE) system providers believe wireless and wired solutions will play a complementary part onboard airlines in the coming years.
"We really think they are going to co-exist," Panasonic vice-president, global communications services David Bruner said at the Cabin Innovation & Strategies For The Future conference. "We are seeing more narrowbody aircraft with in-seat IFE than ever before, but we are also going to see an explosion in wireless as well," he predicts.
Stuart Dunleavy, vice president of marketing and customer proposition at IFE system provider Thales - which like Panasonic also offers a wireless solution - adds that while wireless is an attractive proposition at a surface level, there are complexities.
"When you get down to the actual delivery, it gets very challenging," he says. "How do you provide a high quality service to everyone if they are carrying different devices?" Dunleavy points to nine different types of device that passengers may bring on, working with four different browers. "So that's 36 different ways you have to stream content to."
Lufthansa Systems chief consultant content and media strategy Michael Childers concurs. "It is far more challenging to deliver content in a wireless environment."
Chief executive at specialist consultancy IMDC, Wale Adepoju, echoed Bruner's view that the industry was going through a paradigm shift in the way that in-seat video earlier revolutionised the business. But he offered a note of caution. "Expectations is my biggest concerns," he says, on wireless and broadband. "The reality is that the number of passengers it can reach is still small. It's still early days."
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Source: Flight Daily News
