In-flight entertainment (IFE) market-leader Matsushita Avionics Systems (MASC) is to team with Honeywell in a move which promises to alter the evolution of the industry significantly.
The agreement marries MASC's leading-edge expertise in creating interactive IFE software operating platforms with Honeywell's communications and data-management skills.
It is set to lead to a shift towards Internet- and intranet-based IFE products and to help exploit the possibilities of the emerging breed of conventional file-server-based avionics architectures in airliners.
The deal comes around a year after Honeywell-rival Rockwell Collins entered the IFE market by purchasing Hughes Avicom International outright.
Collins and Honeywell (with partner Racal Avionics) control the airline satellite communications (satcoms) market and are running pioneering programmes centred on file-server technology and 'gatelink' at-airport wireless datalinks.
Source: Flight Daily News
