System Management

A transition from an analogue to a digital system will have a very positive effect on your in-flight entertainment (IFE) content in two main areas. Firstly, regarding the much larger quantity of material that can be stored and selected and secondly, the ability to schedule a more tailored in-flight entertainment package

With analogue systems, you are often restricted by the number of tape machines onboard and therefore the number of channels you can offer. Normally an airline will combine generic channels such as comedy, lifestyle and children's in the hope that most passengers will be catered for. With the quantity of content a digital system can provide, a very comprehensive and cost-effective package of movies, TV shows, audio channels and games can be offered to make each passenger’s journey as pleasurable as possible.

Multi-channel digital systems allow far more creative content programming. You can provide individual channels with movie and TV shows based on themes such as ‘animals’, ‘nature’ or ‘business’. You can choose to have your own airline channel to promote your airline's news, new routes and special pricing offers.

Digital systems also allow a much greater ability to provide content based on specific routes and individual passenger demographics so that passengers are offered entertainment of interest to them. Digital systems can also deliver a high level of research data regarding which channels are proving popular and unpopular.

Each original equipment manufacturer's (OEM's) system in your fleet will incur processing costs associated with a content update. These will be part of the package deal you negotiate at the point of purchase or inheritance.

It isn't unusual for an aircraft to change ownership during its life and the original airline’s graphical user interface (GUI) and branding may also be inherited during a hand over. You will need to be aware of the additional costs and delays when deploying your own branding on the digital system. Costs that may be incurred to change the GUI should all be agreed and contracted in the very early stages of any hardware agreement.

In addition to the individual OEM costs, the specific media specifications can be different. Some aircraft use 16 x 9 screens and others 4 x 3. Some hardware systems use MPEG 1 only whilst others are able to accommodate MPEG 4.

In many cases the OEM specification for delivery is unique, even if the source media is of a common format. For this reason, the media delivery specification is also unique and therefore duplicated between systems.

Reducing the requirement to have a diverse range of hardware systems often delivers significant cost savings due to the lower update costs incurred.

After the initial hardware purchase and fleet refit costs, the true benefits of audio video on demand (AVOD) come into play with economies of scale.

The larger your fleet deployment, the lower the in-flight entertainment costs per aircraft. This is because the same graphical user interface (GUI) information and encoded media costs are generally produced only once for a fleet update, then distributed fleet wide.

For analogue content, the technical costs bear a close relationship to the number of tapes needed for a fleet. The larger the volume of tapes, the higher the overall tape costs.

For fleets with digital systems from the same original equipment manufacturer (OEM), the cost savings for distributing in-flight entertainment (IFE) content can be significant. If a fleet has a mix of OEM systems, then some digital work has to be duplicated for each system which will incur additional costs.

We can help you. Please contact us stating the part number and manufacturer's details. We will assist you in sourcing new or reconditioned parts.

In the event that parts are unavailable, we will discuss alternative options with you.