BCA Roundup: Cabin Electronics

Mal Gormley for Business & Commercial Aviation Magazine recently wrote an in-depth article about Cabin Electronics. In the article they cover the following companies:

Cabin Entertainment

• Flight Display Systems Fly HD
• Honeywell Ovation Select
• Rockwell Collins Venue
• Lufthansa Technik

Satellite Phone

• Inmarsat
• Iridium
• ViaSat
• Aircell

And many more companies:

• Satcom Direct
• ARINC
• LiveTV Airfone
• TrueNorth Avionics

Business aircraft cabins are being transformed into amazingly capable work and entertainment venues, made possible by blasting gazillions of bytes through ever-smaller boxes at ever-faster speeds. Increasingly facile aircraft systems are being installed; new satellite services offer communication capabilities unimagined just a few years ago; vendors are making the challenge of finding the right hardware and services easier than ever while inventing new tools with which to measure their value.

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Passengers whose homes and workplaces have ginormous high-def displays expect the same kinds of hi-res immersive experience while they travel with the laptops, iPad/iPods and similar devices. To meet such expectations, Honeywell’s Ovation Select, Rockwell Collins’ Venue, Flight Display Systems’ Fly HD and others are providing passengers with 1080p HDTV capability already, as well as Blu-ray video disc players, widescreen HDTV displays, advanced audio systems and remotes to control them all.

And while the vendors tell us they’re working flat-out to keep up, operators are concerned that the technology is such a moving target that it’s difficult to decide when to take the plunge and upgrade a cabin since the technology may be outdated in less than five years. We can’t offer any advice in that regard, but herewith is a sampling of recent developments from cabin electronics providers:

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Alpharetta, Ga.-based Flight Display Systems’ new 22-in. widescreen Fly HD flat-panel LCD screen features 1080p resolution and lets passengers enjoy Blu-ray movies and other inflight entertainment. The first installation was done in a Challenger 604 operated by Banyan Air Service. Weighing just 9.75 lb and only 1.6 in. deep, the new model includes HDCP-capable HDMI ports. Standard resolution composite and S-Video inputs are also included to maintain compatibility with legacy video sources. A PC input is also available to display computer graphics such as Flight Display’s Moving Map.

The company reports major upgrades to its moving map product, including a new worldwide satellite image database and increased video quality. Graphics from NASA’s “Blue Marble” satellite image database are included, giving the maps a rich, color representation of Earth and ocean depths. The images are stored on the new 8 GB solid-state hard drive, which represents a 200% increase in storage space. Three new inflight information screens have also been added. The moving map remains priced at $6,890 for the RS-232 version and $8,594 for the ARINC 429 version. The free upgrades are shipping with all new purchases of either model. The company manufactures more than 50 aircraft entertainment products with FAA PMA approval, including LCD monitors from 7-42 in., wireless audio systems, DVD players and flight view cameras.

One of Flight Display Systems’ new Select cabin management systems has been installed in a “Flying Theater” configuration to a client’s Gulfstream III aircraft. The installation was performed by International Jet Interiors. The new CMS features a high-definition 42-in. widescreen LCD monitor — the largest that has been installed to date in a Gulfstream aircraft. The aircraft owner, a Hollywood movie producer and director, now uses the entertainment system to screen films and review his various productions during flight. Cabin lighting, attendant call functions and electronic window shades in all three zones of the Gulfstream III are controlled by the new Select CMS from Flight Display Systems. The cabin features iPod docking stations, auxiliary input ports for computer video, 20-in. HD and 10.2-in. personal LCD monitors for additional entertainment value.

Flight Display Systems’ recently introduced iPad Arm Mount upgrade enables passengers to use their iPads to watch movies, play games and enjoy their iTunes library during flight without draining battery life or experiencing uncomfortable viewing positions. The removable arm mount is a drop-in replacement for hundreds of existing Flight Display Systems products that have been installed on Gulfstream, Falcon, Hawker, Challenger, Pilatus and Citation aircraft.

The company is now delivering an upgrade package for Cessna Citation Mustang and Embraer Phenom owners. The Club CMS gives aircraft owners a complete inflight entertainment package, including Flight Display Moving Map with worldwide satellite imagery; iPod, iPhone, iPad adapter cable; a new DVD/CD player with SD card; USB media inputs; and six audio channels. The upgrade provides up to 90 hr. of MP3 music, two new 7-in. widescreen LCD monitors, four OLED passenger switching panels and a headphone jack. The complete system cost is $25,000, uninstalled.

In other news, the finished cabin for Gulfstream’s new G650, unveiled at NBAA’s Atlanta convention in October features the company’s own Gulfstream Cabin Management System with CabinView high-definition audio/video distribution. GCMS provides passengers and crew with fault-redundant control of cabin systems through touch screens, touch switches and passenger control units, and, using an iPod Touch, iPhone or iPad synched to a particular aircraft seat, passengers can control cabin lighting, speakers, multiple HD monitors, Rosen Blu-ray entertainment equipment, CabinView system, window shades and temperature. Passengers also will be able to save their personal preferences. The system works with other personal handheld devices as well — but you can still use your hands to operate the controls.

Honeywell has selected Leominster, Mass.-based Alto Aviation’s sound components for its Ovation Select cabin management system. Ovation Select was subsequently chosen by Embraer for its Legacy 450/500 series aircraft. Alto’s new digital amplifier was co-developed with Honeywell to integrate with the Ovation Select System. Alto is providing Honeywell with the audio package for the Embraer installation consisting of four mid/high enclosures, two subwoofers and a customized EQ/digital amplifier. Ovation Select integrates digital, high-definition, high-speed connectivity technology throughout the cabin.

Meanwhile, JetMap III is Honeywell’s latest moving map upgrade, featuring worldwide 3-D perspective views of terrain, ocean topography, enhanced graphics and polar ice views. JetMap III provides real-time flight data, passenger situational awareness information and data services for news, business, weather and sports. Current JetMap II users can upgrade to JetMap III through the simple replacement of the removable compact flash memory card.

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Following its acquisition of DeCrane’s Cabin Management assets in August, Goodrich now offers its aircraft interiors business unit clients a host of cabin electronics including an HD fully digital Ethernet-controlled cabin management system; a line of widescreen HD monitors with 1080p resolution; iPad/iPod Touch integration apps for controlling the CMS; iPod/iPhone/ docking stations with full integration into the CMS using touch-screen graphics; and a new Blu-ray player that offers HDMI, component and SDI output that accommodates longer harness runs, analog systems and serial digital systems.

Lufthansa Technik’s inflight entertainment and cabin management system, dubbed “nice,” for “networked integrated cabin equipment,” is now available for retrofit on Bombardier Global and Challenger business jets. Lufthansa Bombardier Aviation Services has signed an agreement with its major shareholder Lufthansa Technik to offer nice installations to its customers in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the CIS. Developed at Lufthansa Technik’s cabin innovation center in Hamburg, nice is now standard for the Challenger 300 and an option for Global business jets. Lufthansa Technik’s nice was also selected by Bombardier as the platform for the new Learjet 85’s cabin management system.

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So to bring all this information back to a widescreen view, according to a 2009 study, “Rise of the Digital C-Suite” (by Forbes Insights and Google, and provided to us by Aircell), airborne passengers with access to the Internet maintain their ground-based usage patterns. Other studies have shown that 53% of C-Suite executives prefer to go online and locate information for themselves rather than delegate the task, and 60% of them conduct more than six work-related searches each workday, while 19% conduct more than 20. With the above profusion of recent cabin-tech advances, there’s simply no longer an excuse to not accommodate passengers and flight crews with fingertip access to the information anywhere, anytime. BCA