"revolutionary" seat-back entertainment system

[Elevation]

• Upgrading its inflight service, from food and training for flight attendants, to a "revolutionary" seat-back entertainment system. The first improvements will debut this summer; the entertainment system will begin a trial period early next year. Full Article.


Anyone in the know? Maybe an Apple IPOD system tie in?

 

[tadjr]

If its as revolutionary as our current computer system, it will be an 8 track tape player. h34r:

Seriously though, I hope its something good. I still dont understand why we only offer trivia on the short haul flights that have video monitors. Just a little bit of something video related would help pass the time and take peoples mind off of "other things". There have got to be tv shows and entertainment venues that could offer a great deal on some video segments that wouldnt cost US much if anything to use. Someone surely wants and needs the video exposure on their shows.

 

[EMBFA]

Virgin Americas looks revolutionary... ours on the A330 isnt bad just needs more options.

 

[etops1]

it's going to be on demand movies and games. also from what i was told . no more cash for liquor and food sales. everything will be done on the seat back. and this system will cost less and be lighter to install because it's being used with fiber optics. it's a new vendor that the company has hired . first a/c to be tested on will be a west a320 sometime next spring . it will be put on all airbus narrow body a/c first others to follow even the e190's will get it installed. we are the first airline this vendor is working with so we have the upper hand on getting what we want. stay tuned for more details .

 

[PHL]

It should still be a source of pride that US was offering full on demand audio/video 7 years ago with the debut of the first A330 LONNNNNG before any US carriers got in the act. Even today, I don't know that any are actively offering it, although I believe some have announced they would be doing it.

 

[LongTimeF/A]

would be great if the system worked!! (330) since adding the extra rows in coach, We're constantly resetting, and rebooting.. Four hours into a flight last week the system just froze...

 

[NAPAUS]

it's going to be on demand movies and games. also from what i was told . no more cash for liquor and food sales. everything will be done on the seat back. and this system will cost less and be lighter to install because it's being used with fiber optics. it's a new vendor that the company has hired . first a/c to be tested on will be a west a320 sometime next spring . it will be put on all airbus narrow body a/c first others to follow even the e190's will get it installed. we are the first airline this vendor is working with so we have the upper hand on getting what we want. stay tuned for more details .

If this is true, it would be awesum! Flew recently on JB and AC and they have it on the EMB190's and AC is putting it on all of their a/c. It's one of the MANY reasons to fly JB. US needs SO many more improvements, but this would be a great start. Keepin my fingers crossed.

 

[LCC_#1]

I am so sick of promises. Just DELIVER!!!

 

[Awa Contract]

We have played this game before --

 

[PHL]

If this is true, it would be awesum! Flew recently on JB and AC and they have it on the EMB190's and AC is putting it on all of their a/c. It's one of the MANY reasons to fly JB. US needs SO many more improvements, but this would be a great start. Keepin my fingers crossed.

B6 offers live DirecTV. It sounds like US is going to offer pre-loaded programming. It's not a bad tradeoff. Live TV has it's advantages, but how often do you also sit home and keep flipping because there's nothing good on? It's not like they have HBO, Showtime or PPV movies.

Someone can chime in here who knows more, but I think B6 also bought the patent and/or STC to the technology that permits installation of it in an aircraft, so any other airline wanting to do it would essentially be paying JB for the technology. Well, unless someone else developed a similar system and got it certified....

 

[USCREW]

• Upgrading its inflight service, from food and training for flight attendants, to a "revolutionary" seat-back entertainment system.

It was a typo. They meant to say "PRE-REVOLUTIONARY".

 

[LCC_#1]

It would be easy to go on about the other things the company needs to do but I will stick with the subject at hand.

Piney is correct. The system needs to be reliable. While the 330 system works MOST of the time, the customer could care less if it USUALLY doesn't happen. They only care that it isn't working NOW. With all the technology around, there is no reason to not have a compact and reliable sytem at each seat. Geez, Doesnt any of these companies that think of technology know about the beautiful of items like the IPod Nano? Surely, Apple or some high tech company can put something together that would work on an airplane.

BTW, when will we hear more about this supposed new system?

 

[Phoenix]

Yeah, that entertainment system is more important than ever, and it better be allowed for ground use. Since USAir will never get on board with a pay raise, I expect the taxi speed will be slowing more and more. Almost ZERO!

 

[phasersonstun2]

it's going to be on demand movies and games. also from what i was told . no more cash for liquor and food sales. everything will be done on the seat back...

The only BAD news is that the system uses SHARES as a mainframe to process the charges.

 

[PHL]

The Sony Passport system is coming up on 10 years old since initial development/implementation. A lot has happened, technologically, that allow seat-back systems to be lighter and more compact (i.e. not a big box on the floor all over the cabin). It's conceivable that the units could each have their own memory or hard drive that gets updated centrally, or a single server that they all stream from in flight. For management, it seems like the single source/distribution model is easier, but who knows. This technology is so cheap that a bad unit should be an easy swap out that could be done on an aircraft turn, or RON.