One area where Tenzing and its airline customers have not moved forward is in charging a fee to passengers. This makes connectivity a speculative commercial model. So far no airline has charged a fee, and all revenue generation expectations in the connectivity market are based on research alone. Tenzing expected to start charging last year but this never materialised. At Farnborough the company revised this expectation to year-end with a projected fee of $10 for data sent and received per flight.

Tenzing CEO Edward Nicol also speculated that passengers did not want access to the world wide web. Rather, passengers were more interested in VPN for corporate email and intranet, according to Nicol.

Following September 11, Tenzing changed its policy of one-off aircraft service, or part-fleet service, to only those airlines that were seeking a full fleet deployment. Tenzing had a whole host of airline customers either interested in doing trials or establishing some level of fleet deployment. However, at Farnborough the official statement only mentioned Cathay Pacific and ‘several undisclosed airlines’. These are reported to be SWISS, Finnair – and – out on a limb after its trial – Air Canada.

Does the market mind a supplier changing its strategy, especially when this affects clients? Connectivity is an immature market and there is plenty of time to grow. However, burnt by previous IFE experiences, airlines are not prepared to take a chance on any burgeoning technology unless it is proven.

At Farnborough, Tenzing was clearly pleased to have a heavyweight behind it such as Rockwell Collins. It also referred to discussions with AirTV, which plans a large broadband offering. But really the message to airlines is that Tenzing is a component in a group offering. This is polarised against one large heavyweight rival the Boeing Company. Airlines must ask themselves – which is more robust and technically able? Airlines do not want to be guinea pigs.

At a special Farnborough briefing, Kevin George of BA referred to this scenario. ‘We don’t want to be the leader to market because we had some hiccups before. This time the technology is relatively well-proven so it was a matter of opportunity,’ he said, referring to Connexion.

Despite moves into narrowband by an airline as large as Cathay Pacific, other airlines such as BA and Lufthansa have decided it is worth the investment and the longer wait to go for a high-end value-added broadband solution.

It has all turned out so differently from the pre 9/11 outlook when Tenzing stole a march on the competition. Since last September Tenzing seems to have taken a lower profile. Clearly the new involvement of Rockwell Collins, along with its other equity partner Airbus makes Tenzing look more robust. The new investment by Rockwell Collins could breathe new life into a project whose image has weakened slightly in the commercial ups and downs following 9/11.

Connexion by Boeing is testing out live streaming television and audio to aircraft at its laboratory in Irvine, California. BA is hoping to use the technology to download recorded content to aircraft.

‘We’ll take it in stages,’ said BA senior programmes manager Kevin George. ‘Today’s applications involve tapes and delivering tapes to aircraft. Technology will ultimately deliver far more efficient ways of entertaining customers than today.’

At the wireless lab in Irvine, the Connexion IT team is testing the new audio and video functionality. Other aspects of wireless communications are also being tested including the evolutionary path of hand-held technologies such as PDAs, cell phone, wireless security applications, testing and development of passenger service concepts. Connexion regards the lab as ‘an innovative endeavour’ and will be discussing its work more in the near future.

The scope for live television content could be more limited in Europe because of the diverse range of languages and cultures involved in providing content to a diverse passenger profile. There is also the question of rights to content being cleared over different national borders.

At Farnborough a Lufthansa spokesman said the airline would be interested in live news content, but the international multilingual fragmentation of the audience did not lend itself to a live television product. Connexion is focussing its efforts therefore to the US and markets where there are homogeneous populations.

However, using the technology to download content as a delivery mechanism would give a new selling point to the service. George dismissed gatelink as an alternative. ‘It just doesn’t make sense,’ he said. US airlines typically own and operate the gate area, and therefore could own and operate a gatelink connection. But UK and European airlines typically do not own and operate gates and would therefore be dependent on the airport authority for gatelink infrastructure. ‘It’s (gatelink) a long way into the future,’ said George.

But he added, ‘Meanwhile, I am convinced there are more cost-effective ways of getting the IFE to the aircraft, and broadband is one of the options we’re looking at. You could be loading content to the aircraft in the background while the aircraft is flying.’

Connexion president Scott Carson added, ‘Instead of gatelink, think of it as aircraft link. That’s really the model we’re working towards where the aircraft is a linked node in the network.’

Connexion is building a ‘global grid’ where the aircraft is a node, and airline customers pay the connection fee for that node. He said airlines could generate revenues from advertising and passenger fees to cover the cost.

Connexion is now starting to open the floodgates of ideas in diversifying the functionality of high-speed broadband under the auspices of ‘the power of broadband’.

‘The bandwidth solution BA has chosen, affords growth into the future. That is one of the leveraging attributes of the system,’ said Carson.

Besides internet, email, airborne downloading of content, and live streaming television, other functionalities include airborne shopping and duty free sales, interactive functions such as car hire, hotel and reservations type activities. Wireless capability would enable remote ordering of food and beverage onboard. This would enable flight attendants in the aisle to place orders from passengers and send the instructions via PDA to cabin crew working in the galley. Connexion is also exploring the idea of a self-diagnostic tool to track the aircraft’s technical performance while airborne. ‘The health of the aircraft can be downloaded enabling it to stay longer in revenue service,’ said Carson. There is also the possibility of downloading the contents of the flight data recorder.

The ideas are coming thick and fast. George himself pointed out that since making the announcement BA had been ‘inundated internally and externally with suggestions. It’s literally exploding. Lots of people are coming up with fantastic ideas. Ideas are flowing from customers as well. Once you’ve got the aeroplane connected you’ve got a whole host of opportunities.’

Carson said, ‘We experience the exact same thing in our company. It all comes down to the power of broadband. It opens up opportunities for airlines, Connexion and for the travelling public.

George said BA was pleased that Lufthansa and JAL had signed up for Connexion. ‘For us that just gives credence to the position we’ve taken early on.’

Connexion will conduct a series of demos with the travelling public prior to the BA launch. Starting in New York, and then Washington Dulles and Chicago, frequent fliers and other customers will be invited on to the aircraft in groups of 40 or 50, to try out the email and Internet access. Connexion wants to ‘expose’ the public to the service in order to gauge their reactions, and remove the ‘novelty’ aspect of the BA trial.

George said Connexion would help BA to acquire key customer/corporate accounts. ‘It fits in with choice and connectivity. We’re not saying people are going to use it every single time just because they’ve got to be incessantly doing their emails but we give them that capability and choice.’

Carson echoed this point: ‘The power of broadband unfolds new freedoms for us. Do we want to work while we fly or not? Broadband gives us choice, creativity, and value creation.’

The BA 747-400 aircraft flying London to New York will go into modification in December, emerging equipped by early February for a mid-February launch. It requires two antenna installations.

Connexion is making strong inroads for satellite coverage to support the trials, signing with Eutelsat to use its IIF4 satellite for additional transponder capacity between North America and Europe. It is leasing two transponders – one each for transmit and receive onboard the satellite. These will support the immediate airline trials. Boeing also plans to lease transponders on the Brazilian Estrela do Sul 1 satellite, scheduled to launch early in ’03. This will also support the North Atlantic region.

Connexion director of development Ed Laase said, ‘The North Atlantic corridor is critical in our efforts to bring broadband connectivity to airlines that operate between Europe and the US.

• At the briefing, BA confirmed it wanted a full cabin wireless system, subject to certification.
• George called the £20/$30 flat rate fee ‘outstanding value for money’.
• There will be no large scale marketing campaign – rather a targeted launch to specific frequent fliers and corporate customers.
• BA will place marketing personnel onboard to gauge passengers’ experiences.
• Connexion will also place technical and marketing staff onboard in the early stages.
• The plug and play system will require laptop cable – which will be available onboard.
• The system will be encrypted to normal industrial strength according to Connexion.
• Special arrangements will be set up with key corporate accounts which use firewalls
• Connexion charges airlines a one-off fee covering hardware installation, training and maintenance.
• Installations can be made to both Airbus and Boeing aircraft.
• It takes 20 megabits to supply an entire cabin
• Average speed of connection is 256kbps, with the lowest average speed 56kbps
• Airlines do not determine the pricing to passengers – Connexion sets the user fee based on trials.
• Connexion prefers wireless as the technology of choice as it creates more flexibility and less weight.
• The UK and German governments have granted regulatory approval to Connexion to use a range of radio frequencies. It paves the way for the BA and LH airline trials.
• Connexion One was at Farnborough, using the Eutelsat Atlantic Bird 2 satellite.
• Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (Mitsubishi Electric) will design and produce the next-generation antenna.
• AT&T Digital Media Centers (ADMC) will provide ground earth station satellite service for two-way communications above US territory and waters.
• Connexion One has now been in airborne trials for 20 months.

The string of contracts for Connexion puts the company firmly on the connectivity map. It is all a far cry from late last year, when the Kansas group – United, American and Delta withdrew their plans to place equity in the venture.

Even so, Connexion is still committed to its original backers. President Scott Carson said at Farnborough there had not been a change of heart by any of those airlines, even though they withdrew their plans to invest. He praised it as ‘a powerful relationship that revealed passenger expectations’.

‘We were affected dramatically by the events of 9/11 but this week we are at Farnborough to demonstrate that we are not a victim,’ said Carson. ‘Interest is now flooding back in broadband connectivity.’

Carson also praised Lufthansa for sticking by Connexion during difficult times. ‘Lufthansa maintained the vision through thick and thin.’ The airline also helped Connexion pioneer the service. ‘Lufthansa joined us a year ago when this was a young business and lots of questions needed to be answered.’

Lufthansa was always interested in helping to pioneer the service. The airline pressed for full wireless using four access points in the cabin. And the efforts have paid off. In April FAA certified the system. The antenna has been redesigned and a live demo is planned by year-end.

Lufthansa is ambitious: ‘We are prepared to be the first airline in the world to offer this,’ said an airline spokesman. He added, ‘We decided quite deliberately early to go into broadband. It only makes sense to have broadband. This decision we take still stands as correct as it was one year ago.’

One of the ways Connexion gained from the three US airlines and its current clients is through collaboration. Quite early on Connexion started a series of ‘Working together’ meetings with existing and future airline partners. Each meeting lasts between three and five days.

This spawns fresh ideas and provides feedback. One idea that Lufthansa has is in tapping into the B2E market – business to employees, enabling companies to connect to their own employees while airborne.

The aircraft in the Lufthansa trial – named ‘Sachsen Anhalt’ – will operate between Frankfurt and Washington DC. All three classes will be able to access the system either by wireless LAN or ethernet connector. VPN software will be improved to connect to company intranets.

The three-month trial will enable Lufthansa to find out more about customer acceptance and user needs. It hopes to get feedback online.

By 2004 the airline plans ‘routine installations’. Unlike BA, Lufthansa will not charge customers during the trial. The fee has not yet been finalised.

Virgin Atlantic launched the world’s first A340-600 at Farnborough International 2002. The short flight revealed some of the features of V:port, built on the MAS3000 system.

Virgin Atlantic chairman Sir Richard Branson said, ‘The new aircraft is great news for our passengers who will benefit from new products and services onboard including new seats and inflight entertainment.’

So far two other aircraft – both 747s are flying the MAS3000 system. The next aircraft to come off the production line with MAS3000 will be a second A340-600 in the autumn. Two more A340-600s are to be delivered this year and a further six by 2006. This year the new V:port-equipped fleet flies between Heathrow and JFK, Tokyo and Hong Kong. From next year, they will also fly to Johannesburg.

Also the airline is planning email and Intranet from the autumn, but is not disclosing any partner or supplier details. Last year following 9/11 it dropped plans to work with Tenzing after the supplier wanted to change the terms of its agreement.

While the interactive IFE features are now live on the selected fleet, the airline plans to unveil ‘bespoke’ features over the coming months.

The aircraft has 233 seats in economy, 28 in premium economy and 50 in upper class – a 25percent increase over the airline’s current A340-300 fleet. Passengers on the inaugural flight had a chance to handle the new 6-inch handset, a bespoke design by Virgin, which works in harmony with the graphic user interface. Viewed horizontally, the handset incorporates at one end, video functions of back/rewind, next/fast fwd, pause/stop, play and OK. Navigation arrow keys to control the cursor are located at the other horizontal end. Two buttons built into the side operate game controls. There are also two buttons for overhead light, and cabin crew. A special ‘I’ button can be pressed at any time to move around the V:port system. Passengers use the up and down cursors to highlight where they want to go next, press the OK button and quicknav takes them there. The handset is also a phone with calls charged at $9 a minute. Passengers swipe a credit card through the slot in the handset. It operates a direct dial connection using the international 00 dialling code before the country code.

V:port is equipped with some of the largest personal screens in IFE. The screen is 10.4inches in business class and nine inches in economy.

The V:port system provides 300 hours of VOD, 14 AOD channels, and 15 computer games.

There are 45 CDs in the jukebox ranging from the classical composer Bach to pop stars Blue. Passengers can listen to an entire CD or a single track. There is also a selection of audio books. Three games are multiplayer including Battlemail Kung-fu – exclusive to Virgin. The quick find facility enables passengers to search across the entire content for a particular artist, film or show. Passengers can also create their own playlist and order of programming. A special children’s section Kid’s Zone has its own menus and programming with a parental block available to stop children gaining access to the whole system.

Later this year iMap will be introduced enabling passengers to track their flight and view weather charts. The interactive map offers a ‘grid system’ to enable passengers to roam the globe virtually. The handset enables passengers to zoom in on part of the globe as if viewing via satellite.

The new A340-600 has a state of the art cabin for spaciousness and peace. ‘Big is beautiful,’ said Branson on the launch flight to Farnborough. ‘This is a beautiful looking plane both inside and outside.’

The Upper class cabin designed by Lorenzo Apicella of Pentagram features the latest mood lighting. Along the ceiling of this cabin there is a feature called the aerofoil and gull wing, which according to Virgin, gives ‘a longitudinal dynamic feature’. It also houses the lighting fixtures to control the mood lighting – 14 different scenes, using twin fluorescent coloured tubes, ambient lights and bulkhead and monument LEDs.

The bar and beauty therapy area have been rebranded. The bar room designed to create ‘the wow factor’ is the longest to date with six bar stools, framed by a canopy lighting a variety of scenes. The bar uses LED and electroluminescent technology to create down lighting around the bar top and under the stools – uplighting shines through the glasses and bottles on display. Equation Lighting and DHA designed the lighting.

The lavatories have special blue mood lighting, vanity mirror lights and new look metallic silver interiors.

Economy seats, designed by the Virgin in house design team and Alloy, have larger magazine racks positioned landscape to enable more space for passengers’ legs. Each seat is equipped with a laptop power supply and integrated footrest. The headrest has a six-axis adjustment and three controllable air bags – one in the lumbar region and two in the seat cushion.

Each seat has a bi-fold tray table, which enables the passenger to use it without blocking off all their space. Average seat pitch is 31inches.

The colours – red leather trim and silver covered composite side arms are meant to be fun and also reflect the Virgin branding of ‘the modern romance of flight’.

Branson said buying a larger aircraft was ‘the only way to drive costs down for the economy class passenger’. He noted a ‘growing economy class’ and ‘shrinking business class’ passenger. He said that the premium economy class cabin was most popular among corporate clients.

Virgin is also ordering the A380, the world’s largest aircraft. Branson said the Boeing sonic cruiser was ‘not viable’ due to its lack of capacity. However, Virgin enjoys ‘a good relationship with Boeing.’ The airline will buy more 747-400s.

The Virgin fleet consists of 23 aircraft altogether - 12 x 747-400s, ten A340-300s and an A340-600. The airline operates from the UK to the USA, Africa, Asia and the Caribbean.

Last year Virgin took the Thales IFE system and branded it Nova for five 747-400s. Besides the movie channels Nova provides two children’s channels (movies and TV), one TV channel, 14 audio channels, moving skymap display, and bulkhead telephone.

Starting mid-2003 Intheairnet (ITAN) will have some of its products certified for offerability on Airbus aircraft. The IFE systems provider is planning to acquire offerability on Airbus for its digital servers. Airbus has agreed to ‘facilitate Intheairnet’s efforts’ to have the servers as an option on both single and twin aisle aircraft. This will be both line and retrofit.

The servers will replace analogue equipment used for pre-recorded announcements, boarding music, and gate information. They also host a new digital map product with high-resolution satellite images.

Gaining offerability for such a core component is a critical milestone for ITAN, which is one of the younger IFE systems providers.

Intheairnet chairman Michael Rogerson said, ‘Intheairnet’s new digital technology servers will provide airlines with higher reliability and functionality for the cabin…’

The company has patents pending on its network architectures and appliances, which make up its portfolio of IFE products.

European market leaders Inmarsat, Airbus, Ericsson and Siemens have launched a WirelessCabin project. The project will provide a communications architecture for passengers and cabin crew incorporating IFE and cabin security.

Co-ordinated by the German aerospace centre DLR, the project also involves other specialist companies such as Kid-Systeme, ESYS, Information Society Technologies, TraGnoSyst and the University of Bradford in the UK.

The group will analyse market requirements, interference with avionics and ground infrastructure, bandwidth, service integration over satellite, cabin topology planning and mobility.

The group is conducting a market survey drawing input from passengers and airlines on proposed services. This will form the basis for creating examples of possible business models for service providers, airlines and mobile providers.

The technology uses UMTS for personal telephony and packet data; and Bluetooth and W-LAN for IP access. The Bluetooth interface will transport the UMTS services.

Inmarsat general manager of aeronautical business, Tony Busby, said, ‘WirelessCabin will create new opportunities for satellite providers and service providers to demonstrate just how robust our infrastructures are, and lead the way in new fields of communications. The WirelessCabin will allow passengers to access mobile telephony and wireless IP services, just as they can expect to do in their office or home, making any journey more productive and enjoyable.’

There are also hopes that the technology could allow seamless communications where passengers are given wireless LAN cards when they check in at airports, allowing them to use communications networks within the airport terminal and then reconnect to those networks once onboard.

EMS Technologies has gained Inmarsat approval for its two-channel 128kbps-satcom terminal. The company is the first avionics manufacturer to obtain full type and unrestricted access approval from Inmarsat. So far the US military is using the single-channel 64kbps version. A private company, Computer Associates, as also selected the 64kbps version for its Gulfstream G-IV, configured with an existing Aero-H antenna.

The 128kbps version, HSD-128, has been successfully demonstrated in Australia and the Pacific Ocean region using Inmarsat Swift 64 – the first time the ISDN service has been used in that region. This included file transfers, live video transmissions and video conferencing. The terminal was installed with a CMC Electronics CMA-2102 satcom antenna on a deHavilland Dash-8. Besides EMS, other companies offering Swift64 compatible avionics include Honeywell/Thales and Ball Aerospace. Rockwell Collins and Thrane & Thrane are expected to follow suit.

Inmarsat reports that three months following the commercial launch of Swift 64, the service has reached a major milestone, with 21 commercial jets using it. The current ISDN service will be expanded to include a Mobile Packet Data service based on IP protocol, available to commercial airlines by year-end. Telenor Satellite Services and Xantic (for SITA) are authorised to carry Swift64 in all four ocean regions.

Thales Avionics and Honeywell demonstrated two-way video conferencing at Farnborough International 2002. They used HS-600 unit via Inmarsat Swift 64.

The aim was to highlight high-speed data, which Thales is pursuing with Honeywell in the corporate and military aircraft sector.

The HS-600 operates with a Honeywell/Thales MCS-3000, MCS-4000, MCS-6000 or MCS-7000 satcom system using Inmarsat-III constellation. In addition to multichannel telephony, the Swift64 service is being delivered to business jets equipped with existing Thales/Honeywell MCS satcom systems.

The companies are promoting other benefits such as weather information for pilots.

AirCell is to work with Iridium Satellite in a sales and marketing capacity. AirCell is to offer Iridium satcom products and services and develop new Iridium-based products to sell through its network in the US and overseas. AirCell anticipates the new products, currently being flight tested, will be certified by FAA and on the market in fourth quarter this year.

AirCell currently manufactures and sells airborne cellular phones and services. It also provides a number of communications products to the cockpit such as voice, fax email, data and Internet connectivity.

Iridium Satellite, which bought the assets of Iridium in December 2000 provides communications services from 66 low-earth orbiting satellites.

‘Iridium Satellite CEO Gino Picasso said, ‘AirCell will help expand Iridium’s presence in the aviation market. Iridium’s unique capabilities are ideal for AirCell customers seeking reliable voice and data communications solutions that provide complete global coverage.’

AirCell vice president, sales and marketing, Bill Peltola said, ‘The Iridium constellation provides the perfect platform for AirCell to augment our existing low-cost network to provide global aeronautical voice and data telecommunications services.’

• AirCell is hoping to start trials soon of cellular phones onboard aircraft with fleet deployments by 2004. The testing is aimed to determine features and configuration and prove there are no interference issues. Currently the FCC in the US prohibits the use of cellular phones inflight due to interference hazards, but AirCell claims these can be overcome and that there is a market demand from consumers. At WAEA’s Technology Committee the company ironed out any objections to the use of cellular phones onboard, saying all the obstacles including regulatory approval could be overcome. However, the market would need to offer inflight passengers comparatively low rates to current consumer levels, at around $1.00-$1.50 per minute.

The US is debating what to do about the so-called ‘analogue hole’ where digital content is decrypted for media integration.

Hollywood studios are concerned about piracy, according to Michael Childers speaking at the WAEA Technology Committee last month. Digital IFE content is currently decrypted for media integration when the content is prepared for fileserver loading. The Motion Picture Association is currently reviewing IFE media integration procedures to plug this ‘hole’. Congress could issue federal mandates to support this review.

Meanwhile, the dispute in Hollywood over pricing of MPEG-4 content has been resolved. This should pave the way towards implementation of MPEG-4 as the codec of choice for IFE, said Childers. He also said that he thought Digital Rights Management (DRM) would be XML-based and interoperable with XML interfaces. He advised the IFE industry to wait before moving towards DRM until the US government had resolved some of the outstanding issues.

Ultra-wideband radio (UWB) could be more of a hindrance than a help to IFE. Early tests show that it creates series interference to an aircraft’s navaids, even at its lowest levels.

While IFE industry leaders are not yet looking to incorporate ultra wideband into new products, the tests could affect the use of PDAs and laptops used by passengers inflight. They could even be banned if tests were conclusive.

Ultra wide band laptops are still a thing of the future. However, Michael Childers, co-chair of WAEA’s Digital Content Management Working Group and head of the Network Delivery Ad Hoc Committee observes that up to 60 million UWB laptops could enter the market in the next five years.

UWB is being developed as a low-cost, low power solution offering a high data rate (100 mbps) content delivery platform, superior to Bluetooth and 802.11. UWB is short range, around 100 meters.

The WAEA TC’s Wireless Working Group (WWG) will take up the issue. Childers said he would be interested in a report from WWG on the potential use of UWB as an IFE delivery platform.