Amount: $2.5 million during the week of 9/8/2003

By JOHN COOK

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

An Alaska Airlines baggage handler, who spends his free time running two Lakewood coffee shops, a day spa and a start-up company, may change the way you view movies on airplanes.

Bill Boyer, a 38-year-old college dropout who has spent the past 16 years handling baggage at Sea-Tac Airport, unveiled his portable entertainment device yesterday, winning praise even from competitors at the World Airline Entertainment Association`s meeting in Seattle.

Dubbed the digEplayer, the 2.4-pound, battery-powered unit can hold up to 30 full-length movies, hours of digital music, maps, cartoons, sitcoms, language courses and travel promotions. 20th Century Fox has agreed to make first-run movies and other content available on the device while DMX will provide up to 10 hours of music.

Cheaper and lighter than in-seat entertainment systems, Boyer`s device has already won over some airline industry executives.

``It was a simple idea and a very good idea and sometimes those are the best ideas,`` said David Palmer, managing director of marketing at Alaska Airlines.

Seattle-based Alaska Airlines already has agreed to buy 1,000 players for use on half a dozen cross-country routes. The units, which cost a little more than $1,000, will be provided free to first-class passengers beginning next month. Passengers in the main cabin will be able to rent the media players for $10 or reserve them before boarding for $8.

Other airlines and content providers are discussing partnership agreements, said Boyer, who founded Tacoma-based APS in 1997. Backed with $2.5 million from family members and angel investors, the three-person start-up has been working on the digEplayer for two years.

Alaska Airlines had considered deploying an in-flight entertainment system from LiveTV, a subsidiary of JetBlue Airways that broadcasts 24 channels of live television programming from ESPN, The History Channel and others.

But the system, which required an antenna, server boxes and in-seat monitors in each airplane, was too expensive. The LiveTV system also could not be used on flights that cross international borders, a problem for an airline that routinely flies over Canada and Mexico.

After reading postings on the Alaska Airlines` message board about the challenges of in-flight entertainment systems, Boyer had an entrepreneurial epiphany. Though he had no knowledge of portable devices, he started working on basic drawings.

``I said you know, I want to do something,`` he recalls.

While working weekend shifts as a baggage handler and running his two coffee shops, Boyer came up with the idea for a light-weight video-on-demand system that would allow passengers to choose movies and TV programs. He submitted his colored sketches to Palmer, who was impressed with the concept but knew it would go nowhere without participation from the movie studios.

About this time, Boyer met Ray Henson -- a former software engineer at Intel who frequented Boyer`s coffee shop in Lakewood.

In exchange for free hot chocolate, Henson offered his expertise. Together, they pushed forward with the concept, tackling the most complex software and hardware issues. One of the biggest involved licensing content from Hollywood studios.

``We went to the movie people and they said we are not about to put our first releases on a portable device and then have it show up all over Hong Kong,`` recalls Henson, who came up with a way to encrypt the videos for replay. Providing additional security, Boyer and Henson also developed a proprietary battery that runs out after six hours.

A workaholic who sleeps only a few hours a day, Boyer has always tinkered with things. As a boy he would draw blueprints for model submarines. His dad -- a retired engineer with an aerospace company -- remembers his son building model boats from scratch.

``He was into everything,`` said William Boyer Sr. ``He would work himself to death until he almost got done with it and then he would lose interest and move on to something else.``

His mom still frets over his long workdays.

``I worry about his health,`` said Yung Boyer. ``He works too hard.``

But it is that hard work -- combined with a curiosity and ability to solve complex problems -- that has placed Boyer at the forefront of the in-flight entertainment industry.

``Bill is one of those people who sees things and stews on them until he finds a solution to the problem,`` said Palmer. ``We had aircraft damage from belt loaders pulling up too aggressively to the belly of the aircraft and Bill, through watching that, invented a bumper device that saved us uncountable dollars.``

Even competitors -- most of whom are in town for this week`s World Airline Entertainment Association conference -- had nice things to say about the portable device.

``It is a good idea, light and small,`` said Dale Linder, director of cabin electronics for General Dynamics. Linder`s company yesterday introduced EmPower YES!, an in-flight entertainment system that can store 28 feature films and 100 hours of music. Because the system is embedded in each seat of an aircraft, it is heavier and more costly than the APS.

That extra payload might not seem like much. But some installed entertainment systems can weigh more than 2,000 pounds per aircraft, which translates to about $80,000 per year in fuel.

Glenn Latta, vice president of LiveTV, which offers its television service in every seat on every plane operated by JetBlue, said the media player from APS offers airlines a cheap and easy way to enter the market.

``It is a low-cost, flexible option that really judges demand,`` Latta said. ``A potential disadvantage is if you don`t have that option for every customer and customers want it, how do you deal with that?``

Besides digEplayer, Boyer`s company yesterday announced a wireless device on which flight attendants can charge passengers` credit cards for beverage or meal purchases. It also tracks the amount of beer and liquor sold on the aircraft. In a recent test of the pagerlike device, liquor sales increased 30 percent.

Boyer is hopeful that APS can help struggling airlines make more money.

Having spent 16 years on the tarmac, loading and unloading bags, Boyer still isn`t sure if he is ready to leave Alaska Airlines.

``They won`t let me quit,`` joked Boyer, who has taken a leave of absence to market the digEplayer. ``Being around the airline industry has given me the inside look of what airline executives are thinking and what they need. If I see a problem, I try to come up with a solution.``

Alaska Airlines spokesman Jack Evans thinks it is just a matter of time before Boyer goes full-time with APS.

``I think it is only starting to hit him that he is probably not going to be a baggage handler for very much longer,`` Evans said.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/venture/funding.asp?company=APS