The entertainment quotient

In-flight entertainment (IFE) has become synonymous with long-haul flights with more and more airlines unveiling state-of-the-art IFE systems everyday to lure passengers. Alan Pellegrini, vice president and general manager (IFE) of Thales talks about the market and its scope. By Chetan Kapoor

Alan Pellegrini Vice President and GM (IFE) Thales

What is the global IFE market worth?

In general, the IFE market can be divided into three segments - hardware systems (worth US$ 1.3 - US$ 1.5 billion), acquiring content on a regular basis (worth half a billion) and after-sales support services (about US$ 500 to US$ 600 billion).

The Indian aviation sector is very strong and is growing fast. We have had success with Air India, Indian and Kingfisher - a collective market of over 100 aircraft and US$ 300 to US$ 500 billion for our equipment. India, along with China, is a very positive market at the moment with airlines purchasing modern fleet with newer entertainment systems. It is encouraging to see airlines in India be progressive about the type of systems and services they want to offer.

What influences incorporating newer features on these systems?

We look very carefully in what's going on in the consumer world, both in terms of technology and applications and try to adopt trends that are prevalent and widely accepted and find ways to 'put it in the air'. For example, using television technology onboard is complex than in one's home. This gave birth to the concept of installing satellite TV onboard and we've proved its success. Internet again is an 'on the ground' technology that we are looking to have onboard.

Beyond that, applications like community and social websites, chat rooms, instant messaging, etc. are very popular worldwide. This has resulted in us creating an application on our systems that allow passengers on the airplane to set up chat rooms and communicate with each other onboard.

What is the cost structure of installing IFE systems?

A typical IFE system will have over 2,000 parts/components. IFE systems cost between US$ 12,000 to 15,000 per seat, and airlines pay in billions depending on the number of seats. In addition to this cost, there would be an on-going support and maintenance cost of around 10 per cent per year, which would be 50 to 100 per cent in the course of the product's lifetime (five to ten years). Similar amount of money is being spent on acquiring content for which airlines work either with third parties or us.

What are the challenges faced while installing these systems?

In addition to assuring that these 'ground' features work smoothly onboard, there is an added risk of complexity because the systems have to be air-worthy and be certified by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which requires that these systems meet very rigorous standards for it being able to operate in harsh environmental conditions.

The degree of rugged utilisation that is required for the airborne environment adds to the complexity. It needs to offer long-term usage, unlike consumer peripherals that can be thrown away in three to four years. On the aircraft, such solutions are very expensive and one needs to find means to support that technology.

As far as issues with different aircraft manufacturing companies are concerned, we've worked out most of our issues and have overcome most of our challenges with Boeing, particularly Airbus. However, there still are some challenges especially with new aircraft platforms like Boeing 787 Dreamliner which is widely adopted. Nonetheless, it's a new aircraft and integration of these systems on its seats is a challenging aspect because you have electronics that are installed in the seats. Also, we are now going through a learning curve and an education process by learning how to integrate and develop systems that are appropriate for smaller cabins/aircraft like Embraer and Bombardier.

What would future IFE systems be like?

At present, while you see systems that are advantage of the server technology - the capacity to hold content has gone up dramatically so as to give more choice to the passengers. We have video games, higher resolution and even larger 23 inches video displays installed aircraft which are supported by newer, better applications.

In the future, we see more and more trends moving towards desired activity of the passenger - ability to allow them to do everything from SMS messaging, to internet access on the airplane.

What's your game plan for India?

We have acquired a good share of the market and are toe-to-toe with our competitors - Panasonic Avionics, a subsidiary of Panasonic - with our TopSeries line of IFE systems. Our success in the country depends on support, and we are ensuring that we have a strong support infrastructure with lots of talent resources for which we are partnering with local companies that can help us support our customers well.