December 21, 2007 – CALIFORNIAN-BASED TEAC Aerospace Technologies is to supply its AE-1600SS solid-state digital audio reproducer for installation in a total of more than 300 Airbus A319s and A320s and Boeing 737s,757s, 767s and 777s operated by United Airlines.

Intended to replace existing tape and CD-based audio systems, the units will be installed from the beginning of next year. The order is TEAC’s second recent deal with United, following the carrier’s selection of digital video reproducers for the same fleet of aircraft.

With 4Gb of solid-state memory, AE-1600SS can replay up to 24 channel-hours of stereo MP3 audio over 16 mono channels or eight stereo pairs or any mix of the two, as selected by the airline. TEAC says the solid-state memory is immune to impact and vibration, resulting in an exceptional mean time between failure, while the unit’s form factor is identical to that of existing tape and CD reproducers, allowing simple one-for-one replacement.

“Offering double the capacity of existing ARUs, this unit will allow United to expand the audio entertainment available to its passengers,” says Dan Vargas, TEAC director of IFE programmes. “It’s also a plug-and-play upgrade that can be easily installed on virtually all existing distributed systems using tape reproducers.”