March 21, 2008 – WITH another supplier promising new-product action at next month’s Aircraft Interiors Expo, the ever-entertaining handheld IFE sector could turn out to be one of the stars of the show.

First it was Utah-based digEcor, which last week trailed “new, less expensive product choices” (Inflight Online, March 15). Now British turnkey IFE supplier Mezzo says it plans to take the wraps off a new portable in Hamburg, declaring it will offer “an unparalleled level of support, flexibility, reliability and customer service.”

Up to now London-based Mezzo has relied on the eVU device from e.Digital of California as the basis of the end-to-end service it supplies to British corporate and VIP charter operator Titan Airways, TUI Group charter carriers Arkefly of the Netherlands, Jetairfly (Belgium) and Thomsonfly (UK), British low-cost carriers Flyglobespan and Jet2.com, charter operator XL Airways and transatlantic premium-only specialist Silverjet.

As well as supplying Mezzo, e.Digital deals in its own right with Air France, Alitalia, Lufthansa, Malaysia Airlines and, most recently, Italian leisure carrier Neos Air.

Mezzo is currently offering no clues as to the origin of its new hardware. “We have done substantial development work with our current clients on our new portable IFE system over the last year,” is all that Mezzo chief executive Dave Sampson will volunteer.

“We are offering a range of new services within the system which represents a significant step forward for our offering in the areas of hardware, content, financing, servicing and integration,” he says. “We will offer airlines a wide choice of handsets, as well as a new service to measure system performance and track handsets, batteries, chargers and carts to minimise wastage and improve utilisation.”

As for e.Digital, the US company could yet join the Hamburg rush to reveal. Last month president Will Blakeley said it was working on an eVU-based embedded system. “We have made significant progress on porting our core technology to a lightweight, flexible embedded solution,” he declared. “We believe that joint efforts with major airline and airframe companies will yield an embedded eVU system that will offer improved reliability, substantial product and weight/fuel cost savings, and other benefits.”