April 14, 2005 - WITH its new digEsystem embedded version of the successful digEplayer handheld, APS/Wencor is aiming to cut the cost of in-seat IFE by 50 per cent.

According to industry veteran Tracy DeCuir, recently appointed to manage digEsystem development and support marketing and sales, the cost of equipping all the seats in an Airbus A320, for example, would be half that of a traditional IFE system.

DeCuir says that digEsystem is now in development, with the initial installation scheduled for the first quarter of next year. It is already being offered to the airlines, and many carriers have expressed interest, he says.

digEsystem is based on digEplayer, with the exception that the passenger unit - called the the Embedded Digital Video Player (eDVP) - will run off standard in-seat power from Astronics, KID-Systeme or Page Aerospace and will have an IEEE 802.11a wireless network capability.

Also fitted with a stereo audio jack on the front panel, the eDVP has built-in button controls for on/off, brightness, channel and volume. Its hard disc contains the Linux operating system, a suite of applications, an HTML browser, and a library of content such as audio, video and other media forms.

digEplayer is currently being developed to receive a credit-card reader, and digESystem’s eDVP will be similarly equipped. The reader will be used to pay for content and to support other forms of inflight commerce. Transaction data will be stored in flight and then transferred on a secure wireless network to the card companies after the aircraft has landed for the day.

The eDVP will also have a USB 2.0 port to accommodate game controllers, keyboards and memory sticks. The game controllers are intended allow a wider selection of action-type games.

In a typical installation, the aircraft will have a docking station in each seatback, allowing the airline to fine-tune its IFE provision by installing eDVPs in any seat, zone or cabin, on the ground or in flight. Airline staff will be able to add or remove the eDVP in less than a minute, using a simple security installation tool that will be small enough to fit on a key-ring but complex enough to discourage theft. A quick-disconnect system will allow cabin crew to easily remove and replace defective units in flight.

In a basic installation, each eDVP would hold its content on a 60Gb hard disc, so that no head-end equipment is needed. But a central media server and wireless access point are in development to support the extra interactive functions - moving maps, gate information, news, weather, sport, pre-recorded TV programming, intranet - that APS/Wencor plans to introduce.

Time-sensitive content will be loaded to the media server on the ground by either a USB memory device or the PML’s wired high-speed port. The server will store the content and then distribute it wirelessly to all the eDVPs at the correct time. The media server could also act as a router for aircraft interfaces, offboard communications systems and all digEsystem cabin and maintenance functions.

Other planned enhancements include integration with inflight television, multiplayer games, broadband Internet connectivity - this would require the addition to the aircraft of a terrestrial or satellite air-to-ground communications system - and onboard public wireless LAN.

Content will be viewed on an 8in LCD touchscreen and refreshed regularly, with the 802.11a network providing the link between individual eDVPs and a portable media loader (PML) while the aircraft is on the ground. The PML - a battery-powered ruggedised computer incorporating a wireless access point and an Ethernet hub - will also be used to retrieve transaction and usage data from each eDVP.

Passenger content will include digEtunes (MP3 audio-on-demand, playlists), digEvideo (MPEG-4 video-on-demand films, shorts, music videos, TV programmes), digEgames (board games, single-player action games with controller), digEreader (PDF books, periodicals), digEtv (broadcast audio and video, safety demos), digEnet (onboard intranet, cached Web pages), digEnews (electronic newspaper), digEairport (airport, connecting-gate and destination information) and digEmap (flight information and flightpath).

Airline operational applications include digEdata (usage statistics and passenger surveys) and digEcrew (based on a specially configured eDVP with crew-only menus, used to start and stop safety demos and for text messaging to passengers).

* Icelandair is the latest carrier to acquire digEplayer, the original APS product. Operating from a hub at Keflavik Airport, Icelandair offers daily and regular scheduled services to Europe and North America.

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