September 1, 2005 – WITH the biggest event in the IFE/communications calendar now just weeks away, it’s time for a calm look at the industry’s most volatile segment – handheld IFE.

Anyone visiting the WAEA show in Hamburg on September 20-23 with a view to getting a handle on this market should keep his eyes open for activity from no fewer than five actual or potential providers of handheld systems: APS/Wencor, IMS, Panasonic, Astronics and Global ePoint.

In recent months most of these players have been involved in a complex courting ritual that needs to be explained before their individual credentials are laid out.

Creator of the pioneering digEplayer, which it unveiled in September 2003, APS was acquired by Utah-based aviation spares specialist Wencor last October. Emboldened by the evident success of that move, Wencor this summer made a move for California-based IMS, creator of the second-generation PEA handheld.

Announced with a flourish at the beginning of July, the deal was to have seen Wencor taking majority ownership of IMS, leaving the existing management team in place to blend IMS with APS, and the combined operation developing a neatly integrated range of products addressing the full range of market opportunities.

Three weeks later it was all off, with Wencor CEO Brent Wood citing “irreconcilable differences on several key issues”. For his part, IMS chairman Joe Renton alluded pointedly to the superior IFE industry experience of his management team and emphasised that his company remained firmly in the market in its own right.

An acquisition that did go through this year was that of General Dynamics’ IFE interests by Astronics. But while lighting, power and networking specialist Astronics is clearly at ease with the task of marketing GD’s successful Empower range of in-seat power products, it seems to be scratching its head over what to do with YES!, a tablet PC-based handheld IFE product. So much so that earlier this year it was reported to be working with Panasonic to co-market YES! along with the Japanese giant’s emerging Personal Media Player.

Yet another takeover appears to have given rise to the latest handheld offering to come to the attention of Inflight Online. In May of last year US IFE and inflight communications installations specialist AirWorks was bought out by Global ePoint, which builds customised computing solutions and designs and markets digital video and audio products. At the time the AirWorks product range included cockpit door surveillance systems, an electronic flight bag and a laptop power system. Since then it has also sprouted a handheld IFE device called AirPlay.

Amidst this welter of wannabes and potential winners the original and still the most commercially successful supplier is APS, now owned by Wencor. New contracts for digEplayer have come this year from several low-cost carriers - including Independence Air and Midwest Airlines in the USA, Canada’s CanJet, and Pacific Blue, the international arm of Australia’s Virgin Blue. Other new customers are full-service operator Icelandair, British leisure carrier MyTravelUK, Dutch-based leisure/charter carrier Martinair and specialist charter operator Russia Jet Direct.

Wencor isn’t resting on these laurels, however. Aware of the pressure from other suppliers offering advantages over the excellent but limited digEplayer, the company is putting money into new products, including the semi-embedded digEsystem, and addressing markets outside IFE – this summer a company called Railway Media announced that it was renting digEplayers to travellers on the US Amtrak rail system.

Announced in April and due to be installed in an aircraft for the first time in the first quarter of next year, digEsystem is a bold attempt to slash the cost of in-seat IFE – APS/Wencor spokesman Tracy DeCuir said earlier this year that the cost of equipping all the seats in an Airbus A320, for example, would be half that of a traditional IFE system.

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.

Each eDVP will 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.

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.

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.

digEsystem’s prospects were boosted this summer when cabin systems giant B/E Aerospace announced at the Paris Show that it was to be integrated with the best-selling Spectrum economy-class seat and offered as a certificated option.

But it hasn’t all been plain sailing for APS/Wencor this year. There is talk of less than universal access to content, as well as manufacturing and support hiccups, and a trial with Canada’s Air Transat is said to have been abandoned early because of content shortcomings.

Looking to profit from any weakness in the APS/Wencor offering is the other here-and-now provider, IMS Inflight. Californian-based IMS has so far logged five customers for its PEA – Air Sahara, Jet Airways, Harmony Airways, Varig and new premium carrier Eos.

“We have lost no momentum and look forward to new product announcements at the WAEA show in Hamburg this September,” IMS chairman Joe Renton declared in the aftermath of the rupture with APS/Wencor. These are expected to include a digEplayer-type low-end product to round out the present range of PEAs.

Strengthening the IMS hand in the struggle for market share is what is seen by many as a superior content-supply infrastructure, not to mention a record of having flown content from all the major studios and independents. “Not only has IMS qualified for early-window content support from every major studio and every major independent,” comments IMS content consultant Michael Childers, “but I believe that the IMS delivery platform qualifies for support from any content provider in the world.”

Despite their head start and attractive products, both IMS and APS/Wencor must now be mopping their brows at the prospect of the arrival in their space of the mighty Panasonic, which plans to introduce a handheld range of its own this autumn.

Announced in April, the Japanese giant’s new Portable Media Player line will offer airlines the option of delivering content wirelessly from a central onboard server as well as having it stored on the hard discs of individual passenger units.

The initial PMP – more capable models are planned – will weigh about 2lb, including an 8hr removable battery. Measuring 237mm by 112mm by 40mm, it will feature a 7in LCD VGA screen offering a resolution of 850 X 480. It will have DVD player-style controls rather than a touchscreen. “PMP’s proprietary form factor arose from our own usability analysis and testing and is optimised for use aboard aircraft,” comments Panasonic spokesman David Bruner.

PMP content is expected to come from just about every major studio and distributor - “You can expect to see some novel types of programming available for PMP,” says Bruner – and Panasonic will support both off and on-aircraft and wired and wireless loading of content.

The initial PMP variant to be introduced this year is seen as the precursor of a range of products, the next of which will feature a larger screen. “The first PMP is intended to be our baseline or highest-volume model,” says Bruner. “We believe it scores over competing products in the quality of its industrial design, which combines simple, intuitive user controls, efficient charging and loading, and ruggedness in a beautiful package. It also includes a new type of LCD technology that delivers an extremely bright and clear picture, better than anything we are aware of in the market today.”

Panasonic has also clearly heeded emerging signs of dissatisfaction with the level of in-service support currently on offer in the handheld sector. Describing PMP as “a total solution approach,” the company says that its worldwide maintenance services group has the infrastructure and experience to manage content loading, battery charging, maintenance and servicing.

As mentioned above, Panasonic is co-operating with one potential adversary. “Astronics’ YES! Solo is really a premium product with a very large 10.4in LCD screen, powerful processor and Windows XP,” says Bruner. “So we have been working with Astronics to determine the market demand for a high-end device like theirs and have jointly marketed it to customers looking for this kind of product.”

It may be that Astronics, which acquired YES! when it bought General Dynamics’ Airborne Electronic Systems division in February, sees an alliance with Panasonic as the only way ahead for this product. Next to nothing has been said about it in public in the past months, and it gets no mention in Astronics’ current product literature.

For one reason or another, potential buyers may be pretty sure that the various products of APS/Wencor, IMS, Panasonic and Astronics are either real or soon will be. The solid track record of AirWorks as an independent company suggests that Global ePoint’s AirPlay probably is too, though enquiries to the company have so far elicited nothing more than can be seen on its Website.

According to the specification, in a package weighing less than 3lb Airplay offers 80Gb of memory, a rechargeable lithium battery good for 8-10 hours of use, and a 7in high-resolution LCD screen. Its form factor would allow up to 45 units to be carried in a standard beverage cart. The company says that it offers a full support service, including distribution to the locations and flights specified by the airline, content provision, and cleaning, maintenance and replacement as necessary.

In just two years the handheld IFE segment has come from nowhere to create a new market of its own among the low-cost and specialist carriers, and to nibble at the full-service customer base that the major suppliers of embedded systems have so far had to themselves. One of the big names has been stung into developing a handheld of its own; one of the handheld suppliers is working on a semi-embedded product; and another of the big players has slashed the weight and bulk of its embedded solution. The next 12 months could see the face of IFE hardware development changed beyond recognition.