Three hours into an overnight flight, the cabin lights are down and nobody has looked at the large bulkhead monitor since the safety briefing. One passenger’s reading a tablet, another’s scrolling through short video clips on a phone, while a third is staring at his laptop spreadsheet.
Ten years ago, that expensive, high-definition glass screen would have been the centerpiece of the cabin. Today, it’s best described as very costly wallpaper.
Despite this, we often assume that any cabin refurbishment will replace the installed system with a newer version. If the screens are old and the equipment’s dated, then the obvious step is to make sure a refreshed cabin has a properly upgraded entertainment system. But, instead of discussing which monitors or systems to install, it’s probably more relevant to discuss whether the aircraft needs them at all.
Because nowadays, the best entertainment system on your aircraft is likely to be the one your passengers bring with them. The aircraft doesn’t need to provide the entertainment; it just needs to enable the entertainment by providing high speed Wi-Fi.
Even at home, it’s a struggle to get a whole family to watch the same film together from start to finish any more. It’s not so bad when children are tiny but, by the time they hit eight or nine, they have their own iPads and their own tastes. And each person is likely to have multiple devices: put ten passengers on a long-range flight and you’ll find eleven different preferences.
In-flight entertainment (IFE in the trade) used to mean a system you bought and installed. It included screens, a tuned speaker system, a CD player and a VCR. Then it was a DVD or Blu Ray, followed by a hard drive loaded with films and music. Over the years, we shed the physical media to embrace streaming content, so today the content is likely already on your own device. Either downloaded before you board, or using the aircraft’s satellite connection, you’d simply stream in the air exactly as you would at home. And the type of media we consume changes drastically depending on your age or your interest: different generations use different devices to view different content from different sources. It would be impossible to cater for everyone with a single solution at a time when people choose their own entertainment.
The way we consume media changed years ago, and the aviation industry is only now just catching up.
But to be fair, there’s a good reason that aviation is usually a little slow to follow suit. Aircraft certification inevitably runs two or three years behind whatever technology is currently being sold – which is, generally, a good thing for safety and stability at altitude. Everything must be thoroughly tested and certified, which means that any on-board entertainment system is out of date on the day it’s installed.
If you own the newest smartphone, then you’d naturally want to be able to use the latest features and extra convenience they provide – even when you step on board. Which is likely to cause compatibility issues if the cabin’s relying entirely on a system with hard-wired output devices like screens or speakers.
As a result, we now ask our clients looking for a cabin refresh a question that would have been unthinkable twenty years ago. Do you need a hardwired entertainment system? What would it actually be used for?
We recently worked on a Boeing Business Jet that changed hands with an older system on board: built in DVD players, CD changers and some early HD monitors in every zone. For a new owner wanting to stream modern content, the more obvious solution would be upgrading to a modern like-for-like system. This would involve stripping out legacy wiring and connectors, replacing every screen on the walls, fitting a local media server, and adding satellite connectivity. The quote came in at around $2 to $2.5 million.
The alternative was to remove the old hardware altogether, replace monitors with the client’s artwork, install a high-speed satellite system and stream directly to personal devices – a route that costs roughly $900,000.
Either way – regardless of what you spend – consumer technology will need replacing every 3 – 5 years or so. The big difference is in what you replace and how much work that requires. The first owner needs to refit the cabin with the wiring, certification, and the inevitable downtime/hangar that come with it. The second can buy several new tablets.
Modern satellite connectivity brings all sorts of in-flight entertainment possibilities to the aircraft, with only two or three discreet routers to carry the signal through the cabin. We’re no longer faced with a limited choice of shows or films when we can stream anything – making the old arguments about onboard storage seem quaint. The sheer bandwidth available in-flight doesn’t require any throttling or cause any bottlenecks. We recently flew a Bombardier Global with eleven devices streaming video simultaneously from take-off to landing, just to see if we could make the network degrade. It didn’t hurt it one byte.
Having said that, there are still a few regions, globally, where satellite service isn’t approved, which means a self-updating local content server still earns its keep as a backup (alongside a drawer of five or six charged tablets for guests who forgot their own).
A tablet can be replaced when its owner wants the latest model, but updating equipment that’s bolted into an airframe represents a significantly larger investment, as well as a months-long hangar bill. It’s a decision you have to live with for the life of the interior. But by concentrating on the signal instead of the screen, the capital that would have been eaten up by depreciating electronics can be used for the parts of the cabin that don’t age.
Which leaves you with just a few essential screens – all of which have a specific job to do.
It’s useful to have a dimmable monitor in each zone for the moving map. This way, passengers can check where they are and when they land without waking the rest of the cabin. You’re also likely to need a larger screen or projector for the conference table – paired with proper directional audio – on the days the aircraft is a flying office. And, between video conference calls, that same monitor doesn’t have to sit there as a dead black rectangle. An attractive housing combined with a digital art subscription can turn the screen into a beautiful piece of decoration.
There’s a jet that flies with a real Picasso fixed securely to the cabin bulkhead – it’s an impressive piece. What’s less enjoyable is the eye-watering expense of insuring an irreplaceable art piece in an environment that cycles rapidly between hot, cold, humid, and bone-dry. A digital canvas needs none of that – and if your current mood doesn’t quite work with Cubism, you can swap it in an instant for Dali’s surrealism, or the vibrance of a Matisse. Or, if you prefer, you can lose the screen entirely. A tiny ceiling projector with an automated drop-down screen can appear whenever it’s needed and then disappear into the headliner immediately afterwards.
There’s still, however, one reason you might want a big screen. On a large enough aircraft, you can set up a media room for the children with a large hi-def screen with consoles for playing games or streaming media. It’ll keep children happy and preoccupied, instead of restlessly roaming a confined area. Although, as a parent, it’s worth asking yourself if you effectively want to train them to expect a private screening room every time the family travels.
Regardless of the size or placement, there’s one principle to keep in mind when choosing entertainment systems: purpose should drive every screen in the cabin.
A map, a meeting and a decorative picture all have a purpose. For everything else, the smartest technology you can put on the bulkhead is nothing at all. Give the cabin fast, invisible connectivity and put the budget into craftsmanship that won’t be obsolete in five years. Leave the entertainment to the device that’s already in your passenger’s pocket.