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Hot Topic: WAEA – New Technology Rules!

The Metro Toronto Convention Centre hosted this year’s WAEA Conference and, as usual, there are too many stories from the show to cover in this issue alone; consequently, we will begin an overview today and cover more in upcoming issues of IFExpress. Also, we noted over 10 portable entertainment and connectivity players/suppliers and plan to devote a lot of future space to them. As technology seems to be the focus of the hardware side, here are a few highlights from last week:

We plan to devote a lot more space to the Panasonic Cool Room in upcoming editions but we thought you would like a glimpse of the iPod integration efforts underway in Lake Forest. All we will say is that Panasonic has emulated the look and feel of the Apple iPhone interface. Future Panasonic products at the seat may allow touch screen integration with your content and theirs by this very smooth and very cool development.

We have been hearing about ASIQ’s SafeCell for sometime now and the first prototype made an appearance at this year’s conference. Acting like a Faraday Shield the case prevents cell phone frequency transmissions from escaping the electronic pouch while permitting Bluetooth signals. The unit permits safe connection to a Bluetooth access point on the airplane. We cannot talk much about the “white box” you see in the picture but we will tell you that it will be a boon to data communications... stay tuned!

We hesitate to call them Bose-killers but Sennheiser has developed a high quality aviation headset featuring excellent noise cancellation and tremendous fidelity. It has another feature called “Talk Thru” that we found very handy. By pushing the button on the side of the ear cup passengers can hear flight attendant and PA announcements without removing the headset. It seams Sennheiser narrowed the band pass of the external noise canceling microphone to permit voice frequency signals to pass through the headset to the listener’s ear.

Using Wi-Max technology the folks at Thales in conjunction with Proximetry have developed and a ground and aircraft data communication system that functions like a standard gatelink connection to the plane. Here’s the catch: using a high gain 22 DBM base station antenna situated at an off-airport location, they are able to communicate to aircraft on the ground without paying the high fees affiliated with airport Wi-Fi. Man we love it when anybody sticks it to an airport authority! The clever flat-planed antenna sits in an unused aircraft window and only occupies about 1/4 of the window aperture. Thirty percent faster than standard Wi-Fi, the system has been in operation for two years in San Diego.

InPlight Peripherals Limited ran a fun contest during the WAEA and awarded a Video iPod to the person who could remove and replace IFPL’s removable jack product. The winner was Ken Newman of Virgin Atlantic, at his 1st ever WAEA, with a time of 6.93 seconds. The bad news is that Patricia Wiseman (our editor) was the SLOWEST with a time of 37.16 seconds. The other good news is that if Ken was to repair a 400 seat 747, he could swap out every single jack in less than 1 hour !!!!.... well, maybe! We doubt Patricia will quit her day job to swap out jacks at that rate!! On a serious note, InFlight Peripherals has developed an excellent reference book called “Which Audio Jack?” and it is basically the encyclopedia of aircraft headphone jacks. We talked IFPL into providing our readers with a free copy all you have to do is email them at enquiries@ifpl.com or call them at +44 (0) 1983 822611.
 

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Airbus A380 MNS009 to Embark on Route Proving Tours
9/24/2007 10:36:29 PM

Rockwell Collins unveils VenueTM cabin management system
9/24/2007 10:35:18 PM

Rockwell Collins introduces iPod integration solutions; Dassault Falcon to be launch customer
9/24/2007 10:34:34 PM

Rockwell Collins introduces new features for Airshow 4000
9/24/2007 10:34:05 PM

Rockwell Collins and Kaleidescape announce integrated entertainment interface
9/24/2007 10:33:41 PM

Rockwell Collins and Duncan Aviation bring Engineering Services Solutions to Business Jet owners
9/24/2007 10:33:11 PM

QEST generates plenty of interest at WAEA Conference & Exhibition
9/24/2007 10:32:42 PM

Panasonic Extends IFE Market Leadership through Mapping Solution Integration
9/24/2007 10:31:47 PM

Panasonic Takes Leadership Role in the Distribution of Overhead Video for Narrow Body Aircraft
9/24/2007 10:30:34 PM

LOT Polish Airlines Selects the Thales In-Flight Entertainment System for its Boeing 787 Aircraft
9/24/2007 10:25:38 PM

Inflight Entertainment Industry Veterans Michael Covell and Jim Snyder Win WAEA 2007 Lifetime Achievement Awards
9/24/2007 10:22:34 PM

Jet Airways (India) Ltd. and Emirates Airlines Awarded Top Honors at World Airline Entertainment Association (WAEA) Avion Awards
9/24/2007 10:21:25 PM

e.Digital Showcases eVU Extended Range System Featuring Industry-leading 20+ Hours of Video Playback from a Single Battery
9/24/2007 10:19:43 PM

Malaysia Airlines Successfully Launches e.Digital’s Portable 8” eVU IFE System and Services
9/24/2007 10:18:11 PM

Lufthansa Providing e.Digital's Portable 7" eVU IFE System and Services on Selected Routes
9/24/2007 10:16:20 PM

Inmarsat Announces Readiness of SwiftBroadband Service
9/24/2007 10:13:56 PM
 

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Alaska Airlines Adds In-Flight Internet
MarketingVOX

Last call for cattle calls on Southwest
Seattle Times
 

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NBAA 60th Annual Meeting & Convention
9/25/2007 - 9/27/2007

WAEA Technology Committee Meeting
1/22/2008 - 1/23/2008

8th Annual European Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (EBACE2008)
5/20/2008 - 5/22/2008

NBAA 61st Annual Meeting & Convention
10/6/2008 - 10/8/2008
 

IFExpress is sponsored in part by: