Beany

I was reading another thread where some people were questioning whether BA were going to be installing AVOD in all classes. Below is a press release I should have posted a few weeks back but assumed it had been picked up already. The press releases I have read all say 25 777's - I thought there were 40+!!!!:

http://www.rockwellcollins.com/news/page6780.html

British Airways selects Rockwell Collins Audio/Video on Demand

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (February 02, 2006) - Rockwell Collins has been selected by British Airways to upgrade its Total Entertainment System (TESTM) with Audio/Video On Demand (AVOD), daily digital news and audio jukebox capabilities. The upgrade is expected to be complete by December 2007.

Under the terms of the agreement, Rockwell Collins will upgrade the airline's existing TES systems on 57 Boeing 747's, 25 Boeing 777's and 14 Boeing 767's.

"The addition of AVOD functionality on British Airways' wide body fleet will significantly enhance the travel experience for passengers, while providing a great value for the airline," said Tommy Dodson, vice president and general manager, Passenger Systems for Rockwell Collins. "We're pleased to extend our successful relationship with British Airways."

"The introduction of audio and video on demand entertainment across our longhaul fleet will provide significantly more choice for all our longhaul customers and give them more control over what they watch and when during their flight," said Jamie Cassidy, British Airways' senior manager of longhaul proposition.

The upgraded system is part of a series of product investments the airline has planned over the next two years.

Rockwell Collins' TES offers a reliable, digital and flexible system built on a proven interactive platform. Its modular design offers airlines an economical growth path to functionalities like: AVOD, audio jukebox, SMS messaging, and fiber channel content loading, among others. Plug-and-play capability enables quick and easy upgrades without changing or replacing wires, distribution or seat electronics.

The TES platform allows airlines to implement applications offering passengers entertainment options like: shopping, PC-quality games, intranet pages, telephone communications and more. All this can be delivered with a customized user interface to match individual airline branding, or look and feel. TES is now installed and flying reliably on over 400 aircraft on more than 20 leading airlines worldwide.

Rockwell Collins (NYSE: COL) is a worldwide leader in the design, production, and support of communication and aviation electronics for commercial and government customers. The company's 17,000 employees in 27 countries deliver industry-leading communication, navigation, surveillance, display, flight control, inflight entertainment, information management, and maintenance, training and simulation solutions. Additional information is available at www.rockwellcollins.com.

SLF

Good news

I'm also hoping for a better moving map. Something interactive; i.e. instead of cycling through 20 pages of poorly laid out info; the ability for me to select the view I want. Also, with various flight parameters overlaid on the view, instead of having its own separate page. Reduce the font and put more info on each page too...

Markonen

iit's Total Entertainment!

Swanhunter

Who else uses Rockwell Collins? VS? CX? I am pretty sure SQ use Matsu....a.

BA380

if they are only doing 25 out of 43 777s, perhaps they are not upgrading the LGW fleet?

PhilH

They appear to be upgrading only one of the engine versions of the 777 (either GE or RR - can't tell which). If its the RR version (assume so given they're upgrading the 747 and 767 both with RR engines) and they're leaving the GE versions with the absurdly small screens, then there'll be even more "hit and miss" approach to flying the 777 routes - either fantastic big screen AVOD or ....ty small screen non-AVOD.

This could become one of the favourite thread topics on here - how to avoid the dreaded 777 small screens!

krug

I would like a camera on the outside of the plane - cool!

Dave_C

As per Can I Help You's post here, they've listed the IFE type by aircraft.

I've played arond with this and put it into a nice table, and there are 25 aircraft with the Rockwell Collins system (marked with an R), and 18 of the old small screen GMIS aircraft (marked with a G).

SLF

Excellent. And also a "listen to the cockpit" audio channel, as per UA.

PhilH

Thanks Dave_C, very helpful ^ . It seems as though there are some GE engined 777s with the Rockwell system, and there was me thinking that it all depended on engine type!

BA or bust

I flew on a GF Airbus a year or two back. Forward pointing camera showing takeoff and landing. Very cool! But one or two passengers weren't very happy at seeing the runway coming up at them at a considerable rate of knots!

SchmeckFlyer

Could someone enlighten me as to why the engine type affects the quality and selection of an inflight entertainment system? I know it has been covered, but I have since forgotten and cannot bring up the old thread(s).

Also like the audio on demand idea. I never listen to the audio channels, but if I could choose something, it would be a nice feature when the video stuff is boring or I do not feel like watching a screen (and the 6530 song selection on my iPod proves insufficient).

Dave_C

Unfortunately, it doesn't directly correlate.

If you look on the table I posted, the first column is either a G or an R. The G stands for GMIS, and is the old, 12 channel system with no games and small screens. The R is for Rockwell, and is the newer 18 channel system, with games and larger screens.

If you are on a RR powered 777 it will always have the new 18 channel system with the bigger screens and games.

Most of the GE powered aircraft are on the older system, but a few of the later ones have the newer system.

The table gives the full breakdown as to what aircraft has what system with the orginal information supplied by Can I Help You.

demiurg

Umm, I hope this will be a different system from the crappy AVOD system Rockwell Collins has sold to LH for their new business class. If that IFE works, navigating the menues is painfully slooooow. However, it is not uncommon that it does not work properly and the system gets rebooted several times during a flight (this is when you really need the AVOD capability ). During the several minute reboot you can watch with astonishment that they a) use Windows and b) boot via a 115k serial line and TFTP.

Unlike others I really like LHs new business class seats, but how they decided that this was an appropriate IFE system is beyond me.

But I am quite confident that BA won't make the same mistake, so it just has to be a different system.

Ascent

Qantas uses the 'TES' Rockwell system on the 744s and 333s
It doesnt have a very good reputation.
QF have chosen Panasonic/Matsush*ta for the 380s.

AirNZ have selected the 'eTES' Rockwell system for its cabin upgrades.