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WS to install Panasonic IFE system as next gen IFE and power outlets

WS to install Panasonic IFE system as next gen IFE and power outlets

Old Feb 14, 2014, 7:39 am
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WS to install Panasonic IFE system as next gen IFE and power outlets

Details here:

CALGARY - WestJet announced Friday it has signed a multi-year agreement with Panasonic Avionics Corporation to provide the airline with a new inflight entertainment system with the ability to feature wireless satellite Internet connectivity, live streaming television, on-demand movies, and magazines.

Passengers will be able to use their personal electronic device or laptop computer to receive live and stored content streamed wirelessly from a server on board each WestJet Boeing Next-Generation 737 aircraft. Airtime packages will also be available to surf the Internet and access email. Tablets will be available for people not travelling with a device.
Attribution: http://www.calgaryherald.com/busines...919/story.html

Recap,
-will use Panasonic IFE system to stream entertainment over Wifi.
- 110volt and USB power to be installed.
- Internet connection for a fee.
- first test aircraft by end of 2014. Rollout to take several years.
- on last weeks conference cll, it was mentioned that 2 73G leases were renewed to handle the extra downtime created by the IFE conversion. The lease were renewed until 2017. Expect te conversion to take a long time.
- seat back units to be pulled out of existing aircraft. Wonder if this means slimline seats are the replacement?
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Old Feb 14, 2014, 8:22 am
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I think they should have gone with GoGo based upon their current routes. Most of their routes are over Canada and the USA where they could make use of Gogo's air to ground network. For Westjet routes into Caribbean Gogo's system switches to satellite.

The Ku band that Panasonic's system utilizes is inferior to ATG or the Ka satellite band.

Regardless, power at the seats is long overdue for Westjet
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Old Feb 14, 2014, 8:48 am
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Originally Posted by riggins
I think they should have gone with GoGo based upon their current routes. Most of their routes are over Canada and the USA where they could make use of Gogo's air to ground network. For Westjet routes into Caribbean Gogo's system switches to satellite.

The Ku band that Panasonic's system utilizes is inferior to ATG or the Ka satellite band.

Regardless, power at the seats is long overdue for Westjet
Agreed. GOGO's hybrid ATG/satellite solution is far superior than Panasonic. GOGO use satellite for the downlink and the ATG for the uplink. Thus GOGO can provide much faster speeds than Panasonic's satellite only solution.
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Old Feb 14, 2014, 9:04 am
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Originally Posted by riggins
I think they should have gone with GoGo based upon their current routes. Most of their routes are over Canada and the USA where they could make use of Gogo's air to ground network. For Westjet routes into Caribbean Gogo's system switches to satellite.

The Ku band that Panasonic's system utilizes is inferior to ATG or the Ka satellite band.

Regardless, power at the seats is long overdue for Westjet
All the IFEC vendors were in contention for the system. Panasonic brought the best blend of knowledge, reliability, coverage and price. Gogo is a non-starter for all Caribbean, Hawaii and most Mexican flights as they always use a cell-based back channel (only good for IP based TV reception over water) - all the longest segments where IFEC take-up is highest, they also don't have running systems to demo their satellite streaming at the moment.

At the moment Ka spot beams have an edge over Ku, but Ku spot beams are coming later in 2015. Although the theoretical bandwidth of Ka systems is double that of Ku, in reality water vapour in the atmosphere attenuates the signal more in the Ka spectrum. In reality above cloud performance for Ka is about the same as Ku with the same angle spot beams. Ka is also problematic below cloud in any form of precipitation with attenuation up to several hundred fold (ie total signal loss), Ku is only slightly attenuated. From a coverage perspective, Ku has virtually every flight route in the world covered, Ka has quite a few coverage blind spots at the moment, cell-based is really only viable in the USA and Canada.

As Internet connectivity is only one aspect of an IFEC system that will likely see far fewer guests using significant bandwidth compared with video streaming from the on-board server, it is not the biggest deciding factor for IFEC selection. The most important component is the aircraft server components and in-cabin wifi delivery together with the software running the system.

The above decisions plus a whole raft more went into the selection of the Panasonic system over the past 18 months, including many sampled flights on airlines using relevant IFEC system components including American, United, Southwest, Jet Blue, Rouge, Alaska and Delta.
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Old Feb 14, 2014, 1:22 pm
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Quick calculation has the AC XM program converting 130 aircraft over 5 fleet types (319, 320, 321, 333, 763). Note I have excluded the 77W, 77L, E75 and E90 as these airplanes came factory direct with the XM cabin. The AC XM program took 3.5 years to complete with the 763 fleet being the hardest due to numerous fleet subtypes.

The WS IFEC program will start Q4-2014 and judging by the replacement aircraft will end sometime in 2017. There are three fleets to convert (736, 73G, 738) assuming that nothing is done to the Encore Q400s. However there are two subfleets to consider, some 73G and 738 aircraft are dark, therefore they do not have IFE servers, IFR cabling and satellite dishes installed. The total number of fleet types s five (736, 73G, 73G Dark, 738, 738 Dark).

All aircraft will have to be converted the current fleet is 105 737s with another 7 aircraft to come in 2014 and 10 aircraft to arrive in 2015. It is possible for some of the 2015 deliveries to come directly from factory with Panasonic IFE installed so for assumption purposes let set the number of dark 2015 aircraft at 5. Finally we have to consider that WS is unlikely to convert the 10 airframes going to WN in 2014/2015. Therefore total airframes to be converted is 107 to 112 depending on the speed that WS can certify the 73G and 738 fleets in 2015.
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Old Feb 14, 2014, 4:23 pm
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Originally Posted by WR Cage
However there are two subfleets to consider, some 73G and 738 aircraft are dark, therefore they do not have IFE servers, IFR cabling and satellite dishes installed. The total number of fleet types s five (736, 73G, 73G Dark, 738, 738 Dark).
The existing servers, cabling, distribution boxes, dishes and radomes for LiveTV equipped aircraft all have to be de-modded before the installation of the Panasonic system that utilises no components from the LiveTV system. The aircraft skin has to be restored where the original radome was and the new STC applied for the new system with the radome being installed in a different position, this will be common whether the aircraft is dark or not, so there are 3 STCs required in total (736, 73G, 738).
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Old Feb 14, 2014, 9:33 pm
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Power at the seats would definitely be a bonus. How fast will the Internet connectivity be?
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Old Feb 15, 2014, 12:00 am
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With these tablet based IFE systems do the seats have some sort of clamp to hold the tablet at eye level? or are you forced to hold it/put it on the tray? I'm just thinking that it would make for a very sore neck!
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Old Feb 15, 2014, 8:16 am
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I personally couldn't care less about IFE, and care very little about Wi-Fi since I like to use flight time for work uninterrupted by emails. But power at the seats is long overdue, and to me, its the most welcome news of all.
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Old Feb 15, 2014, 12:55 pm
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Very interesting development. I am wondering how good this system will be.

UA has been struggling with its wifi reliability.
QF and Rouge are also having multiple issues with the wireless system.

Do we know if the system will have television? flew on it with TK and it had some news channels and a soccer channel if I recall correctly.
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Old Feb 15, 2014, 11:23 pm
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Originally Posted by YULjohnw
Very interesting development. I am wondering how good this system will be.

UA has been struggling with its wifi reliability.
QF and Rouge are also having multiple issues with the wireless system.

Do we know if the system will have television? flew on it with TK and it had some news channels and a soccer channel if I recall correctly.
The system will be TV channel capable, delivered by streamed TCP/IP, but no decision on which live TV will be offered has been made yet.

To provide a reliable system with good performance requires attention to a vast number of details. The core technology from Panasonic performs very well, but software configuration, number of access points and wifi channel mapping, crew training, maintenance and operational procedures and streaming video encoding all need to be carefully optimized to provide the best guest experience.

I can't speak about the QF system, but having used the AC Rouge and UA systems, I know they are fundamentally "out of the box" and are not necessarily fully optimized from both a technology and procedural perspective.
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Old Feb 16, 2014, 10:42 pm
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Originally Posted by WR Cage
Details here:



Attribution: http://www.calgaryherald.com/busines...919/story.html

- seat back units to be pulled out of existing aircraft. Wonder if this means slimline seats are the replacement?
Yes, Recaro slimline seats will be installed, which will be good for overall space between one's seat and the seat in front, in my opinion.
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Old Feb 17, 2014, 11:24 pm
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Thank you for the explanation Aerobod. Very exciting to see wifi in the air coming to Canada.

I am looking forward to trying this new system later this year.

I wonder if Air Canada will react to this but it seems that Westjet has the clear lead.
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Old Feb 18, 2014, 10:10 am
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Originally Posted by YULjohnw
Thank you for the explanation Aerobod. Very exciting to see wifi in the air coming to Canada.

I am looking forward to trying this new system later this year.

I wonder if Air Canada will react to this but it seems that Westjet has the clear lead.
I sort of doubt AC would add wifi, expect maybe on Rouge aircraft and the mainline widebodies. The Airbuses and E90s will exit the fleet in the not too distant future so it wouldn't make a lot of sense financially.

The current PTVs are enough to keep everybody happy until then.
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Old Feb 18, 2014, 1:01 pm
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Originally Posted by winnipegrev
I sort of doubt AC would add wifi, expect maybe on Rouge aircraft and the mainline widebodies. The Airbuses and E90s will exit the fleet in the not too distant future so it wouldn't make a lot of sense financially.

The current PTVs are enough to keep everybody happy until then.
I would agree with you, when you look at the cost of spare aircraft (WestJet is delaying the return of 2 lease returns 2 years or so to cover aircraft during IFEC system install) and the cost of the antenna, radome and associated equipment, the real cost of just putting Internet connectivity on one aircraft is well over $500K. It doesn't make sense if the aircraft is exiting the fleet in less than about 5 years.
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