I wanted to give all of you an insight as to how the airline inflight entertainment system works. You may be wondering how it operates. For instance how can the Video pause when a crewmember is speaking over the loudspeaker. The way it works is there is a special part of the music server program that tells the screen to pause when it senses the intercome has been activated. As for the music it is stored like MP3 files airlines are going toward mp3 files as it is eaiser for them to upgrade. Why use CDs when you can have mp3 files?

So you want to know how each chanel has different music? Well on the newer music servers each channel is a folder with music. So channel 1=Jazz Channel 2 = Easy Listening etc. The language tracks for the movie are stored on the computer. It looks like some airlines use videos but most have dvds. So either the video or dvd player has an audio output to the computer and from there it translates the sound into the selected language. So on channel 13 its english channel 14 french . As for the advertisement of the channel for instance you hear Your Listening to United Infilght Entertainment Soft Sounds and you hear the DJ speak that is saved into .wav files that are professionally recorded so that the next file plays with no delay.

As for the Airshow map that is connected to the central server and that too has the language settings and conversions built in. This system can be programmed to show the map at intervals or can be controlled from a mini device like you see in houses where the flight attendant selects with a small pen Airshow,movie, boarding music on and off. This is how the new AC will be soon.

For the atseat personal tvs that is runned through the computer too. Each channel has a special DVD disk that is set on continous play . The reason it takes a long time for the channel to repeate is because the computer is set to a 15 minute restart so that passengers know they won't miss the broadcast. It is like a DVD player so it can start up quickly. As for the games each PTV has a small hard drive and when you select the game it loads up. On each PTV there is a network card connected to the computer so that you can select different seats to play with. Also the airmap is displayed too.

If you are on United Airlines and you tune to the from the cockpit channel the way this channel operates is that the radio has a special connection to the computer and the computer runs it as streaming audio with no buffer like Real Audio. It streams the audio to the selected channel.

For the telephone system that is connected to the computer and satelitte. On the new ac you will be able to have voicemail and unified messaging via your PTV. The computer acts like a PBX so you can call another seat. On the newer phones there will be buttons to call each seat and setup your voicemail. From the company that makes the airphone there is an 1800 number a person calls and you set up an access code. As for the credit card portion once you swipe your credit card the phone automatically dials a 9 like in a company but you don't notice it as you enter the number directly. So basically it is a PBX system with a credit card block.

As for internet access that is on some airlines you have a keyboard like Webtv . You then select the internet option on the phone,swipe your CC and then the internet browser automatically opens . From here you can email and browse the net.

On airlines such as Jetblue with live tv and more airlines might follow suit the computer has a special satellite tuner built in to carry the signal to the computer then it is connected to the computer with a special splitter so channel 1 = channel 1 on the PTV.

So I hope this report helps. For more info visit AEI Music's website so you can see the computers. For Airshow vist Airshow Incs website.