State-of-the-art inflight entertainment for business aviation
This is how leading companies create immersive, connected cabin ecosystems with personalized content, ultra-high-fidelity audio/video, and precise environmental control for passengers.
By Jake Carpenter
Contributing Writer
Inflight entertainment (IFE) has come a long way since 1921, when the silent 8-mm promotional short film Howdy Chicago! was first shown on a projector for 11 passengers during a sightseeing flight over Chicago.
Indeed, today’s business aviation IFE constitutes a highly sophisticated, connected-cabin ecosystem that offers passengers an immense amount of personalized and updated entertainment content, super fast connectivity, the highest possible audio and video fidelity, interactive 3D moving maps, online shopping portals, and precise cabin control.
In this article, we highlight cutting-edge business aviation IFE products currently being offered by Alto Aviation, Astronics, Bongiovi Aviation, Collins Aerospace, DPI Labs, Gogo, Honeywell, Icarus, Lufthansa, and Rosen Aviation.
Alto Aviation
Alto Aviation provides the highest-fidelity immersive audio, lightweight technology, and seamless cabin control.
The Alto Soundstage achieves concert hall quality sound up to 105 dB using concealed loudspeakers and specialized lightweight subwoofers.
This is further supported by Class-D digital amplifiers, Sinewatch distortion elimination, and dynamic signal compensation to keep audio crystal-clear despite cabin noise.
Alto also features immersive Dolby Atmos surround sound that uses digital signal processing- (DSP-) controlled amplifiers and precision loudspeakers to create a 3D listening experience in which sound moves around the passenger.
Proprietary optimization technologies are also included, such as Alto nVelop Digital Surround Sound and Alto MySound, which tune audio precisely for each specific cabin and individual seats.
The Alto Soundbar Cabin Audio System consolidates performance into a single bulkhead-installed unit.
The Cadence Cabin PED Control app also allows passengers to control their environment directly from their own personal electronic devices (PEDs).
Alto Aviation products are installed on a wide range of major platforms, including Gulfstream, Bombardier Global Express and Learjet, Dassault Falcon, and Embraer Phenom 100/300.
Astronics
Avenir is Astronics’s next-generation cabin management and IFE ecosystem for business aviation. It features a high-bandwidth Ethernet architecture that distributes audio, video, and system control at a minimum of 300 GB per second.
Avenir achieves native 4K video distribution and offers a broad range of high-definition and 4K monitors ranging from 7 to 75 inches, and to large-format 4K OLED/LCDs up to 77 inches.
For content, Avenir provides audio video on-demand (AVOD) with an extensive catalog of full HD movies and television shows, and enables wireless and wired streaming from the onboard server to wired cabin monitors and wireless PEDs simultaneously without latency.
SkyPlay also allows passengers to access music, books, magazines, and satellite television.
The platform also supports full integration with major video game consoles. Flight awareness and visualization are provided through SkyShow and Avenir’s interactive 3D moving-map.
Passenger control is unified through the fully customizable Smart Touch Cabin app, which turns PEDs into comprehensive remotes for managing lighting, temperature, humidity, shades, seats, and beds, with additional functions including food and beverage menu integration, and even cabin fragrance selection.
Immersion is deepened through a state-of-the-art integrated 5.1 and 7.1 surround sound system that uses dual-range speakers, full size subwoofers, and digital audio decoders.
Bombardier, Gulfstream, Dassault, and Cessna are among the many business jet platforms that have Avenir installed.
Bongiovi Aviation
Bongiovi Aviation specializes in high-fidelity, speaker-less IFE audio systems designed specifically for business aviation. In operation, small transducers mounted behind cabin panels transform sidewalls and headliners into acoustic radiators, decoding Dolby Atmos content and distributing it over a fiber-optic backbone.
This delivers zero-latency, studio-quality performance that creates a 360-degree, 3D sound field for films, music, and communications without visible speakers. “The immersive sound is unique in the way that the sound is distributed evenly throughout the cabin,” explains Bongiovi Aviation VP of Product Development Rob Hamelink.
DPS tuning also uses 120-plus calibration points to optimize sound for the unique acoustic profile of each aircraft’s interior panels. Underpinning this approach is the DPS audio solution itself – a proprietary algorithm that remasters audio in real time and is specifically tuned for the high-noise business-jet environment by overcoming high-frequency ambient jet noise.
Bongiovi Aviation’s audio systems are currently installed on various business jets, including the HondaJet Elite, Cessna Citation Ascend, Gulfstream G550, and Dassault Falcon 7X.
Collins Aerospace
Collins offers 4K capability, hardware consolidation, and seamless mobile integration that delivers a home-like theater experience.
Its Venue cabin management system (CMS) combines ultra-high-definition 4K smart monitors with touch control switch technology and wireless passenger control so that travelers can manage entertainment, lighting, window shades, and cabin temperature through an intuitive interface.
For content, Stage on Demand offers a continually updated catalog of more than 700 Hollywood movies and television shows, as well as news, music, and magazines in HD or 4K.
Multiple language options are also available, and the system can stream to cabin monitors or passengers’ phones, tablets, or laptops without requiring an active inflight Internet connection or physical media to be loaded onto the plane.
Tailwind 500 Satellite TV adds direct broadcast programming with more than 1000 channels.
Airshow Moving Maps provides interactive 3D flight tracking with detailed geographical imagery, flightpath and point-of-interest views, estimated time of arrival (ETA), and a simulated pilot’s head-up display (HUD).
The Venue CabinCommand app extends wireless control of entertainment and cabin functions to passengers’ personal electronic devices (PEDs). Venue is currently installed on more than 1800 business aircraft across 50 different platforms.
DPI Labs
DPI Labs offers ultra-high definition visual hardware with decentralized cabin control, secure, lightweight wireless streaming, and integrated cabin technology. Its flagship visual product is SmartCanvas OLED cabin displays, which deliver 4K ultra-high-definition (UHD) resolution using self-lit pixels.
DPI also achieves remarkable weight reduction, in which its 65-inch OLED unit weighs only 3.5 lb and is the approximate thickness of a nickel. It offers 55-inch and 65-inch models, smaller specialized versions between 24 and 40 inches for personal seat zones, and transparent touchscreen variants.
High definition audio/video distribution is supported through scalable solutions that include zero-latency distribution of uncompressed 4K video over a fiber-optic ring network with no lag, plus high-fidelity surround sound processors, subwoofers, midrange speakers, amplifiers, and HD video on demand.
SmartLink serves as its decentralized CMS/IFE “operating brain” that integrates entertainment with environment controls by managing audio/video distribution, lighting, and cabin comfort.
Wireless streaming and cabin management enable passengers to connect personal devices to onboard servers to stream secure, high definition content and to control cabin features. DPI Labs’s aviation products are currently installed on various business jets, including Bombardier Challenger, and Air Force One.
Gogo
Fully integrated into every Gogo Avance system, Gogo Vision 360 delivers an on-demand, home theater-like experience on laptops, tablets, smartphones, and cabin monitors, and stores high-definition licensed content locally on the aircraft’s hardware. Its curated library is updated monthly and includes more than 150 films and television shows, as well as exclusive Disney content.
A dynamic eMagazine is also provided, with more than 30 titles, as well as Bloomberg news, markets, and sports. Passengers use an intuitive touchscreen interface to browse or search by genre, duration, or type.
They can also access a 3D interactive moving map that provides destination weather, cockpit/pilot perspectives, a simulated HUD, virtual window-seat views, global points of interest, and detailed 3D Earth satellite imagery.
Live television is available via DIRECTV, and offers multi-device viewing on cabin monitors and personal devices simultaneously.
Gogo’s Avance and entertainment products are currently installed on many business jets, including HondaJet, Gulfstream G150, and Phenom 300.
Honeywell
Honeywell’s cutting-edge integrated CMS and IFE platform for business aviation is Ovation Select.
When paired with Honeywell Inmarsat or Iridium L-band Satcom or JetWave (or JetWave X) Ka-band high-speed Internet Satcom, this Ethernet-based system enables super-fast streaming of TV/movies/music, and video conferencing.
With Ovation Select, every seat truly becomes its own theatre in the sky.
Video is 4K-ready and features 1080P HD widescreen displays in 9-inch seat, 20-inch bulkhead, and 8.9 and 10.1-inch touchscreens. The system provides full-HD images from any source, including PEDs.
In terms of audio, the system comes with state-of-the-art nVelop surround sound.
Ovation Select also provides region-free Blu-ray players, Apple TV and satellite TV (AIS-2000) integration, and XM radio.
High definition audio/video on demand (AVOD) is also provided, and includes access to early release window theatrical movies.
JetMap HD is Ovation Select’s dynamic and interactive 3D moving map, which presents detailed points of interest, worldwide 15-meter satellite imagery, and up to 18 perspectives – all viewable on PEDs and monitors.
Each passenger also has independent control of all content and settings from anywhere in the cabin, with simultaneous independent distribution to each hard-wired monitor and hand-held device.
Ovation Select also allows passengers precise control over cabin temperature, lighting, window shades, and seating.
This control is provided by a galley Ovation Select touchscreen (OST) monitor, at-seat plug-in monitors, touchscreen personal control units (PCU 100/200 and Bluetooth-capable PCU 300), and the Honeywell Cabin Control app on smartphones and tablets, It also includes Apple Watch support.
Consumer electronics integration is also fully supported through an auxiliary panel, and links seamlessly consumer devices to the CMS for audio and video display.
The Ovation Select platform is scalable from light to widebody business jets, and is standard on numerous aircraft, including the Embraer Legacy 450/500 and the Praetor 500/600.
Icarus
The Icarus One portable IFE system is hardware-agnostic, advanced, portable, and works off line. The system centers on the world’s first AI virtual flight attendant – Anna – delivered on a 4-TB battery-powered server that weighs approximately 3 lb. The system has support for more than 500 simultaneous users.
Anna uses flight-aware technology to answer flight-specific questions, and provide route updates, arrival times, local weather, service details, onboard media recommendations, and automated, contextual cabin announcements in more than 8 languages.
Icarus One is also an offline entertainment hub that provides a curated library of movies, television shows, and digital magazines, as well as 100-plus multi-language interactive games and entertainment products.
Flight visualization is offered through high-fidelity moving maps that present real-time flight position, speed, altitude, and proximity to notable landmarks. Because Icarus One is portable, it can be used on virtually any business jet platform.
Lufthansa
Lufthansa’s nice system offers truly seamless technology integration and business cabin luxury. Nice’s media and control capabilities are combined with aesthetically concealed interfaces and high-performance infrastructures.
The platform is built on a robust Ethernet data distribution backbone, supports large 4K monitors, and features a true Hi-Fi audio system designed specifically for IFE.
The system provides a curated selection of more than 300 movies, 300-plus TV shows, and an expansive audio program with over-the-air updates.
Notably, Lufthansa includes its hidden touch display concept through the nice Intellitable, which embeds a high definition touchscreen directly into folding tray tables.
Its display is invisible when not in use and enables control of seat settings, reading lights, media access, a digital magazine flip book, food and beverage ordering, and a 3D moving map.
“We are permanently rethinking how technology integrates with interior design, creating more cohesive and natural interactions.
The nice Intellitable exemplifies this approach,” states Lufthansa Technik VP Original Equipment and Special Aircraft Services Andrew Muirhead.
The niceview mobile app also enables entertainment control, ordering food and beverage, lighting and temperature adjustment, communication with the flight crew, and voice control technology.
The nice system is installed on a wide range of business jets, including the Embraer Phenom 100EX and the Pilatus PC-24.
Rosen Aviation
Rosen Aviation offers an ultra-high end modular suite for business jets that is focused on fully integrated cabin ecosystems built around immersive visuals, high fidelity audio, and personalized cabin technology. Rosen uses state-of-the-art large-format 4K OLEDs ranging from 13 to 97 inches. These ultra-thin displays are built on a carbon composite chassis and offer superior color and viewing angles.
Notably, Rosen’s Exterra Digital Windows and Skylights uses tiled 42–77 inch curved OLED panels to recreate the outside world using external cameras and/or custom landscapes, and can create an observatory effect of the world immediately outside of the plane by curving from ceiling to floor.
Our diverse customer base has been asking for this next-level experience, and now we’re delivering beyond their expectations,” comments Rosen SVP of Strategy Lee Clark.
Rosen’s Theia next-generation IFE platform acts as the cabin’s brain, which supports personalized app hosting for streaming services and can synchronize media with lighting and climate.
State-of-the-art audio immersion is achieved through Immersa AudioSphere – a patented in-seat system that uses sound-wave propagation to form a holographic personal audio zone around a passenger’s head, for a private headphones-free theater-like experience at each seat.
Rosen Aviation products are currently installed on a broad range of business jets, including the Gulfstream G700, Cessna Citation jets, and Dassault Falcon 2000 series.
Increasingly comprehensive IFE ecosystems
From that first 8-mm silent film presented in-flight to passengers in Chicago in 1921, business aviation IFE has evolved dramatically into previously unimaginable, connected-cabin ecosystems.
Indeed, vast amounts of dynamic, personalized content, super-fast connectivity, precise cabin control, and cutting-edge acoustic and visual technology are engineered as a single, coherent, powerful experience for each passenger.
The companies presented here offer outstanding state-of-the-art IFE products, including uninterrupted streaming of huge libraries of Hollywood films, more than 1000 live TV channels, ultra-thin large-format 4K OLEDs, headphones-free theater-like experiences at each seat, real-time, virtual window recreations of the outside world, wireless control of entertainment and cabin functions via PEDs, and much more.
As these exciting technologies continue to advance and new ones appear, the business jet cabin is expected to offer an entertainment environment that increasingly matches – and may even exceed – what passengers will be able to enjoy on the ground.
Jake Carpenter has been a writer and editor for more than 20 years. He has a BA from UCLA. Highlights of his work include The Economist, the RAND Corporation, National Institutes of Health, and with a Nobel Prize winner in medicine. He has written articles on avionics for Pro Pilot for more than a year.