More France IP Communications Stories

Panasonic Avionics Corporation (Panasonic (News - Alert)), a supplier of in-flight entertainment and communication (IFEC) systems, announced the launch of its ‘Panasonic Airline Television Network’ at the Aircraft Interiors Exposition.

 

The Panasonic Airline Television Network is a proprietary broadcast TV distribution network that is designed to provide flight passengers with live news, information as well as events - wherever the aircraft flies, thereby offering a virtually continuous entertainment experience as the aircraft moves from one coverage area to another.

 

Panasonic’s worldwide in-flight television distribution system, Panasonic Airline Television Network, is powered by Ku based satellite network as its eXConnect service. This in-flight network service also provides airlines with additional revenue opportunities through onboard ad insertion and pay-per-view access. By making use of same antenna and onboard components as the eXConnect broadband system, the company has reduced hardware and installation costs as well, according to the company.

 

In order to distribute the TV broadcast signals, Panasonic entered into multi-year agreements with five major television news groups that will be providing live news as well as information via its proprietary Panasonic Airline Television Network. The licensed news organizations are Al Jazeera, BBC World News, the BLOOMBERG TELEVISION network, euronews and France 24. Further discussions with additional broadcasters are going on, said the company.

 

Panasonic said that the company will be defining and managing the selection of channels. All licensing and distribution agreements will be made directly with the content providers. It has also greatly simplified the content management process and system design by defining and controlling the encryption format that is utilized for the content distribution.

 

The present day in-flight solutions utilize existing direct-to-home feeds for their programming. The beams for these feeds are optimized to serve consumers on land, but not to aircrafts in-flight. Even, the existing distribution agreements that govern the broadcast of content are often limited to specific geopolitical boundaries.

 

Whereas, Panasonic Airline Television Network is not reliant on existing distribution networks and encryption formats as well, thereby offering a seamless, synchronized, global TV network to airline passengers, said the company.

 

In addition, Panasonic said that its network’s scalability and flexibility feature has enabled the company to add more channels and content to the network in the coming future, in order to meet passenger demands or an airline’s specific regional needs.

 

“The Panasonic Airline Television Network is the first seamless, worldwide in-flight television network,” said Paul Margis, CEO of Panasonic Avionics Corporation. “As yet another industry first, the Panasonic Airline Television Network illustrates the leadership and innovation of Panasonic Avionics in the in-flight entertainment and communications industry.”