We all know that the airlines are strapped for cash these
days, but it’s not stopping carriers from investing substantial time and money into improving the in-flight
entertainment (IFE) selections offered to passengers.
To learn more, we turn to the World Airline Entertainment Association (WAEA),
currently holding its’ annual conference in Hamburg,
Germany. The industry is in the midst of a transformation of airline entertainment systems, from the dusty PDV
(Personal Distributed Video) style to the next generation of personalized in-flight viewing, AVOD (Audio/Video On
Demand). The WAEA folks study passenger interface (things like seat design, online interactive features and smart card
technologies) and debate content issues (like editing crash scenes from movies and only allowing certain genres to be
shown in the sky).
If you want to get details about who is leading the way in IFE innovation, take a look at the conference
award finalists. Winners will be announced
this Friday. This Telegraph
article has more
info, and author Nigel Tisdall provides excellent tips on what you can do right now to improve your onboard viewing,
until the WAEA guys get the really good stuff rolled out.