Aircraft Electronics Association Report

Avionics Cabin electronics dominate at this year's convention in Washington

The Aircraft Electronics Associations annual convention, heldApril 23 through 26 near Washington, D.C., served as a bustlingvenue for more than two dozen new-product introductions, many ofthem geared toward satisfying the entertainment and communicationsneeds of passengers.

Aircell at the show announced introductory pricing for itsair-to-ground broadband data service, saying it will charge a flatmonthly fee of $1,495 for unlimited access by business aviationusers. The company also said it intends to offer lower-priced plansfor bizjet customers who dont need always- on access. Thebroadband hardware required to link to the service aboardlarge-cabin business jets will be similar to the two-antenna datasystems being installed now on a number of American Airlines Boeing767s, Aircell said. It will sell for around $125,000 and includeWi-Fi capability throughout the cabin. Lower-priced systems forsmaller business jets will be offered beginning next year asmodular add-ons to the Aircell Axxess cabin communication system.

Aircell also revealed that access to its GoGo broadband Internetservice for airline passengers will cost $9.95 on flights of lessthan three hours and $12.95 for longer flights. The service isscheduled to go live this summer. A nationwide network of 92broadband sites will provide the coverage across the U.S. above10,000 feet, although Aircell can rapidly expand the network to asmany as 500 ground sites to meet future capacity needs, saidcompany CEO Jack Blumenstein. Aircell has also partnered withThrane & Thrane to offer a compact, lightweight SwiftBroadband-compatible satcom system that will provide dataaccess to business jet passengers outside the U.S. The company isone of the top sellers of Iridium satcom hardware as well.

Flight Display Systems of Alpharetta, Ga., meanwhile, unveiled theFly HD product line, billed as the worlds first truehigh-definition cabin video system for business jets. To displayan HD video signal, you need both an HD source, such as a Blu-rayDVD player, and an HD monitor, explained David Gray, FlightDisplay Systems president. Although the industry has a few HDmonitors approved for in-flight use, there has been no HD sourceequipment produced for private aviation applications. With Fly HD,we have engineered the missing links to allow an off-the-shelfBlu-ray product to successfully communicate with the HD monitors onboard the aircraft.

The company has also come up with a creative way to add a Blu-rayvideo player to the cabin a $1,995 docking station for a SonyPlayStation 3 video gaming console. The dock allows the PS3 to becarried on and off the airplane. When it slides into the dockingcradle, it can be powered on and used to play games or show Blu-raymovies on the cabin monitors in HD, Gray said. Flight DisplaySystems offers HD cabin screens in a variety of sizes from 17 to42 inches diagonal.

DPI Labs of La Verne, Calif., unveiled a video iPod cabinintegration system at AEA that the company touted as simple toinstall and use. The companys personal video switcher (PVS)integrates iPod video onto any cabin monitor. It can protect theprivacy of the passengers media content by displaying the sourcevideo on only one monitor rather than throughout the cabin. Localvideo is switched automatically to iPod video when the unit detectsa signal from the RCA jack on the passengers control panel. Theunit is compatible with all analog video formats, includingnon-iPod sources, and incorporates video briefing and PA audiooverride to meet FAA safety requirements, the company said.

True North Avionics showed off a new multimedia satcom handsetwithLCD display and built-in noise cancellationat AEA that is part ofthe Canadian companys Simphone line of cabin communicationsystems. The handset is offered in mahogany, cherry, beech andother hardwood finishes. The handset also supports voice-over-IPcalling for use with the Inmarsat Swift64 and SwiftBroadbandsatellite services. True Norths Chorus, Duo and Solo cabintelecommunication systems are designed specifically for large-cabinbusiness jets. At AEA the company unveiled a cockpit datalink unitthat connects through the system to give the crew access to Acarsand AFIS messaging over the low-cost Iridium satcom network.

Meanwhile, Iridium satcom maker International Communications Group(ICG) announced that it has completed the integration of its ICSsatcom system line with the Universal Avionics UniLink UL-70xcommunications management unit (CMU). The Universal UniLink CMU cannow integrate any ICS unit with the UL-700/701 CMU for uplinkingtext or graphical weather updates over the Iridium network, as wellas accessing features such as free-text messaging, positionreporting and Acars messaging. ICG also noted that Embraer hasselected its ICS-400 satcom system as the standard Iridium link forthe Lineage 1000 bizliner.

Another Iridium satcom supplier, Sky Connect of Takoma Park, Md.,introduced the Fort