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LiveTV undergoes reality tests

Crew members board a JetBlue Airways airplane on April 25 at the Long Beach Daugherty Field Airport in Long Beach, California. A subsidary of JetBlue is producing the LiveTV in-flight entertainment system, which is currently being tested by Virgin Blue in Australia. PHOTO: AP

A few weeks after Boeing announced it was disconnecting its much hyped "Connexion by Boeing" Internet service for jets, a possible successor is flying around Australia in an almost empty Virgin Blue 737.

The jet is test flying the latest version of the LiveTV system which is made by a subsidiary of the US' JetBlue airline.

But it can be a lot more than what it says it is, which is a system that allows passengers to watch dozens of channels of live TV programs on seat back video screens via satellite just as if they were using cable TV at home.

The project manager for LiveTV, Mark Dash, said, "This system is built to accommodate much more than satellite television relays."

"It has a broadband capability that could be tapped for Internet surfing and video conferencing and seat back retailing, where passengers might browse through an electronic catalogue and order and pay for a choice by credit card before reaching their destination," he said.

And there is another difference between LiveTV and the failed Connexion venture. It can be expanded to connect not just PCs to the Internet via satellite, but the latest generation of hand-held communication and entertainment devices via both satellites and the ground based mobile telephone systems that are within line-of-sight of a jet cruising at up to 13,000m altitude.

PHOTO: AFP

Dash, like some of the airlines already talking to his company, is fascinated by those flashy mobile-telephone sized devices that are already selling like fresh sushi in Japan.

"An airplane is probably the last refuge on earth from mobile telephones ... The thought of 100 passengers all talking on their mobiles inside a cabin is just too awful to contemplate."

Brett Godfrey, Virgin Blue chief executive

SMALL COMMUNICATORS

These devices, sometimes called G3 and G4 units in the consumer communications sector, can receive TV and radio programs, link into video gaming networks, take, send and receive pictures and amateur videos, and behave like Blackberry type units and send and receive e-mails or make old fashioned voice calls, which is all that was ever expected from mobile telephones until recently.

And cause security scares.

CARRY-ON CONCERNS

The recently thwarted plots to blow up multiple airliners flying across the North Atlantic saw the banning on a short term basis of carry-on computers and mobile devices, but LiveTV, and its competitors Panasonic Avionics, Rockwell Collins, OnAir and AirCell Inc, all of whom are planning similar systems, say they can work just as well on touch-activated seat back screens.

If future security measures again ban personal computers and mobile units from cabins, all a passenger need do is enter an e-mail address or telephone number to access their Internet, e-mail or voice accounts using a proxy key pad-and pay an extra fee to the airline of course.

Mobile telephone voice access is already exciting European low cost carrier Ryanair, which says it could make even more money from selling in-flight access to ground-based networks by passenger mobiles than it does from refreshments.

But Virgin Blue chief executive Brett Godfrey said he would not allow voice calls on his jets "unless I can find room for a sound proof booth up the back near the toilets."

"An airplane is probably the last refuge on earth from mobile telephones," Godfry said.

"The thought of 100 passengers all talking on their mobiles inside a cabin is just too awful to contemplate," he said.

"But I'm all in favor of doing text messaging or e-mails on Blackberrys and other silent options for the technology," he said.

He said this could see many of his "guests" as Virgin Blue calls its passengers, hunched forwards in the Blackberry "prayer" position, scrolling through their in-boxes, or fumbling over the tiny keypad, just like Blackberry addicts world wide, whether in meetings, or trains, or supposedly watching their children play school sports.

PICO-CELL BASES

The key to allowing mobile phones in flight is the installation of miniature or pico-cell base stations inside the cabins, that are much smaller than those used by ground based telephone networks.

These pico-cell units act as a safe signal exchange between the cabin and ground stations, eliminating the risk that passenger operated units might boost their signals to levels that could interfere with aircraft systems as they attempt to turn the metallic skin of the fuselage into a giant send and receive antenna.

MANAGEMENT CHOICE

Dash says how airlines ultimately use the technology that it claims is more flexible and cost effective than the soon to be dead Connexion by Boeing is a matter of individual management choice.

He is spending most of the next 30 days flying above Australia with a handful of technicians and safety inspectors and 144 glowing seat back videos to prove that LiveTV works as advertised and doesn't constitute any unforeseen or unintended safety hazard, although these tests do not address the potential cultural damage from exposure to CNN, which is one of the news show options.

After that Virgin Blue will become the first Asia-Pacific carrier to use an improved version of the LiveTV services offered on the North American flights of JetBlue, Frontier Airlines and WestJet.
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