Streaming entertainment on an airplane is not a new concept. But the technology is hardly stuck in the past. A new hybrid model is now taking flight, particularly on aircraft with higher performing inflight internet solutions.
Axinom‘s caching and DRM technology plays a significant role in this new approach, offering airlines and passengers an increased selection of content, one company CEO Ralph Wagner describes as “potentially unlimited.”
What we have is basically a full catalog – the same catalog that is on board – and we stream that from the cloud directly to passenger devices. And this is studio-approved by all the major studios… We stream purely from the cloud for regional jets; we have zero server cache on board.
– Ralph Wagner, Axinom CEO
Typical streaming solutions see airlines provide content via an on-board server. Scores of airlines deployed this technology over the years. It is the sort of system Delta Air Lines removed from its regional jet fleet in early 2023, citing low usage.
Still, some airlines see value in making the content available on board. For those shifting to Starlink as an inflight internet provider, however, challenges arise: Most inflight connectivity solutions include a server on board to manage the connectivity experience, along with other services. Starlink’s implementation does not include that server.
So what’s an airline to do? Hawaiian Airlines‘ kept its legacy on board network only for streaming movies, while adding a separate one for accessing the internet via Starlink. It was confusing to passengers, decidedly not a seamless experience.
Moving that movie content off the aircraft and into a secured environment eliminates many of those problems. Axinom’s caching and DRM solution does precisely that. The company can deliver content 100% over the IFC link, and it does so today on more than half of United Airlines‘ regional jets now fitted with Starlink.
There are technical complexities to overcome. Proving to the studio that the request comes from a plane on the Starlink network rather than a regular subscriber is just one of those challenges (and one FlightPath3D also faces with its Cloud Map-based offering, also in use by airlines now). But with that addressed the content options open up dramatically, both for personal devices and streaming to seat backs.
Axinom CEO Ralph Wagner offered a deep dive into the company’s efforts on this front in an exclusive conversation with PaxEx.Aero on the sidelines of the World Aviation Festival in Lisbon last month.
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