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The Business of Passenger Experience

Casting, Caching Set to Boost IFE Content

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An iPhone being used to control the content on a Safran RAVE IFE screen
Sharing content from a PED to the inflight entertainment screens is part of Safran Passenger Innovations’ product roadmap

Airlines spend massive amounts of cash to license content, hoping to keep passengers entertained on board. But for some travelers that will never be enough. They want to watch their own content, but on the big screens mounted in the seats. Safran Passenger Innovations (SPI) is the latest to get on board with this idea, announcing plans to enable casting from personal devices to its RAVE IFE screens.

From our perspective, the same old content process has been around for so long. We really want to shake things up. We think this is the way we do it because, really, passengers just want to watch what they want to watch.

– Ben Asmar, Vice President Products and Strategy, Safran Passenger Innovations

SPI’s approach leans heavily on existing technology standards. It implements existing protocols from Apple and Google to appear as a casting or AirPlay target in the aircraft. Once in that mode the passenger’s PED acts as the remote, allowing full control of the content experience while displayed on the big screen.

The technology is the easy part, something IFE providers have been talking about for years. Sorting the content challenges presents a larger challenge for airlines.

Part of that comes in the form of preventing the display of “content of a low moral value” on the embedded IFE screens. SPI recognizes this challenge and Ben Asmar, VP Products and Strategy, believes it can be reasonably addressed.

Read more: Pairing, casting and streaming: The next generation of inflight entertainment emerges

For starters, Asmar notes that the system can limit passengers to just casting from apps, not full screen mirroring. That mitigates the risk but does not fully solve it. SPI can also limit which applications the screens will accept casting content from, further reducing the risk. Whether an airline will take the plunge with those safeguards in place remains to be seen, but Asmar is clear the screens will not be a free-for-all of personal content.

Delivering the casting content also presents licensing challenges. While the content will come from passenger devices – and their personal subscriptions with the streaming suppliers – airlines must still negotiate appropriate display licenses because the content is on their screens. Again Asmar recognizes the challenge but believes it surmountable, “My goal in announcing this now is to … take the next step and start talking about how we do licensing and how we change that model so passengers can have this functionality.”

Read more: Thales FlytEDGE delivers a new paradigm for in-flight entertainment

To that end, SPI is negotiating with content suppliers today to make sure airlines can enable the services if desired. “It is going to take time to get the licensing sorted,” Asmar shared at Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg las month when announcing the company’s plans. “We want to start with low hanging fruit, like YouTube, but there are still license implications… We’re going to start [those negotiations] with all the cloud services. Our goal is to try and get at least one or two on board so we can launch it with Rave 5.”

Tying it to Rave 5 – the next major OS upgrade from SPI – also helps put a timeline on the program. SPI expects that to ship to seating suppliers in 2027, taking flight in 2028.

As an aside, IFE upstart Apios – one of the first to suggest casting as an option on board in 2022 – now says “it is not as important” a feature in its conversations with airlines. It still has the functionality in its kit, but no longer is focusing on that as a compelling feature.

Caching Content a Compelling Consideration

Asmar also sees potential in delivering near-live sports (and other) content on board, via content caching capabilities. The linear feeds available today can, with proper licensing, be cached on the aircraft. Passengers can then watch live or rewind, similar to DVR functionality on the ground.

This is not a new concept, but SPI previously “did not really see any need” because sports is the ultimate live television content. With Sport24 content now broadly available for licensing rather than an exclusive to Panasonic Avionics, Asmar expects to see more airlines asking about the option.

Read more: Thales extends live TV range with 360Stream

Notably, Asmar also shared that SPI does not require additional hardware on board to support the caching services. Because of its distributed storage and processing architecture (each screen has its own SnapDragon plus1TB of storage, expected to be 2TB in the next generation of screens) the RAVE platform can implement caching today on existing deployments, without installing a new data center on board.

Based on efforts from competitors, it is fair to say Asmar is likely correct about the demand for this offering. Thales Inflyt’s version, 360Stream, delivers that functionality to Emirates today. JetBlue similarly has a version of it flying on its AVANT-equipped aircraft.

SPI partnered with content caching specialists IdeaNova to help address the licensing challenges with the DVR functionality. Asmar was clear it was not worth rebuilding that tech when a solid implementation was available to partner with.

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About Seth Miller

Seth Miller has over a decade of experience covering the airline industry. With a strong focus on passenger experience, Seth also has deep knowledge of inflight connectivity and loyalty programs. He is widely respected as an unbiased commentator on the aviation industry.

He is frequently consulted on innovations in passenger experience by airlines and technology providers.

You can connect with Seth via email, on Bluesky, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

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