IFE C ONTENT D ELI V ERY
“ CSPs are beginning to
capture and analyse data
from actual passenger
viewing habits”
Birchmore, “we are looking at per-flight,
per-seat data and seeing how we can
anonymously link this with NPS to
understand trends for different
passenger groups.”
The IFE industry
has moved from an
environment in which
airline buyers choose
movies based on private
screenings, and airlines
and CSPs are beginning to
capture and analyse data
from actual passenger
viewing habits to influence
licencing decisions and
overall strategy.
But the day when passengers
themselves select the movie could be
coming. In an effort to move from simply
analysing today’s data to guide tomorrow’s licencing,
in 2019 Touch launched a joint venture with cloudservices
provider, castLabs. The venture is called
Above, and its principals recognise that such an
environment is co-dependent upon exhibition models
and delivery capability.
Among the objectives of Above will be a reduction
in the current 45 to 60-day content delivery supply chain
to 24 to 48 hours, and replacing the 30-day exhibition
period with a dynamic, demand-based exhibition period,
by moving the supply chain into the cloud and highly
automating the process.
aircraftinteriorsinternational.com
112 MARCH 2020
At last autumn’s APEX Expo, these four IFE executives participated
in a panel discussion moderated by Michael Childers on the subject
of using data analytics in the selection and licencing of IFE content.
They agreed that content recommendation and discovery engines will
become essential to IFE, that IFE content delivery workflows will move
into the cloud, and that one day the 45 to 60-day content delivery cycle
would be reduced to days in single digits.
PANEL DISCUSSIONS
From left to right:
André Valera, Touch In ight
David Bartlett, Panasonic
Miguel Ferreira, TAP Air Portugal
Kevin Birchmore, Spafax
Above will provide flexible transcoding workflows
with automatic quality control for all commonly used IFE
systems, enabling quick, over-the-air content updates
based on market needs and data analytics.
Based on a five-year proof-of-concept project among
Touch, castLabs and Lufthansa Systems, the technology
exists to make that happen. The next step is to establish
a cloud-based repository of digital files and to build new
business models around that infrastructure. So the time
when usage data is captured and analysed today and new
content delivered tomorrow, may not be so far away.
About the author: Michael Childers is a consultant in
the field of digital supply chain automation and content
delivery. He is currently chief consultant for content and
media strategy at Lufthansa Systems and is in his fourth
two-year term as a member of the APEX Board of Directors
and chair of its Technology Committee. In 2013 he received
the APEX Outstanding Contribution Award for leadership
in digital content management.
“A part of the success of
Net ix is attributable to its
use of content recommendation
and discovery engines. 75% of Net ix’s
views result from recommendations
made to subscribers based on data
analytics from prior viewings”
André Valera,
Touch Inflight Solutions
MYIMAGINE, ROUPCHEERS, IKANARIS , TATYANA A. - SOMEPIE/STOCK.ADOBE.COM
FOR TAP AIR PORTUGAL, TOUCH
USES DATA CAPTURED VIA
PANASONIC’S INSIGHTS SYSTEM
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