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In-flight entertainment (IFE) began in 1921 with the first movie called “Howdy Chicago” shown on Aeromarine Airways to its passengers as the airplane flew around Chicago. Since then, the advancement in technology has created a more advanced IFE systems using touch screen technology, personal touch screens and in-flight connectivity including services such as Internet browsing, text messaging, cell phone usage (where permitted) and emailing. I chose to focus on Air Canada’s IFE system since I encounter it often and recently engaged with it during a 12 hours flight to Israel.
The touch screen system is installed on every seat in the air craft enabling users to make their own choice on how to pass their time during the flight. The system includes hundreds of hours of audio and video on-demand programming, among them recent movies old and classic movies. The system also offers television channels selection, television shows on demand, satellite radio stations, vast music library, games and an activity section dedicated for kids.
More features:
- Each movie contains a short synopsis and a quick 2-3 minutes previews before watching.
- There is also a button for volume, and brightness on the screen.
- Play-back buttons that allows three speeds for fast forward and backwards.
- Language support- all movies can be viewed in English or French and some have the option for Spanish.
The system also offers a map feature that shows the flight journey in real-time. The journey is presented on a world map and shows the remaining time and distance to destination, as well as local time and temperature throughout the flight. There is an automatic button that rotate between these features and update the information every 2-3 minutes.
For a video demonstration of the IFE system in action please click here
Environment
The air plane environment usually includes a first class section, a business section and an economy section. They all receive different services, first class is considered the most prestige and economy class is basic. The type of food, drink, space and service depends on the type of seat chosen. There are also a few bathrooms on the plane depending on its size, space for luggage , emergency exists and a many seat rows starting from 2 spots in each and more. The open spaces are the thin corridors between rows where flight attendance’s pass through with food and drink.
Air Canada’s IFE is installed in all of Air Canada’s planes. There are only three Boing 767 planes that doesn’t have the IFE installed. The only way to access these screens would be to take a flight with Air Canada, both domestic and international flights will have the IFE system installed. However, the content played on these screens can be views or listened to through many other interfaces such as – computers, satellite radio, television and more.
Users
Since the screens are only accessible on Air Canada aircrafts, the primary users are Air Canada’s passengers. The users vary in age, from very young children (about 2 years old) to elders (99+). The IFE system is designed to entertain a wide variety of passengers. However, since the content is offered in only three languages , the IFE system doesn’t answer the need of all potential users, leaving those who can’t understand English, French or Spanish excluded.
Synthesis
The improvement of IFE systems has completely changed the experience of flying. Squeezing hundreds of people together in a contained space for a long period of time can be challenging and cause stress for passengers. Particularly young children who need to be able to play, move and entertain themselves can often find it difficult to sit still for a long time. The IFE system in Air Canada provides a solution to these needs by creating a personal entertaining experience for its the passengers.
Each user can chose if they would like to watch a film, their favorite television show, listen to music and even play a game. Other then very young children (less then 2 years old) and those who chose to sleep or read, the majority of passangers on the plane were interacting with the IFE system. In my recent flight, where most passangers could understand english, I noticed that the majority chose to watch movies. Most of them viewing more then 1 film during the flight. This was a night flight so the environment on the plane was very calm and cosy, standing the at back of the plane made one feel as if they are entering someone’s private leaving room. The experience might have been a bit different during the day where passangers mights choose to read, or work using their personal computers.
The interface of the IFE system is user friendly; it is easy to navigate through the menu and to access the the wide selection of content available. One of the great features is the opportunity to watch a preview before choosing to watch the film. This functionality is very similar to VOD systems where users have the options to browse films before committing to one in particular.
Similar to other free programs, before watching a movie on the IFE system, there are 10-15 minutes of advertisements. During that time, the passenger can’t interact with the screen, change the volume or abort the system. This is an unfortunate part of the interaction, it is confusing and frustrating since it’s the only part of the interface when touching the screen doesn’t register a response from the system.
The unique enviornment of an air craft creates many disturbances: when there is a passenger announcement from the aircraft crew, the IFE system stops, the screen becomes black and the announcement is broadcasted through the speakers and headphones in a high volume. Since each announcement is heard in three languages, it can take a few minutes until all of them are played and the IFE system is back to action.
Air turbulence can also cause disturbances, dizziness and fear among users. Usually the IFE system will stay on during that time unless there is a passanger announcement. It’s a great claming mechanism to preocuppy users who suffer from turbulence.
Although the content for the IFE system is provided in English, French and sometimes in Spanish, the interface is designed in English. So passengers need to know how to read in English in order to navigate the system. A way to resolve this could be the use of international icons to assist in navigation as well as adding more language options to the interface.
It’s interesting to see that the functionality of the personal screens isn’t only to entertain but also to inform. The security demonstration usually performed by the flight attendants before each and every take off, is now shown as a compelling video instead. This demonstration was mostly ignored by most passengers and depending on the passenger location, it was often hard to see the flight attendants perform the security demonstration.
One more interesting thing to think about is how the IFE system has changed passengers habits. Before installing personalized IFE systems there was one movie shown through the plane and passengers could watch it if their seat was close enough to the television screens on the plane. As a result many other passengers had to find other ways to entertain themselves so reading , socializing and playing games were more common activities. Has IFE systems made us socialize less? Is it changing our reading habits? In my latest flight the passenger who sat next to me couldn’t operate his personal IFE system because it had a malfunction. He started with reading a book and after a few minutes took out his laptop and began watching movies. Other then the ones who slept there were no passangers who didn’t have their personal computers or watched something on the IFE system. It might be interesting to think about a way of interaction between the screens, maybe multiple player game while flying so one get to know your fellow passengers.
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