Canadian holiday carrier Air Transat will soon become the world’s first airline to offer RAVE Wireless – Zodiac Inflight Innovations’ content streaming technology – which will allow passengers to stream movies, TV shows, music and moving maps directly to their own smartphones, tablets and laptops.
RAVE Wireless will be retrofitted on Air Transat’s fleet of nine A310-300 aircraft. Air Transat is a long-standing customer of Zodiac Inflight Innovations (Zii), with RAVE embedded IFE being installed on the A310 fleet in business class, as well as on the airline’s A330 fleet throughout the aircraft.
“Our embedded IFE has been very popular with our passengers for several years,” said Jon Turner of Air Transat. “With the introduction of wireless streaming, we are taking our cabin service to a new level. This is an exciting development and we are very pleased that Air Transat is one of the first airlines in the world to provide content streaming.”
The technology behind RAVE Wireless was developed by TriaGnoSys, an aviation communications technology expert, which was acquired by Zii in September 2013. That acquisition added connectivity to Zii’s IFE offering, meaning Zii provides the full range of IFEC technology.
“We have a very strong relationship with Air Transat and we are very pleased it will be our launch customer for RAVE Wireless,” said Harry Gray, VP of sales and marketing at Zodiac Inflight Innovations. “This marks not only a step-change for Zii, but also for the whole industry. Passengers want on-demand content on their own personal electronic devices, mirroring their behaviour on the ground. There is no question that wireless streaming is a part of the future of IFE for specific market segments.”
RAVE Wireless uses wireless access points (WAPs) to create an onboard wireless network for content distribution. RAVE embedded IFE and RAVE Wireless can be connected to enable passengers to use two screens – the seat-back screen and their own PED – simultaneously. It includes the ability to extend content across both screens, just as people can do with dual screens at home and in the office.
