IFE software and secure video streaming company IdeaNova Technologies is showcasing Inplay Edge at AIX, a solution that allows efficient use of existing bandwidth to stream content on the aircraft, just once.
According to the company, content is cached on the aircraft for subsequent users to use over a local area network so there won’t be a requirement for expensive internet connectivity.
IdeaNova says that, for example, passengers can watch their favourite streaming platform on their flight just like at home, while the airline pays just once for the streamed content no matter how many passengers watch it.
“Inplay Edge operates under constrained network and hardware resource conditions,” said CEO Juraj Siska. “While traditional CDNs operate with a much larger hardware footprint, as they need to satisfy a large population of users, Inplay Edge is custom-built for aviation.”
Inplay Edge can be deployed on any existing IFE hardware and allows carriers to control the storage with content that can be either pre-positioned before take-off or cached during flight when the first passenger accesses the content.
IdeaNova says the streaming costs are much more affordable as the airline either preloads the content using the less expensive terrestrial network or loads the content using the onboard network but only once, since subsequent passengers will use the already cached content. It also provides flexible cache management as cache management policies can be updated over the air, allowing content to be adjusted based on the needs of the airline.
IdeaNova has confirmed that the company is now working with France24, an international news television network broadcasting in English, French, Spanish, and Arabic, as its first content provider to share news and up-to-date information with passengers around the world.
“We’re delighted with this partnership which provides an innovative solution in terms of delivery timing, which is particularly important for news-related content such as ours,” said Serge Schick, Director of International Development and Commercial Resources and Executive Vice-President Member of the Board at France Medias Monde, France 24’s parent group.
