24 CLOUD FOCUS Wildmoka P ANES, TRAINS & AUTOMOBILES Managing Content
time, this possibility to actually protect the content for video streaming and, therefore, build some business models on top of that.” Security in every part of the content delivery chain is essential for in-flight video. Axinom’s DRM experience and the flexibility of its content management platform made the company a ready partner for the passenger entertainment sector, particularly as airlines were beginning to offer content that could be viewed on passenger-owned devices, rather than the familiar wired seat-back screens, which had dominated the industry previously.
“On-board an aircraft, one of the things you get as a passenger is high-value, studio content,” notes Schuster. “If you want to stream that on a passenger device, content protection must be in place, because when people bring their devices off the aircraft, you need to make sure they can’t take the movies with them. For us, this was also the entry point into the industry, because we were already well known in the digital rights management space.” The latest in-flight entertainment systems are hosted via a server on-board the aircraft. The server might run myriad services, one of which could be a video
streaming service. The content uploaded to the aircraft becomes available locally to be streamed throughout to different devices around the aircraft. PASSENGER PERSONALISATION Streaming directly from an aircraft server to a passenger’s mobile device or laptop offers a host of benefits. The most obvious is the doing away with the mechanical headache and sheer weight of having a wired-up entertainment system in each seat-back – in an airplane, weight is money. Being able to stream directly to a passenger’s own device also opens up the ability to deliver more personalised information. That could be in the form of offering content genres, which the customer might have previously favourited, or which could be predicted based on available data about the customer. It could also include personalised information about the customer’s destination, or even tailored advertising. Being confined to a seat for hours at a time may be an uncomfortable experience for you as a passenger, but it’s just where an advertiser wants you, and if customer data can allow delivery of targeted advertising, sales information or special offers from the airline or its partners, all the better. “Many players already have their on- board wireless networks working in a stable and reliable way,” says Schuster. “The next thing is making these entertainment systems personalised and seamless and connected, moving that passenger experience closer to the experience you would have on the ground, in your home. “For example, the system might already know your bank details and allow you to log in with the same credentials. If you
A FIRST FOR FILM A promotional film about Chicago was the first in-flight movie, shown during a low-altitude flight in 1921
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