LAKE FOREST, CA – Panasonic Avionics Corporation (Panasonic), the world leader in state-of-the-art in-flight entertainment and communication (IFEC) systems, today announced it has created an X Series hybrid solution to bring new capabilities to its K Series System 2000e in-flight entertainment system onboard up to 37 Emirates aircraft.
The deal was finalized today during a signing ceremony at the 2009 Dubai Airshow in Dubai, UAE attended by Adel Al Redha, Emirates’ Executive Vice President Engineering and Operations and Paul Margis, Chief Executive Officer, Panasonic Avionics Corporation.
The new System 2000-eX Hybrid solution provides Emirates’ A330-200 and A340-300 aircraft, equipped with Panasonic’s System 2000e product, a head-end server and distribution solution comprised of eX2 components. This extends the service life of these configurations while providing Emirates a digital content capability aligned with the rest of their Panasonic IFEC product.
This solution replaces the S2000e analog head-end (tape) with digital storage and reproduction. The solution is extended to provide full audio-video on demand (AVOD) capabilities in premium classes allowing for the removal of in-seat video cassette players.
Providing X Series AVOD capability with digital video content for Emirates passengers enhances the quality of the entertainment experience on Emirates’ acclaimed ice™ (information, communication, entertainment) IFEC product while eliminating the cost of tape reproduction and tape player maintenance.
“At Panasonic, we’re often faced with interesting opportunities to help our customers gain additional value from their existing IFEC solutions,” said Paul Margis, Chief Executive Officer for Panasonic Avionics Corporation. “Emirates tasked us with improving the IFEC experience and reducing operating costs. With System 2000-eX Hybrid, we’re excited to have addressed all of these areas while bringing enhanced value to Emirates’ passengers.”
“Emirates continues to lead the way and set high expectations in the in-flight entertainment arena,” said Adel Al Redha, Emirates’ Executive Vice President Engineering and Operations. “Since our ice product was first introduced Emirates has won numerous international awards for innovation, with our in-flight entertainment now an important factor in our customers overall in-flight experience.”
“With System 2000-eX Hybrid, Panasonic has designed a very creative solution that will add Emirates’ award winning ice product to the premium cabins on these aircraft, offering over 500 channels, as well as significantly improving the programming choice in Economy Class to over 100 channels of Movies, TV, Audio & Games. We look forward to maintaining and expanding our working partnership with Panasonic so that together we can continue to enhance the in-flight product for the millions of passengers that travel with Emirates each year.”
