Aviation world descends on Dubai By Rick Lundstrom on February, 2 2015 | Inflight Entertainment Dubai – Two halls of the massive Dubai World Trade Centre hummed with activity through the day, as Emirati royalty and the aviation world from far and wide, gathered for the first day of the Aircraft Interiors Middle East and Maintenance Repair and Overhaul event, held side by side. A dedicated hall for inflight entertainment and connectivity greeted visitors for the second year, in addition to the dedicated space for companies from France and another from the Netherlands. Throughout the day, industry experts in panel discussion talked maintenance repair issues and the importance of Wi-Fi in aircraft in an airline’s passenger services mix. 1 Copyright DutyFree Magazine. All rights reserved. H.H. Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President of the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority, Chairman of Dubai Airports, and Chief Executive and Chairman of Emirates Airline and Group made an afternoon stop at the stands. Supplying the high-tech dazzle for the opening day was the Immersive seat, developed by Thales Avionics, B/E Aerospace and BMW Design Works. During the day Christopher Mondragon took visitors to the Thales stand through the high-tech seat designed for first class. When immersed in the Immersive, passengers have the option of navigating the inflight entertainment system through gesture movement, eye tracking or a specially designed mouse pointer. They are also immersed in high definition “spatial sound” audio that adjusts to their height. They can view entertainment and information in front of them, on the side, and with the possibility of adding more through a wired surface on the tray table. ##### Saudia will become first airline to develop and provide passengers with a dedicated mobile phone application for free inflight Wi-Fi, OnAir announced at this year's AIME/MRO event Users of the app can scan their ticket’s bar code for free Wi-Fi access. The services will be available to all of Saudia’s First class and Business Class passengers flying on the airline’s A330s and 777-300s on international routes. Passengers will receive a promotional code when they scan their boarding passes via the mobile application. They then use the code to access their free Wi-Fi on the OnAir portal. OnAir says Saudi Arabians are the most prolific users of the Internet via their smartphones in the Middle East. In 2014, 8.5 million people used the Internet with handheld smartphones. Saudi Arabia’s smartphone penetration rate of 72.8%, places it in the world’s top three countries. In 2014, 35,000 Saudia passengers used the airline’s free Wi-Fi. ##### 2 Copyright DutyFree Magazine. All rights reserved. Gogo, Inc.’s wireless in-flight entertainment product, Gogo Vision, is installed on more than 1,700 commercial aircraft across six major airlines. Gogo Vision allows passengers to rent movies and television on their own Wi-Fi enabled laptops, tablets or smartphones. Gogo has currently licensed more than 200 movies and close to 200 television shows from most of the major Hollywood studios. Most content is in the DVD release window, but Gogo is the first provider of wireless in-flight entertainment with some content in the early release window. Gogo Vision content is pre-loaded and stored on a server on the aircraft and delivered through wireless access points. Gogo Vision can also be offered to an airline with or without Gogo’s connectivity product. Gogo also has deployed a seat selection technology that allows an airline to serve up content based on where a passenger sits on a plane. ##### Teklam, a B/E Aerospace company that designs and manufactures advanced laminated honeycomb panels has been awarded a multi-million dollar program by a major VIP completion center to supply its lightweight interior panel TEKlam∙LITE, on two 787 VIP aircraft interiors. TEKlam∙LITE boasts a 38% weight savings compared to standard two-ply fiberglass/Nomex panel designs. In addition, TEKlam∙LITE offers a 300% improvement in impact resistance and an 8% improvement in peel strength. The panel is built with superior bending strength and suited for interior applications such as monuments, cabinetry, galleys, lavatories, seat surround and privacy dividers, side ledges and sidewalls, and luggage bins. 3 Copyright DutyFree Magazine. All rights reserved. The events are organized by F & E Aerospace and Aviation Week magazine. HMG Aerospace sponsored this year’s IFEC Pavilion, publishers of Inflight magazine. 4 Copyright DutyFree Magazine. All rights reserved..