EBACE Show News - May 21, 2008 - (Page 34)

EBACE 2008 Global Even NICEr Thanks to Lufthansa Technik The first Bombardier Global family business jet to be fitted with Lufthansa Technik’s NICE cabin management system is undergoing completion at Midcoast Aviation at St. Louis, in the U.S. Two more, both XRSs, will Lufthansa Technik plans to follow soon behind the Global add video iPod capability to 5000 now in the shops. The its NICE system this year, installation marks the first probringing advanced iPod conduction installation of NICE trol to the VIP seat. “We beyond the Challenger 300, have approval from Apple on which it has been standard to buy and integrate their equipment since last August. authentication chip for the Midcoast completes many iPod,” said Dave Crossett, Cabin control at your fingertips. Globals for Bombardier as well innovation sales and marketas other makes of business jets; ing executive for Lufthansa it is also the exclusive distribuTechnik. tor in North America for NICE. Other enhancements to “We have approval from Apple to buy and The Ethernet-based NICE NICE planned for this year integrate their authentication chip for the video iPod.” integrates previously unlinked include: —Dave Crossett, innovation sales and marketing executive for Lufthansa Technik. cabin management, commu• Blu-Ray distribution nications and entertainment through the NICE Ethernet systems into a single control system. Cabin tem- definition LCD widescreens, plug in an iPod or network. Lufthansa Technik will build and cerperature, lighting and the onboard entertainment view PowerPoint presentations. In addition, tify its own DVD player in partnership with a and communication systems are centrally man- digital surround sound is distributed through manufacturer. “We don’t repackage consumer aged via touch screens located at each passenger QinetiQ trim panel speakers, which are made products,” said Crossett. seat. Passengers can view DVD movies on high- integrally with the cabin sidewalls to give a • The ability to distribute high-definition enblended look as well as an almost surround-sound tertainment and decode it at the screen, eliminating analog-to-digital conversion and the auditory experience. “We hope these three Global completions will voice and image degradation that usually goes be a springboard for NICE into the U.S. market,” with it. Dave Crossett, innovation sales and marketing • Eliminating Ethernet buffers that can cause executive for Lufthansa Technik, told Show News. audio and video to run out of sync. “Plus we are working closely with univerThe Globals’ NICE systems will also include RFID chips, that is. live TV, XM radio, DVD players and audio iPod sities and our partners to solve complex netLufthansa Technik has developed and cerworking problems,” he said. “With NICE’s docking. tified the first aviation-qualified passive UHF Lufthansa delivered 60-plus NICE systems in one-gigabyte bandwidth the infrastructure radio identification tags. RFID chips have been the last year. is there to do all sorts of things.” —John Morris around for a while, but the high technical iPod Video with NICE This Year ‘I’ll Have Mine With Chips, Please’ demands encountered in aviation call for significant modifications and engineering to ensure they can survive radical, short-term temperature fluctuations without damage, and withstand rapid changes in air pressure, the company says. Lufthansa Technik has started using the RFID tags for configuration control on its NICE cabin control systems, and will make them available for others, too. A technician can wave a wand reader near the tags on the NICE boxes and see immediately the configuration and history of a box and its software without having to plug in or download anything. Information on any configuration change can also be uploaded to the RFID tag. NICE to Be Remotely Monitored Too “Talk to Me” is the name of a new call-Hamburg on-board system that will monitor and flag any faults on Lufthansa Technik’s NICE cabin systems in service around the world. “We hope to have the first one installed in the third quarter,” said Dave Crossett, innovation sales and marketing executive for Lufthansa Technik. The telephone-based remote box will initially monitor NICE and all the equipment connected to it. “The next step is to be proactive, for us to be able to call the operator and say, for example, “Your DVD’s not working.’” “Talk to Me” could be developed to provide different levels of monitoring service throughout the aircraft. “The network can touch anything in the airplane. It can gather data from other networks. But first we will use it just to look after NICE.” Hamburg already staffs a full-time service center where technicians take customers’ calls and troubleshoot problems in real time with their own lab-based NICE system. 34 May 21, 2008 www.aviationweek.com/shownews http://www.aviationweek.com/shownews

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of EBACE Show News - May 21, 2008

A318 Elite is on a Roll A Circle Around London P&WC Deliveries Triple Avanti Sees Sales Shift RUAG Eyes Needy Cabins Global Gets Even NICEr Embraer Beefs Up Support Honeywell ‘Virtual VFR’ Signature Europe Grows Gestair Seeks to Double Aero-Dienst Turns 50 Gama Doubles in Size All is Not Woe with Oil Ocean Sky is Aggressive

EBACE Show News - May 21, 2008

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