June 6, 2006 – ASPIRING UK handheld IFE provider Mezzo Movies has selected Californian company e.Digital to supply eVU media players as part of the turnkey service it hopes to introduce with at least one airline from this summer (Inflight Online, May 16).

eVU is reported to feature a 7in high-resolution LCD screen, dual stereo headphone jacks, an embedded credit card reader/processor, a full-featured graphical user interface, security provision and a 10-hour battery.

Mezzo’s naming of a specific handheld equipment supplier looks like a change of strategy by the London-based company. Last year Mezzo described itself as handset-agnostic. “We don’t sell the devices - we will work with the airline to select the most appropriate,” said CEO Dave Sampson. Now the company seems to have committed itself to a single supplier, and one with a chequered history at that.

e.Digital played a lead role in the industrialisation and manufacture of the original APS digePlayer 5500, which successfully pioneered handheld IFE three years ago. Following the acquisition of APS by Utah-based Wencor and its transformation into today’s digEcor, e.Digital, working through Korean subcontractors, remained responsible for production until earlier this year, when the relationship ended in acrimony.

digEcor’s new-generation digEplayer XT, due to be available this summer, was designed under contract by Colorado-based Triad Systems Engineering. Units are being assembled at the Springville, Utah, factory of digEcor parent Wencor, using circuit boards made by manufacturing service provider Wolf Electronix, also based in Utah.

Meantime, digEcor is suing e.Digital for damages arising from non-completion of the final, 1,250-unit, order of digEplayer 5500s and is also seeking an injunction against e.Digital for violating a non-compete clause. While admitting that the order has not been completed, e.Digital is retaliating with a threat to revoke the software licences that digEcor holds for the digEplayers it already has in stock and in the hands of customer airlines.

Mezzo’s Dave Sampson seems remarkably untroubled by the argybargy between his supplier and its previous customer: “I’m aware of the situation but I think it is best left to e.Digital and digEcor to resolve in whatever way they see fit.”