The hardware solution, at the time of this article, still appears a mystery...

"The Bluebox Lite handheld unit for use with the mount was purpose-built, albeit on the basis of an existing ruggedised military device. The others are modified commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) portable video players from Samsung and Taiwanese manufacturer Asus. Content storage capacity will be up to 100Gb.

“The COTS units are cheaper but can’t be guaranteed to last as long,” comments Stuart. “The upside is that when they make a change they will get the latest and best of next-generation consumer technology. We’re telling them that they should expect their Bluebox provision to become obsolete with advances in consumer electronics - fortunately it’s cheap and flexible enough to be easily and economically replaced.”

Both the mount and the handhelds can be controlled wirelessly from the cabin management terminal. In a neat touch, the functions of the CMT can be hosted simultaneously on a cabin crew wireless PDA, providing flexibility and emergency backup. Content will be loaded on the ground to the CMT, which will then distribute it wirelessly to the in-seat mounts.
 
Access to content has proved something of an Achilles heel for other handheld providers, who have been rebuffed by studios unhappy at the level of digital rights management and security on offer. But Stuart is happy that his offering passes muster. “We’re fully Windows DRM-compliant,” he says. “We went to the majors to ask what they wanted rather than presenting something we had already developed. They all backed Windows DRM so that’s the route we have taken, developing our own version to cope with the scale and logistics required in the airline industry.”

Bluebox development is now being run by a wholly owned Phantom Media subsidiary, BlueBox Avionics, while Phantom itself was partially acquired in January by UK public limited company Dawson Holdings. The latter’s media arm, Dawson Media Direct, is the largest supplier of newspapers and magazines to the airline industry.

Along with Dublin-based AirVOD, Phantom is one of the more realistic of the new entrants setting out to dispute this market with big boys digEcor, IMS and Panasonic. The proof of the pudding, as always, will be a launch order from an airline. Phantom hopes to be able to show ink on the bottom line before the end of the year. But, cautions Stuart, “the timetable’s being driven by the pace of negotiations. In the past vendors have launched new systems by more or less giving them away. We see no point in doing that - we have a healthy core business that doesn’t depend on a sale, so we can bide our time if necessary.”