February 12, 2007 – CALIFORNIAN-based handheld IFE provider IMS says that five airlines have placed orders for more than 4,000 examples of the new units it previewed at the WAEA show in Miami last September.

To be completed this quarter ahead of the formal product launch, the orders relate to the PAV-704 with 7in touchscreen and PAV-604 with 4.3in screen. “The 7in product is aimed at premium cabins while the 4.3in creates addresses the single-aisle market,” comments IMS chairman and CEO Joe Renton.

The two units are based on consumer-off-the-shelf technology from French-based consumer electronics provider Archos, continuing the collaboration by the two companies, and combine a common platform with different screen sizes, disc capacity and functionalities.

IMS showed prototypes of PAV-704 to airlines at WAEA, resulting in orders for 3,470 units. The 604 was developed around the needs of another airline, which has ordered more than 600.

The 1.5lb PAV-704 offers an 800x400-pixel, 16x9 TFT screen and a choice of 80Gb and 160Gb hard discs. Some customers are integrating it into a support arm stored in the seat, where it will receive in-seat power. “In terms of size, weight, storage capacity, form factor and display quality the PAV-704 is suitable for both premium and economy cabins,” says Renton. “The hard discs offer a choice of 60 or 125 hours of video content, more than enough for even long-haul international flights. An extended-life battery is in development.”

IMS says that much of the early interest in PAV-704 has come from carriers interested in putting it into business-class cabins. As a result, the company has given it the look and feel of an embedded system while retaining the advantages of portability.

With the same operating system and firmware as the 704, the 604 weighs just 10oz and offers a 480x272-pixel, 16x9 screen and a 30Gb hard disc able to store more than 20 hours of video.

“We developed this very small device at the request of airlines that required a smaller, less expensive unit,” says Renton. “After reviewing a wide range of COTS small players, we concluded that Archos offered the most suitable. We believe the 604 addresses all the needs of short to medium-haul operations and has the right features for airlines with no current IFE.”

In developing both of the new systems IMS repurposed the original Archos products by integrating its own proven secure content loading provision and beefing them up for the inflight environment. It is also working on a content encoding profile designed to maximise display quality.