December 4, 2007 – “BMI are very happy with our portable players and we’re rolling out more into their network following this year’s acquisition of BMED,” says AviIT chief executive David Brown. “We also have a significant number out on operational trial with a Middle Eastern airline, with the prospect of a large follow-on order within the next three months. And we’ve got real interest from a couple of VIP charter operators.”

Brown heads the air transport software company that teamed with London-based Phantom Media to develop and market the Bluebox range of lightweight IFE products (Inflight Online, June 15). “We do all the technical work - software design, building the software into the product, technical support – and we reckon Bluebox accounts for about 20 per cent of our overall effort at the moment,” he says. “Phantom leads the sales and marketing effort and handles content acquisition.”

Bluebox began life as a lightweight embedded system, then evolved into a family of products spearheaded by the Bluebox Lite handheld now in service with UK carrier bmi. “There are currently 70-100 devices in service with bmi, deployed at a rate of about 20 per flight in the business-class cabins,” says Brown. “The stats show that they are very well used.”

The physical device is a commercially available Chinese-built ultra-mobile PC (UMPC). “We’ve taken advantage of developments in the UMPC arena,” says Brown. “As the supplier upgrades processors, hard discs and other components, our product becomes increasingly powerful without our incurring the delay and extra cost of developing our own hardware.”

Along with the handheld, the product family comprises a semi-fixed system, a broadcast version (Bluebox Core), and a very compact personal media player-based handheld (Bluebox Ultra). The first three are all based on an Intel Celeron M ULV processor running the proprietary Bluebox XPe operating system. RAM is 1Gb, storage 80Gb, and the Intel GMA 900 graphics card can support screen resolutions up to 1920 x 1080.

The handheld measures 23cm x 13cm x 3cm and weighs 830gm with battery. It has a 7in active-matrix TFT screen, a headphone socket, a USB port to handle Bluebox-approved external devices, and a 10/100Mbit/sec RJ-45 port and 802.11b/g wireless as alternative ways of loading content. Battery life is put at seven and a half hours.

“We’ve got full AVOD functionality, a customisable graphical user interface, and touchscreen menus,” says Brown. “We can also run 21st-century PC games – they are all compatible and work very well on the platform because it’s basically a PC. The number of films that can be carried depends on the levels of encryption and compression, but we’re finding that the storage is more than adequate to meet the customer’s needs.”

Content loading to Bluebox Lite centres on the laptop-based Batch Content Loader (BCL). “We use this to prepare and edit the content set, including all the digital rights management and encryption requirements, and then push it out across an Ethernet network to all connected devices simultaneously,” says Brown. “This is done on the bench off- aircraft at the same time as the batteries are recharged - we provide a charging and loading solution as part of the system.”

The Bluebox semi-fixed system is based on the Lite device, mounted removably in the seatback or arm. “The mount and seat will have full airworthiness certification, but the device can be certificated to a lower level because it’s removable,” Brown comments. “The system again offers full AVOD functionality, plus PA interrupts and pauses and the ability to run safety videos and insert marketing videos.”

While he concedes that it could be some time yet before the airlines accept Bluebox in this form, Brown points to some key advantages. “We’ve got all the intelligence and power in the device in the seat, so there are no underseat boxes and no head end other than our Cabin Management Terminal (CMT), used for system control and content loading. So we’ve got a significant weight advantage over the conventional systems.”

There are two ways of loading content to the semi-fixed system. “We can take the BCL out to the aircraft and download to the CMT, which then distributes the content to the devices by wired Ethernet, which is a very fast,” says Brown. “Or we can take advantage of WiFi if that’s fitted, loading content wirelessly from the CMT to the seatbacks in quiet times. We expect to see our first application of this capability in the VIP market.”

Development of the semi-fixed system continues, with the aim of adding functions such as Skype-type messaging and telephony working with the air-to-ground communications services that airlines could offer in the future.

Bluebox Core uses the basic platform as a head end for an overhead broadcast system. “A Bluebox unit could act as a single-channel video broadcast system with eight separate audio channels, and we could add further video channels by putting in more Blueboxes,” Brown explains. “A lot of airlines need to replace broadcast systems – the tape systems are wearing out and the CRT monitors are dying. We can offer them an alternative with a lot of flexibility as to number of channels, plus the intelligence needed for the management of stats and marketing.”

Development of Bluebox Ultra was driven by the physical constraints on current handheld sytems. “Logistically, you can put only so many Bluebox Lite-sized units into an aircraft,” Brown observes. “It’s very difficult to serve a 200-seater aircraft with units that size, to manage the batteries and the rest.”

The answer, based on a Chinese-sourced personal media player, is 3.5in-screen solid-state device measuring 14cm x 8cm x 2cm and weighing less than 300gm. “It’s got the same encryption and core software as Bluebox, the same Microsoft PC platform and a six-hour battery. And with that small screen size you can apply more compression, so we’ve got room for 40-50 films.”

While air transport is the prime focus of the Bluebox team, VIP operators – both high-net-worth individuals and charter carriers - are also emerging as prospects. “Because VIP aircraft generally have a much smaller number of seats, it has in the past been difficult to put a content package together at a sensible price,” says Brown. “But Phantom now seem to have cracked that, while Bluebox semi-fixed is ideal because it’s much more scalable than traditional systems – we can install 10, 50 or a hundred in-seat units, it doesn’t really matter.”

The partners are looking to sell both directly into this market – “We’re talking directly to a couple of operators of 100-seat VIP charter aircraft and expect one of them to commit any day now” – and via third-party integrators and completions providers. Among the capabilities on offer is Bluebox driving large bulkhead-mounted high-definition screens. “We’re getting a lot of interest in this from the VIP market, which sees it as the basis of a cinema-type installation.”

Whatever the market, the partners have put a lot of effort into ensuring that content provision will not be its Achilles heel. Phantom has led that aspect of the business, securing agreements with major studios – they include Warner Bros, Paramount/Dreamworks, NBC Universal, Sony Pictures, Buena Vista, 20th Century Fox – and with all of the independent distributors. US, UK and international television distributors and a number of games publishers are also ready to provide content.

The studios see Bluebox as a safe platform for their content because it features multiple levels of encryption and digital rights management (DRM), Brown says. “Content is encrypted at the film labs using our Microsoft DRM packaging software. It’s then assembled on our BCL and downloaded to the devices, where it is stored on the hard disc in a fully encrypted and hidden file format. What’s more, if the disc is removed it will not play on any other device. Such end-to-end security makes the studios comfortable.”

Superior image quality is also a factor, Brown points out. “The studios have been particularly impressed by the image quality we achieve – this is increasingly important to winning approval for first-run content in particular.”

The Bluebox team is a comparatively recent arrival on to a battlefield that’s already strewn with casualties – how sure is Brown that they won’t be on the next ambulance out? “We’re very confident of long-term success,” he asserts. “We went into this with our eyes open, having spent a lot of time looking at the IFE market, and we do believe we’ve got a very functionally rich product that differentiates us from the rest while being able to compete on price in the portable market.”