Todos os viajantes frequentes devem ter percebido que a medida que aumentavam as facilidades para viajar, sobretudo por meio dos preços mais baixos, as opções de entretenimento a bordo diminuiam. Não que fossem abundantes, mas revistas, jornais, periódicos, entre outros sumiram dos voos em nome da economia não somente de produção do material em si, mas até do peso deles nas aeronaves. Com as novas tecnologias, novas formas de entretenimento tem sido possíveis a preços mais acessíveis para as companhias aéreas e seus clientes. No Brasil, tive a oportunidade de experimentar este tipo de serviço numa aeronave da Gol no meu nootbook, muito interessante, vários vídeos, notícias, entre outros estão disponíveis por meio de uma conexão wi-fi a bordo, basta ligar, conectar e selecionar as dezenas de opções disponíveis. Só teve um problema, se o voo for longo e não tiver tomada, lá vai seu entretenimento de bordo, afinal, assistir vídeos e programação on line consome rapidamente a energia da maioria dos aparelhos eletrônicos. Uma evolução está começando! Vejam a publicação em inglês da Airline Trends:
5 September 2011 | Updated December 2011
In another sign that in-flight entertainment (IFE) is increasingly mimicking the fast developments in digital consumer electronics (witness the flurry of recent
announcements by airlines to make the Apple iPad available to passengers and crew). A similar burst of activity is currently taking place in wireless in-flight entertainment (IFE) as airlines are responding to the growing number of travellers bringing their own devices on board.
Essentially an intranet on a plane that replaces the several kilometers of cables needed to connect every single seat, with a wireless network that allows passengers to connect to content on an onboard server with their own laptops, smart phones or tablet PCs, wireless IFE is a relatively cheap and light-weight solution for airlines. The system vastly expands the ‘standard’ IFE features with services such as online shopping and reservations, destination information, real-time travel information and seat-to-seat chat. Following early roll-outs by American Airlines, Delta and Brazilian LCC Gol, half a dozen of other airlines are currently testing (or have announced) a wireless IFE service.
GoGo ‘Vision’
American Airlines (AA) in early August 2011 launched the “initial phase” of Gogo’s new
‘Vision’ inflight streaming video product, which AA calls
‘Entertainment On Demand’. Passengers flying on AA transcontinental fleet of 14 B767-200s on routes between Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York JFK, can wirelessly stream more than 100 movies and TV shows from an
in-flight library to “select types” of wi-fi enabled laptops (video
here). American is the first airline in the world to offer streaming video to passengers via their own wireless devices from an onboard server.
How it works: Customers click on the Entertainment On Demand banner on AA’s in-flight wi-fi
homepage, select a movie or TV show from the titles in the content library, create an account or log in, enter the form of payment (all major credit and debit cards are accepted) and click “rent.” Passengers can sort titles by movie or TV, genre, length of feature and other categories, and trailers are available for complimentary viewing prior to renting content. Movies and TV shows will remain accessible for viewing after the customer has landed – movies for 24 hours and TV shows for 72 hours. The service charges an “introductory price” of USD 0.99 per TV show and USD 3.99 per movie, and will not require customers to purchase inflight Wi-Fi to utilize the Entertainment On Demand feature. See this
video for more.
