easyJet offers in-flight personal TVs

It’s been a couple of months now since the UK’s largest airline, easyJet, started offering Mezzo’s in-flight personal TVs on selected flights from the UK. For just £7.50, passengers have been able to hire a personal TV, which gives them access to a range of blockbuster movies, TV programmes, music and games.

We’re really pleased to be working with easyJet and are proud of our fantastic TV experience offering. We have been working on developing the Android platform for in-flight entertainment for nearly 12 months and we’re excited that this is the first deployment of an android OS Tablet. The Dell tablet has been modified - with Dell’s permission - to enable us to achieve Hollywood studio approvals and manage our development of the Android platform.

The passenger experience is a step-change from even the latest installed system: the latest touch screen supports "gestures"; there are games that make the most of motion sensors; and the near HD quality of the 5” screen means an exceptional entertainment experience.

The lightweight device is only 290g per unit and sets a new benchmark for in-flight entertainment solutions for narrow-bodied jets, allowing easyJet to carry 19 personal TVs in a single drawer of its in-flight kiosk.

When we launched the service, Nick Hughes, easyJet’s Head of Ancillary Revenue, said they were delighted to be working with Mezzo. They saw their in-flight offering go from strength to strength, and they thought the new, easy to use personal TVs would give their passengers an even greater experience when flying with them.

The next three months will see the achievement of additional milestones for Mezzo as we launch a selection from the Samsung Galaxy range of tablets with easyJet customers and also gradually roll the service out to additional UK airports. easyJet’s customers will be the first in the UK to experience this much-anticipated and rightfully hyped in-flight entertainment experience. Watch this space!

About Portable Media Players

I have been asked to speak on a panel at the WAEA/APEX Education committee (Monday 13th September WAEA conference Long Beach) on the subject of "Repurposing COTs for IFE Versus Purpose-built Platforms".  I can think of many more questions that would be far more relevant to the passenger experience than this, as I am sure that the vast majority of passengers really won't give two hoots as to the origin of the device, as long as there is one available, it works and that the content is what they really want to watch.

Let me pick up on the the reliability issue as I know the reliability of IFE installed systems is a subject that keeps many Airline Engineers busy till all hours, as well as their Finance Directors frowning at the costs and the older the system the worse it is of course.  There is an alternative, and it comes in the shape of Portable Media Players; extremely high reliability and if there is a failure, easily remedied through replacement.  I would hazard a guess that it is possible to achieve 100% screen availability with portables...and with the arrival of the iPad, portables have been given a much needed boost in the cosmetic department that i think has already got people thinking about just how much of a premium price the embedded seat back system should command...