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Virtual Reality Coming to Your In-Flight Entertainment?

5/22/2017

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2016 was the year of the Virtual reality headset, we are seeing the first versions of a technology that can, and possibly will, change our lives, much like the smart phone has. VR has the potential to improve our Games, TV programmes and Movies and allow us to experience things and places better. This article is about how your in-flight might be improved by a VR headsets.

No one likes flying during the holidays. Between having to leave two hours ahead of time and getting through security, just getting to your flight feels like a trip in itself. And then you get on the plane and have nothing to do for three hours except watch reruns of Friends on the little TV in front of you.

That’s probably about to change, thanks to VR. For a little while, of course, passengers can plug into their own Samsung Gear VR sets and tune out, but airlines might be offering their own complimentary variety so you can forget you’re stuck on an airplane.

A French start-up, SkyLights, is developing the tech. It’s a headset with a six-hour battery life, and it comes with noise-cancelling headphones. The headset looks pretty sleek and simple, because they’re made to be: There’s none of the neater interactions you get with an Oculus or Samsung headset. It really is just a movie beamed right into your face. You’ll be able to watch the newest 2D and 3D movies, and the set comes with 128 GB of storage — about 40 movies. Weighing only slightly more than half a pound, it’s easy to visualize the headset propped on the back of the seat in front of you, and after paying the fee, you can flip it on and enjoy hi-def movies right in front of your face.

The headsets are being tested in France right now: XL Airways became the first headset to offer a commercial version of the headset to passengers last week, for $16 per flight. SkyLights has also partnered with AirFrance and Airbus. Content-wise, there are partnerships in the works with 20th Century Fox and Dreamworks.

The general lack of viable in-flight entertainment has been plaguing the airline industry for a while; broadband Internet is an extra cost (roughly $10 per flight, depending on your airline), and the movies and TV they show are typically outdated.

It wasn’t until recently that airlines began attempting to match the broadband speed you’d find on the ground. (As of last year, you’d get speeds of around 3.1Mbps, as opposed to the roughly 30Mbps that smartphones on the ground are capable of). Since so many people use their own devices for entertainment, airlines are in desperate need of upping their Wi-Fi speed. But they also need ways to entertain their customers in an inexpensive manner, without the heavy screens and cables that come with TVs. Virtual-reality headsets — light, not-too-costly, and wireless — could offer a way for airlines to draw their customer base back in. But there are challenges: VR headsets are a relatively new and untested technology.

“Airlines are difficult players to deal with because they are risk-averse and slow to innovate,” David Dicko, SkyLight’s CEO, told the Times.



One potential problem for in-flight VR in your face is the nausea it causes. VR (even if it’s just a film) can be very disorienting, and it’s not hard to imagine people getting sick from it on a moving plane. Oculus’ health and safety documentation is a laundry list of potential concerns, from warnings of dizziness and nausea to seizures and sweating.

Another potential issue could be that hundreds of folks tuned out to a VR movie with noise-cancelling headphones have, at the least, limited awareness of the outside world. That means slowness to react in plane emergencies — another potential lawsuit on an airline’s hands.

For now, we’re skeptical that VR headsets will take off as in-flight entertainment in the U.S. anytime soon. Early adopters might be eager to try them — but they also have their own headsets that they can use for free. Customers would have to pay over the price of a movie ticket, the technology is unstudied when it comes to users’ health, and everyone has their own phone or tablet to entertain themselves. We love the idea, but, as Dicko noted, the airlines are a pretty risk-averse industry. They should prioritize Wi-Fi bandwidth first (and make it at least cheaper), which is what the majority of customers undoubtedly want.

Anyway, it’s hard to imagine a more Black Mirror–esque image than a hundred people, arranged into rows, their heads leaning back, eyes hidden behind a headset, plugged in to a world that isn’t there.

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Airbus to display resilient PMR communications infrastructures and solutions at ShieldAfrica 2017

5/14/2017

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ShieldAfrica was started in 2013 and is a security conference for institutional and private operators to meet with companies to promote products and ideas, this years (2017) main theme is Safe Cities, component of Smart Cities, driving investment and economic development to the concept of connected and safer cities. Airbus are turning up to this years exhibition and they are showing off their PMR infrastructures, the source of the article is here, but you can read the whole lot below

To support the economic development of African societies and governments in a challenging security context, Airbus Defence and Space will show its latest radiocommunications technologies at the exhibition “ShieldAfrica” in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, in late January 2017.



Police, firefighters, and rescue services in Africa are increasingly in demand of more advanced and secured mobile communication tools. “ShieldAfrica” serves as a platform to discuss security applications which require sophisticated Professional Mobile Radio (PMR) technology on the continent.

Secure communications infrastructures

“Government organisations, such as police and emergency first responder services, need secure communications infrastructures for the whole of their national territory and also for critical sites, such as airports, ports and stadiums,” says Philippe Devos, Head of Strategic Campaigns and Government Affairs of Secure Land Communications at Airbus. “We can offer the needed communication means in Africa based on our profound experience as a world-leading PMR provider.”

African security and defence sectors

“Shieldafrica” is a key event for the African security and defence sectors and hosts the major players in this field, for instance African governments, the global security and defence industry and representatives of diplomacy. Besides showing newest achievements in mission critical communications, Airbus will also showcase the following solutions:



  • Tetra digital radio systemsassociated with modern command and control applications and handheld radios can support effectively shared network deployment models. With these systems at hand, dispatching positions of vehicles or persons can be managed easily by geolocalising Tetra subscribers or groups.


  • The Tactilon Agnetapp brings Tetra push-to-talk to an LTE smartphone. It allows users of commercial LTE networks to communicate securely within mission-critical Tetra networks.


  • The Tactilon Dabat, a smartphone and full Tetra radio in one device, enables users, such as police or firefighters, to operate securely with multimedia functions.




Providing interoperability

For more than 25 years, Airbus has equipped various governments around the world with resilient PMR communications infrastructures and solutions. The company has a proven track record of nationwide deployments providing interoperability to all security users organisations.

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    I have a busy lifestyle, kids, husband, part time job in the library, but i always have time to write on my blog, this blog is a forerunner to write my book. When i'm finished i will let you know, in the meantime my blogs will give you a taste..

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