IFE

Cindy Phillips – Managing Director, IFE Content & Client Service, Pace Communications

Posted on 07.01.12

The development of inflight entertainment has been the backdrop to the life of our special guest today here on The PME Interview. Cindy Phillips has worked in the industry for more than 20 years, first for a hardware company, then a movie distributor, then various content service providers including Interact, Spafax and Pace. One of Cindy’s more recent projects involved helping to integrate the inflight entertainment offerings of Delta and Northwest Airlines, following their recent merger. Cindy talks to Steve Harvey about life at Sony Transcom back in the early days and brings us right up to date with what’s happening today at Pace Communications.

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Neal Rothman – Vice President Non-Theatrical, Twentieth Century Fox

Posted on 04.11.11

Twentieth Century Fox is on a roll. A strong slate of movies, a host of exciting new TV shows and an innovative if somewhat controversial licensing policy have all helped Fox maintain a healthy slice of the inflight entertainment content market. Twentieth Century Fox originally came into being on May 31st 1935, the result of a merger between the Fox Film Corporation and Twentieth Century Pictures. Executive Vice President Non-Theatrical, Julian Levin and Vice President Non-Theatrical Neal Rothman both work from an office situated on the Fox studio lot. In fact, as Steve Harvey discovered when he met with Neal recently, the Fox Inflight office has a very interesting past.

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Tagged with: entertainment • Fox Film Corporation • Fox Inflight office • Fox studio lot • IFE • in-flight • Julian Levin • licensing • merger • movies • Neal Rothman • non-theatrical • TV shows • Twentieth Century Fox • Twentieth Century Pictures

Mohamad El Assaad – Senior Manager, IFE, Gulf Air

Posted on 23.09.11

This week sees the inaugural flight of the first aircraft to feature Panasonic’s new Global Communications Suite, eXConnect.

Gulf Air is the launch customer and, in this exclusive PME Interview, Mohamad El Assaad, Senior Manager, IFE and Communications, reveals the airline’s new Skyhub product.

If you’re an airline thinking about upgrading your in-flight connectivity and communications you won’t want to miss it!

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Tagged with: aircraft • airlines • connectivity • entertainment • eXConnect • Global Communications Suite • Gulf Air • IFE • in-flight • Mohamad El Assaad • Panasonic • Skyhub

Neil Morgan – Sales and Marketing Manager, In-flight Peripherals

Posted on 19.08.11

If I’d collected every business card bearing the name ‘Neil Morgan’ over the past 30 years, I’d probably have enough to wallpaper my study! No sooner do you get used to Neil working for one company when he hands you a new business card and announces he’s joined another. When we recorded this interview back in May, Neil was at ‘The IMS Company’ promoting their new RAVE IFE system. Surprise, surprise – when we come to release the interview, I discover Neil has recently joined Geoff Underwood’s team at In-flight Peripherals as Sales and Marketing Manager. So when you bump into Neil at APEX, expect yet another new business card!

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Tagged with: APEX • entertainment • Geoff Underwood • IFE • in-flight • In-flight Peripherals • Neil Morgan • RAVE IFE system • The IMS Company

Mark O’Brien – COO, Project Lambda

Posted on 09.08.11

Despite the recent arrival of many Android based tablets, Apple’s iPad still rules supreme in the consumer market. But, following initial optimism, the iPad is still awaiting the crucial backing of Hollywood distributors for use as an onboard IFE device featuring early window content. One man who’s been spearheading the campaign to gain that approval is Mark O’Brien, initially as part of the UK based BlueBox team and more recently as founder and COO of Project Lambda. PME’s Steve Harvey talks with Mark about the improvements in the iPad 2 and recent progress in his quest for the holy grail – obtaining the green light from Hollywood for early window content.

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Tagged with: Android • Apple • BlueBox • COO • device • early window content • entertainment • Hollywood • IFE • in-flight • iPad • iPad 2 • onboard • Project Lambda • tablets

Julia Lewis – BBC

Posted on 09.07.11

Combine the words in-flight entertainment and the BBC and the name instantly springs to mind is Julia Lewis. Since the mid 80’s, Julia had attended countless WAEA conferences and TV markets promoting top rated BBC shows like Top Gear and Life On Earth to airlines. Then quite suddenly earlier this year, Julia made a life changing decision to take an early retirement to spend more time with her two children, Alice & George and to catch up with friends and family. In this PME Interview Julia talks about her introduction to the BBC and to in-flight entertainment and what happened when she became trapped in an elevator with two of Britain’s top comedians!

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Tagged with: airlines • BBC • entertainment • IFE • in-flight • Julia Lewis • Life On Earth • markets • television • Top Gear • tv • WAEA

Karen Schipper – Former El Al IFE Manager and Past WAEA President

Posted on 20.05.11

For many years, the larger than life figure of Karen Schipper was a familiar face at WAEA events such as the annual conference and the TV Market. Karen worked for El Al Israel Airlines for an amazing 35 years, many of those as Manager for In-flight Entertainment. She also helped to shape the future direction of the WAEA when, in 2000, she served for a year as President. She eventually chose to retire after a serious health scare but these days is in good shape and is in regular contact with many of her former colleagues in the industry. In the latest PME Interview, Karen talks with Steve Harvey about her years at El Al and her term as President.

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Tagged with: El Al Israel Airlines • entertainment • IFE • in-flight • Karen Schipper • WAEA

Albert de Wet – Manager: IFE, Etihad Airways

Posted on 11.05.11

Our guest today on the PME Interview heads up the IFE department of one of the world’s fastest growing airlines. Formerly with South African Airways, Albert de Wet moved to Abu Dhabi in 2005 to join Etihad Airways. Steve Harvey talks to Albert about his reasons for making the move and the strategy for in-flight entertainment at Etihad…

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Tagged with: Abu Dhabi • Albert de Wet • entertainment • Etihad Airways • IFE • in-flight • South African Airways

Arn Steventon – Founder, Individual In-flight Entertainment

Posted on 11.04.11

Once upon a time in the early eighties a young man was sitting on an airplane thinking about how the inflight entertainment experience might be improved. Since we’re unable to track down the other passengers on that eventful flight there’s no way of knowing whether Arn Steventon actually shouted “Eureka” but the idea that was born that day has transformed our industry and improved the inflight experience for millions of passengers. The idea that Arn came up with was for seat back TV, made possible by the development of the LCD TV screen. At the 30th anniversary conference in Palm Springs the WAEA presented Arn Steventon with an ‘Outstanding Achievement Award’. In the latest PME Interview, Steve Harvey interviews Arn Steventon about how he set about turning his idea into a reality…

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Tagged with: APEX • Arn Steventon • entertainment • IFE • in-flight • LCD TV screen • Outstanding Achievement Award • WAEA

Geoff Underwood – Managing Director, Inflight Peripherals

Posted on 25.03.11

These days we mostly associate the word connectivity with cell phones, Wi-Fi and the internet but there’s one IFE company that claims to have been connecting passengers for years. Inflight Peripherals manufactures the little headset jacks that fit in the arm rest of the seat to enable passengers to plug in a headset and listen to the audio track of the movie or a music channel.

It’s not a particularly extravagant piece of equipment yet without it no-one would be able to enjoy the in-flight entertainment. No wonder Managing Director Geoff Underwood calls his company, The Passenger Connectivity Company.

In this PME Interview, Geoff talks to Steve Harvey about how Inflight Peripherals, based on the Isle of Wight in southern England, went from a humble start up to winning a prestigious award from Queen Elizabeth.