Song Airlines' Linux-based distributed media system
posted Sep 9th 2004 1:05PM
We recently took a trip on Song Airlines, who last year made some waves when they fitted their planes with a
Linux-based distributed in-flight multimedia system. It's kind of nice to know that such a trimmed-down airline spared
no expense on a system that, judging by its use, was obviously top-grade. And what a fine thing it is to have when you
don't have a laptop or book with you. Man, even if you do have a laptop or book, it's a pretty enticing
distraction.
We dug up some information on the system for you, and we were even lucky enough to grab some shots of the system while
the flight attendant staff were looking the other direction. But since we weren't about to get tackled like terrorists
to get 'em, forgive us if they're not the best quality.
More about the system
Song Airlines outfitted their fleet of 36 Boeing 757 jets with Matsushita Avionics Systems (MAS) Corp.’s eFX systems, a pretty advanced all-digital networked mulitmedia/data distribution system. It apparently has a whole host of features, though some of which were not yet available on the flight we took. Those features included:
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iXplor, enhanced GPS tracking with display accuracy of one square meter, moving map program with zoom capabilities and point of interest information
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Network features, such as in-seat Internet connectivity, SMS/email messaging, in-flight shopping and purchase capabilities
-
Streamed MP3 audio via passenger-created playlists from in-flight library
-
Connecting gate information displayed directly (and presumably contextually) on the in-seat video monitors.
But it did have some good stuff:
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24 channels of live, all-digital, DISH Network TV for free
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Locally broadcast/streamed MP3 audio programming
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Interactive networked trivia game
Ready for the shots?
We got a few of these shots, but this one came out the best. On the panel are the following unlabeled connections: two
USB ports, contrast up/down buttons, and what appeared to be two 1/8th-inch stereo headphone jacks. Here’s what
everything actually says:
On screen
Top
Song
Main Menu
[unreadable]
Center (content area)
Two yes/no buttons
“System ready for your selection”
Right panel
Maint
Back
Help
Seat Reset [very tempting!]
Audio
Ethernet port
Gigabit ethernet port
Maint only
J9577
Red switch on the right
IFE master power on/off
S9501
[IFE stands for in-flight entertainment]
Those of you who use Linux may recognize that pointer.
Listing of channels.
Shot of the music trivia game intro screen; sorry no in-game shots, was too busy aquiring the 3rd highest score of all
time! Boo-ya! Seat 5A foreva!
Not the best in-flight GPS system (Virgin Atlantic’s is pretty hype) but pretty decent; can’t wait to see iXplor.
In case you wanted to know what happens when DISH goes out in the middle of the night due to weather conditions.
Unfortunately the streaming MP3 radio didn’t display song information, but we’re hoping they’ll hook that up sooner
than later.
Safe travels!
You can't take pictures on US flights???
You can take pictures at your seat...but the pictures that they were taking that they had to be careful about were the ones of the eFX master console in the flight attendant's area.
Continental *definitely* runs Linux on their inflight system. There is no doubt about it, I've seen it reboot *with* the penguin logo top left!!!
I'm trying to find out what this is as I'm dying to set up something similar myself, here's one message I posted for help on digitalspy.co.uk:
I recently flew Continental over from the US to the UK and got a business class seat as the flight was overbooked, and the guy in the seat next to me had a problem with his personal inflight entertainment system. The attendant reset his system and lo and behold, the Penguin logo and all the boot info scrolled on his screen. Unfortunately I wasn't brave enough to grab his screen to see what Linux distribution this was based on, and I couldn't figure out what it or the video/menu application was on my own system (damn! I should have asked the attendant to reboot *mine* as well!!!) but as it's utterly more cool than my poor setup at home I'd be *extremely* interested in knowing if anyone knows what Linux distribution and application Continental (and probably other airlines) use for their inflight touch-screen entertainment systems.