What They Say
American Airlines is to use UltraHD Optiq in-flight-entertainment (IFE) displays from Thales that are based on Samsung QLED LCD technology in five new aircraft. The displays have support for dynamic HDR as well as being 30% lighter and more reliable than previous versions.
Premium Class seats will enjoy 17″ displays accompanied with a 5-inch touchscreen handset offering a true second-screen experience. Premium Economy and Economy Class will feature 13.3″ displays and 11.6″ displays, respectively.
What We Think
We missed this product announcement in June which is part of a deal with Samsung’s Harman division and the sets include Bluetooth to allow wireless connections to headsets.
It seems to me that really bright and colourful displays might actually be a disadvantage on aircraft. Then again, when poor LCDs were used, with bad viewing angles, that was bad, too. I seem to remember that Microsoft was working on light steering technology at one time, which might be ideal. There is a general point about displays that ‘displays without people have no purpose’, they just waste energy. Steering photons towards the user’s eyes could save vast amounts of power as well as reducing the problem that light broadcast from displays tends to reduce the contrast of viewing rooms. On a plane, such technology could save power as well, but also reduce or eliminate ‘crosstalk’ to other users that might want less light. (BR)
