Since its introduction, inflight entertainment (IFE) has required “meet and greet” service to ensure systems operate properly and to resolve hardware failures. An aircraft lands, then technicians pull the BITE data, identify problems and assemble the necessary resources to fix those problems. Depending on turnaround time and other pending maintenance tasks, a mechanic may or may not have time to troubleshoot the problem and then remove and replace failed hardware. Depending on the problem, he or she may or may not have access to the right parts.

In short, IFE maintenance always has been very reactive—something breaks, then it gets fixed.

All of that is changing. The future of IFE maintenance is proactive. It’s about getting more information to the ground, faster. Today, mechanics meet an aircraft ready to begin diagnostic checks on the IFE system; tomorrow, they’ll meet it with the results of those checks in hand, ready to make repairs.

Emerging IFE technologies already are enabling this shift. Increasingly, when something breaks in the air, maintenance crews on the ground know about it the instant the plane lands—or in some cases, sooner—and can position the right resources at the gate to handle the problem.

IFE technology is becoming so sophisticated that the new challenge for maintenance organizations will be figuring out how to manage and respond to the immediate and burgeoning data flow.

Technology Leaps Ahead

IFE suppliers anticipate the data flowing in will give them more detailed understanding of system performance, which in turn will enable them to further refine repair strategies, more accurately predict failures and better identify recurring issues.

Take, for instance, the new “nicemate” system from Lufthansa Technik’s (LHT) Innovation business unit. Released in May, nicemate is a multi-tasking LRU with a WLAN device and cellular GSM/3G connection, a media, maintenance and network server optimized for LHT’s “nice” cabin management and inflight entertainment systems. One of its first applications is cabin diagnostics, a capability that will enable users to shift from reactive to proactive IFE maintenance.

It continually monitors and logs files from the nice (networked integrated cabin equipment) system, then it establishes a secure 3G broadband connection and automatically transmits flight logs to LHT’s Customer Service Innovation (CSI) group in Hamburg once the aircraft lands. Any malfunctions on the network will automatically flag CSI, which initiates a proactive maintenance action. In some cases, an SMS message can be sent to the aircraft stating the problem and giving maintenance directions.

Compare this capability to today’s monitoring of nice. Technicians meet the aircraft and either (a) plug a USB thumb drive into a maintenance port, download the critical messages and send the data to CSI, or (b) connect to the system with a laptop and special software, monitor the behavior and read out the error messages. Neither is ideal, and maintenance personnel and CSI “often strongly rely on a limited amount of system data as well as on the system behavior observed by the customer,” says nicemate product manager Dennis Prange.