Thales Avionics Launches Cabin Management and Entertainment
System
Thales Avionics is launching a complete cabin management and entertainment
system, TopSeries eXecutive. Based on an Ethernet backbone, it
uses elements of the company's latest airline inflight entertainment
(IFE) systems and will allow aircraft manufacturers to build airplanes
with a standard cabin architecture, while leaving customers free
to choose their own DVD players, displays and other equipment.
"Everybody knows that the name of the game is one of a kind,"
says Thales Avionics president and CEO Jean-Pierre Mortreux. "You
don't pay $40 million to have a me-too airplane."
Because the system uses existing equipment, it will be certificated
within eight months, according to Mortreux. "We're in the
proposal process on more than one OEM-at least two," he says,
"and those two OEMs alone could account for 1,000 systems
in the next ten years." Delivering an airplane with the Thales
system in place. Mortreux says, could cut completion times by
up to 40%.
Standard equipment included with TopSeries eXecutive includes
the server switch unit (SSU) which hosts entertainment content,
email, a three-dimensional map and other functions. The seat electronic
box is drawn from the Thales i-series IFE system, as the Personal
Digital Gateway smart controller. The SSU is also designed to
link to a satcom system.
