Network Connection's AirView Set to Take Off
ATLANTA, Dec. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- The Network Connection, Inc. (Nasdaq: TNCX - news), expects to achieve a major marketing milestone this month when a new French commercial airline inaugurates scheduled service featuring AirView, the technology company's advanced interactive in-flight entertainment (IFE) and cabin-management system.
Fairlines, a French airline owned and operated by Francois Arpels, will operate a fleet of 10 AirView-equipped MD-80 medium-range aircraft in a 72- seat luxury-class configuration. The IFE/cabin-management system contract is valued at more than $13 million, according to Wil Riner, Chairman and CEO of The Network Connection.
AirView will support fully digital personal interactive entertainment and video/audio-on-demand, as well as telephone and business services -- independently and all at the same time, with every passenger able to exercise full control at his or her seat. Simultaneously, the system will support cabin-management and flight crew services via the local area network (LAN) provided by the AirView system.
''From Roissy-Charles de Gaulle Airport, business travelers will be able to reach European financial, political and cultural capitals on Fairlines flights that will reduce total travel times,'' said Fairlines Chairman and CEO Francois Arpels.
''Our aircraft have been specially designed for passengers' entire satisfaction, and with AirView we will be able to deliver the highest quality of service, not only entertainment.''
Riner notes that The Network Connection has made ''tremendous progress'' in the company's sales and marketing efforts for travel entertainment systems in 1997. ''We currently are in advanced discussions with other commercial airline, train, cruise ship and hotel operators, as well as manufacturers, who are now realizing the advanced features, superior performance and improved quality of service that our systems provide,'' he added.
At the heart of AirView is the Cheetah(R) family of video server platforms that are capable of storing and delivering up to 700 hours of digital video/audio data to up to 300 simultaneous video/audio users over local area networks. Cheetah servers can bring interactive, on-demand, full-motion video training, education and entertainment to networked client computers through systems tailored for a variety of entertainment and transportation-related environments -- including cruise ships (CruiseView), trains (TrainView), hotels (InnView) and, of course, AirView for Commercial and Business aircraft.
In-flight entertainment systems alone represent a huge market, with airlines around the world poised to invest tens of millions of dollars in the technology, which is now considered an essential marketing tool due to the increasingly competitive nature of the airline business. Within the next five years, sales of IFE equipment and services are expected to climb to more than $9 billion from $1.4 billion in 1997.
For more information on The Network Connection or AirView connect to the company's Internet address: home page tnc.www.com. |
