AERQ, a promoter of digital transformation for aircraft cabins, and ABOVE a media processing and distribution platform, today announced their collaboration to automate the media content supply chain for commercial aviation in the cloud.
The introduction of the service will allow AERQ customers to enjoy the industry’s fastest and most cost-efficient end-to-end service for video asset encoding, integration, and deployment to aircraft. The service is currently being developed and is foreseen to be available Q4 2023/Q1 2024.
Both parties are convinced that today’s highly manual, slow, and overly expensive media content supply chain can only be step-changed when it is newly designed in a collaboration of partners across different areas of responsibility. In this collaboration ABOVE focuses on media file encoding, metadata generation, DRM protection and watermarking. AERQ develops automated, cloud-based, fast system integration workflows that allow customers to quality check proper CMS integration in the cloud – and spare them that extra trip to the system rack.
The integration of both parties’ workflows creates a true on-demand service that will allow service level agreements of as low as 24 hours for end-to-end content delivery to aircraft. It also realizes cost savings of up to 10x compared to incumbent media processing and integration cost. In addition to optimized workflows, the parties aim to provide transparency and control to airlines unlocking the whole potential of the end-to-end media journey. Though designed as a one-stop-shop service, airlines will be able to integrate their existing media and ancillary revenue partners e.g. content service providers.
André Valera, Managing Director at ABOVE says: “Collaboration is key to unlock the adoption of paradigm-shifting technologies. What AERQ is proposing to the market is totally aligned with what we envision from a media distribution perspective, where standards are adopted, and friction points are removed. We look forward to contribute with our ABOVE value proposition and, together, to disrupt the inflight entertainment and connectivity ecosystem.”
Jonas von Kruechten, Head of Strategy and Business Development at AERQ says: “This cooperation showcases how innovation can be achieved when partnering within the industry and looking at the bigger picture. With ABOVE we are happy to have found a true front-runner in media content post-production services. Our innovative workflows will unlock both top- and bottom-line improvement potential for airlines through cost efficiencies and the ability to structure new digital products for passengers.”
About ABOVE
ABOVE is a joint venture between Germany based technology firm castLabs GmbH and Miami based content service provider Touch Inflight Solutions Inc., bringing together industry relationships, deep knowledge and experience of the ecosystems, from media to Inflight Entertainment (IFE) and cloud-based digital video processing technologies. ABOVE accelerates media distribution with an agnostic, fully automated, cloud-based platform. With a one-stop-shop approach, the digital platform is enabling a consolidated media supply chain for content owners, service providers and airlines.
About AERQ
AERQ is a joint venture between LG Electronics and Lufthansa Technik. It was founded in June 2019 and is headquartered in Hamburg, Germany. With its roots in consumer electronics and aviation it uses the extensive knowledge from both parent companies to develop digital solutions for aircraft cabins. AERQ takes the digital transformation of aircraft cabins to a new level by turning them into spaces for new ideas and business development. AERQ enables airlines to digitalise their aircraft cabins by providing a new kind of digital ecosystem in and around the aircraft fueled by software, hardware and data.
www.aerq.com
Featured image credited to AERQ
