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American Airlines Expands Streaming In-Flight Movies
wolog writes "American began testing a wifi in-flight entertainment system last month on two wide-body jets and will expand the testing among customers this summer. If all goes well, American said, it will be the first domestic (US) airline to provide streaming service on all Wi-Fi-enabled planes, starting this fall. Of course, the airline industry offers in-flight entertainment not solely to keep passengers amused but also to generate revenue. I'm curious how such system works. Having 250+ wifi clients connected inside a long metallic cylinder and doing some video streaming seems a really big challenge."
I flew AA to Japan and back earlier this year. The in-flight entertainment systems were spotty and from what I could tell, at least 10% of them didn't work well if at all - including 2 of the 5 nearest me. Touchscreens didn't work, sound plugs didn't work, random resets in the middle of movies (with no recourse but to watch the whole movie over again) or devices that would do nothing but show static. The systems were so unbelievably crappy that it made me wonder how well the rest of the aircraft was serviced.
I agree and I note that the simple, well-understood term for this sort of behavior is: deception. I am rightly suspicious of people who use deception not as a last resort in a time of desperation, but as their very first preferred tactic. What would be so wrong with them saying, "takeoff and landing are the two most critical moments of the flight so we require as a condition of using our service that no one use devices known to cause distraction such as cellphones and headphones at these times". Without even trying it they immediately reject reason and honesty and use fear (of the plane crashing) as a tool of manipulation. Why do we tolerate that from people who are supposed to be serving us?
Well that's actually a rhetorical question. I know the answer. It's because getting to the intended destination is much more important to us than taking a stand and refusing to do business with anyone who treats us this way. It's also because this has become so common and usual that I don't think many people appreciate the dehumanization it really represents. What would they use as a basis of comparison?
What's wrong with an alarm (or alert) system then? Something unmistakeable and unambiguous for use only in a genuine emergency, like bright red lights and a very loud (100-110dB) PA system so that any emergency announcement will definitely be heard over engine noise, movies, passenger chatter, and the like. Then if they really have a genuine need to quickly get the attention of everyone at once, they can do it. This doesn't suffer from the weakness of counting on every single individual to conform to bureaucratic rules with flimsy justifications. It has the added strength of not requiring flight attendants to be headphone nazis who deceptively micromanage their paying customers.
It's like we just insist on doing everything the hard way.
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
If you're through feeling indignant, let me tell you that they are not deceiving you. The concern really is that the electrical interference could mess with the avionics. The IEEE has done studies in the past showing that it's possible. It is extremely unlikely, but it falls into the realm of better safe than sorry.
They are not "dehumanizing" you by asking you to turn off your iPod for 15 minutes. You're just looking for something to be outraged over. Stick to the TSA, where the distrust and anger is actually warranted.