Plus Ultra Líneas Aeréas Complete Inflight Entertainment Solution Provided by IdeaNova
Overview
Plus Ultra Líneas Aeréas, founded in 2011, not only shares its name with Spain’s national motto, translating to “Further Beyond,” but also serves this region in providing quality transportation at an affordable price. Based in Madrid-Barajas Airport, Plus Ultra connects passengers from Spain to Latin America. The routes include Madrid-Lima, Madrid-Caracas, Madrid-Quito-Guayaquil, Tenerife-Caracas and opening in 2021, the Colombia route with Madrid-Cali-Cartagena. The Plus Ultra team came to IdeaNova and requested a complete end-to-end solution for inflight entertainment. The goal of the new system was to enhance their services and provide an excellent in-flight experience for their passengers. IdeaNova has over a decade of experience in security and providing affordable IFE solutions. This combined with Plus Ultra’s need for innovative service, provided the perfect opportunity to build a secure integrated solution. The end result: giving passengers the best inflight entertainment experience using our Inplay products.
Inplay Solution
The primary goal was to deliver a powerful end-to-end entertainment solution, giving passengers the same beautiful streaming experience they are familiar with on-ground. This was accomplished using IdeaNova’s IFE portal, enhanced with customized features such as signing up for airline rewards, retail catalog, and general airline information. The Inplay IFE Portal provides in browser content delivery eliminating the need for native applications. The in-cabin software was assisted with powerful content processing platform that sourced Hollywood content and used Inplay Cloud Platform (ICP) capabilities for DRM encryption and aircraft content delivery. Airlines can benefit from ICP as it provides a secure, yet affordable solution for enabling their customers with encrypted content with zero infrastructure investment. ICP is currently capable of encrypting content using Google Widevine, Apple FairPlay and Microsoft PlayReady DRM technologies. It can also format DRM and non-DRM content in a way that allows maximal content quality in a manner that minimizes aircraft server storage utilization.
Additional Features
Inplay IFE Portal represents the next generation of IFE entertainment platform that is not only secure, but also feature rich to satisfy the demands of the modern traveler. This new platform allowed Plus Ultra to feature secure in- browser playback of DRM content while at the same time allowing for a beautiful UI Customization to highlight the Plus Ultra brand. Using the Inplay IFE Portal was simple as it only required passengers to have their own handheld devices and simply connect to the inflight WiFi. This made it easier for passengers to seamlessly enjoy watching content without the hassle of downloading any additional required apps to view content while onboard.
One specific feature of the Inplay IFE Portal included the ability of passengers to build a watchlist before they boarded the aircraft, letting them immerse themselves in watching their favorite movies and TV shows during the flight.
Integrating Plus Ultra’s Frequent Flyer Registration into the portal made it easier for passengers to view their rewards or sign up for the airline benefits to use on their next flight. Also, being able to add a section for company info within the portal let passengers read more about Plus Ultra and their mission in flying.
Finally, IdeaNova was able to integrate a shopping catalogue. Gone is the reused physical pamphlet left in seatbacks. Instead, passengers have their own digital catalogue to browse through at their leisure.
Inplay IFE Portal was deployed on a portable IFE hardware. The content update process is flexible and can be adjusted based on airline operational needs. Inplay IFE is augmented with a powerful analytics tool, Inshow, which allows Plus Ultra to monitor content usage and key server operation statistics. It allows Plus Ultra to gain valuable business insights to guide the development of the platform further and also provides important operational information to ensure smooth IFE functionality.
Conclusion
IdeaNova’s end-to-end solution provided a seamless and affordable interface to its aircraft client that transformed the passenger experience for Plus Ultra travelers. The affordable end-to-end inflight entertainment system is simple to integrate into an existing aircraft as it’s delivered with portable hardware that is easy to operate. Passengers are now able to view all the latest Hollywood content using the skillfully designed user interface that takes into consideration all aspects of what makes a passenger journey enjoyable.