TC Minutes

WAEA Technical Committee Meeting
Atlanta, Georgia --- Feb. 16, 2000
Draft Minutes

1. Welcome & Introductions Mary Rogozinski, UAL and Rich Salter, ITRI/AAI
   Reviewed the TC Mission, Anti-Trust Guidelines, Housekeeping items. Reviewed the agenda and speakers.

2. Airline presentation - Shelli Keagle, Delta Air Lines

   Shellie Keagle presented an overview of Delta Air Line's Business Elite project.

   BusinessElite background:
   Decision was made in March 1998 to move to two classes of service on international aircraft.
   In an eight month window:

   • Over 3000 new fully electronic seats with inseat monitors were introduced
   • Between 12 and 17 new monuments or major components were installed per aircraft
   • Between 10,000 and 20,000 parts were used per aircraft
   The mod took 30 days for each MD-11 and almost 2 weeks for each 767ER.
   In addition, 8000 flight attendants were trained on new international service.
   New signage was developed and deployed, cabin service training was required, and a new concierge program was launched.

   Conclusion: IFE is but one small component of a mod program / product introduction / process redesign such as BusinessElite. It should not be the critical path for a product launch. As IFE suppliers, you all must enable us, the airlines, to reduce our time to market through standardization and integration.

3. Working Group reports
   1. DVD-WG report - Wade Hanniball, Universal
      Reviewed the DVD specification. Vote to adopt: 23 in favor, 0 against, 0 abstentions.
      Action: The Technology Committee will take this to the WAEA Board in March.
   2. Satellite-WG report - Rodger Soucy, Ball Aerospace
      Reviewed the Satellite TV installation guideline document. Vote to adopt: 21 in favor, 0 against, 1 abstention.
      Action: The Technology Committee will take this to the WAEA Board in March.
   3. Satellite TV Content WG report - Rich Salter, ITRI/AAI
      Rich provided an overview of the progress to date and an overview of the Single Focus Workshop on Satellite TV Content held February 15, 2000.
   4. WAEA/AEEC CEI report - Rich Salter, ITRI/AAI
      Rich provided an overview on this meeting. The next CEI meeting will take place February 21-23, 2000 in New Orleans, LA, USA.
   5. Cabin Systems Task Force report - Mary Rogozinski & Rich Salter
      Mary and Rich outlined the work of the task force on cabin standards and the recommendation that a new Int'l Airlines Cabin Committee (IACC) be formed under Arinc. This new committee would report to Arinc's Board of Directors and function at the same level as AEEC, and it would focus solely on cabin equipment (not cockpit avionics). The current CEI subcommittee would shift its reporting from AEEC to IACC, and IACC would set the work program for the Arinc staff and consider papers for adoption as Arinc characteristics for cabin equipment. The airline community will need to support this concept if it is to become a reality.
   6. Seat/IFE Integration workshop report - Wade Price, Boeing Airplane Services
      Wade gave an overview of what is planned for the Single Focus Workshop on Seat/IFE Integration on 17-18 February, 2000.
   7. Program Content Delivery WG report - Michael Childers, LightStream Communications Group
      Michael made a report on behalf of Chairperson Janice Daniello. He shared the Working Group's progress to date and that a final report out will be made at the WAEA Conference and Educational Workshops in London on May 11-12, 2000. He mentioned that there was some concern regarding anti-trust violations though the group was careful that the recommendations were not mandatory or to be seen as a standard. Wade Hanniball stated that studios were advised to not participate in the PCDWG.
   8. Media Storage WG report - Chris Wright, Miltope, and Steve Northam, MBM Technology
      A report was provided on the progress of this Working Group to date.

4. New Business
   1. New Working Group on Open/Closed Captioning. Mary Rogozinski reported on her attendance, on behalf of WAEA, at the recent meeting regarding Open/Closed Captioning.
      Action: Mary agreed to organize a new Working Group to discuss this subject further.
      Action: Rodger Soucy will report on this to the WAEA/AEEC CEI meeting next week.
   2. CD-ROM for TC materials. Rich surveyed attendees on the need/desire for TC Materials and presentations on CD-ROM. Suggested distribution via AVION Magazine's next edition. A suggestion was made to ensure the capability to search for key words. Vote: All in favor. Bryan Rusenko from Crest National Digital Media Complex would like to sponsor the disk.
      Action: HQ Staff (Mark Ledogar) to contact Al McGowan and Bryan Rusenko.
      Action: TC Chairs to take this to the Board.
      
   3. WAEA Web Site. Many commented that the Technology Committee portion of the new web site is confusing with too many layers to get to the TC documents. It was suggested that one should be able to view the TC meeting announcement and related documents with only two clicks of the mouse.
      Action: HQ Staff to coordinate with Web Site Committee and Technology Committee to suggest reorganization of the TC pages.

5. New Technology panel: Internet & Email onboard
   AT&T Wireless Services, John Courtright
   Primex Aerospace, Beth De Young
   Tenzing, John Wade
   Honeywell, Don Shell
   SITA, Elizabeth Young

   All the panelists made presentations and then a question and answer period ensued. Rich noted that each presenter's PowerPoint presentation will be posted on the discussion forum website at www.waea.org/workinggroups.

   Question: John White requested more detail regarding the sources of the statistics used in the five presentations.
   Answer: Presenters will contact John White.

   Question: Data rate speeds - will we see higher rates within the next year?
   Answer: Elizabeth Young - Yes, and need a system with global coverage.

   Question: When using email with existing phone systems in seat, only get connected 50% of the time, and price on credit card invoice was higher than expected… why?
   Answer: John Courtright - still working out details on how to price the email rates… currently $2.99 per minute. Existing systems use circuit mode connection so user gets charged for entire time connecting.

   Question: Security aspects of onboard email systems? Bringing a link to the cockpit, international flights… doesn't this pose some cause for concern?
   Answer: Don Shell - no direct link between email system and cockpit activities. John Wade - email systems are more passive and not as susceptible to hackers. No link to the cockpit. The design of the systems allows sufficient partitioning.
   Beth DeYoung - level of certification for the cabin applications is more simple and non-critical.

   Question: Rich - Is there interest in forming an Internet/email working group?
   Answer: Beth supports it. John Wade - "just make sure it's IP." Don - there is a strong demand in the market for email and Internet. Some suppliers have plans to deliver this year, so it may be counterproductive if standard setting would cause airlines to delay the delivery. John Courtright - would support it. Rich - This should initially be an educating and coordinating group, not to write standards until later determination of what is needed.
   Action: Mary and Rich will take the Internet/email WG idea under advisement.

6. Next meeting date and location

   Rich Salter provided the dates and locations of the upcoming WAEA meetings and encouraged attendance.

   Regarding the date of the next TC Meeting, May 21st was suggested. The Technology Committee will attempt to tie the meeting to a Working Group meeting.
   Action: Mary and Rich will identify date for next meeting and post on website.