AIX 2025: Thales Redefines LiveTV with the Official Launch of 360Stream
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Kurt Weidemeyer, VP Product Management at Thales InFlyt Experience, provides an in-depth look at the company’s innovative 360Stream solution, which the company believes will change the face of in-flight entertainment as we know it.
Thales InFlyt Experience has a strong history of pushing the needle forward when it comes to in-flight entertainment and connectivity, as evidenced by the significant number of Crystal Cabin Awards it has received over the last few years.
In the past three alone, it has taken home aviation industry “Oscars” for its PULSE power management solution; Onboard Data Center (ODC); FlytEDGE cloud-native IFE system; and as revealed at the 2024 APEX EXPO, for its suite of IFE accessibility solutions.
While it didn’t take home the award in the “IFEC & Digital Services” category at the 2025 Crystal Cabin Awards, Thales InFlyt Experience’s latest innovation 360Stream was indeed a finalist, and it is clear to see why.
“Thales’ system predetermines and flags live content within channels and allows airlines to choose between continuous streaming or only streaming live events.”
Officially launched at this year’s Aircraft Interiors Expo, it is the industry’s first event-based programming featuring Digital Video Recording (DVR) capability at 40,000 feet so passengers can play, pause, rewind, or skip to live. Importantly, it works on any satellite network and with any inflight entertainment system provider.
Thales InFlyt Experience VP Product Management Kurt Weidemeyer provided more insight about the unique features of its 360Stream solution. “Considering that half of news and sports channels often feature old or re-run content, Thales’ system predetermines and flags live content within channels and allows airlines to choose between continuous streaming or only streaming live events, optimizing bandwidth and enhancing the passenger experience.”
Another industry-first element of 360Stream is the availability of “Near-Live updates and highlights of live events,” wherein “airlines can wirelessly deploy near-live TV content on their fleet in less than 1 hour, around the world, all day, and every day,” Weidemeyer says. It delivers packaged highlights and recaps from a long sport game, news feature, or live event that is condensed to the most important clips so passengers can quickly catch up without missing a beat. “These Near-Live highlights are compiled, prioritized, and delivered wirelessly to the entire fleet within one hour through a 100 per cent automated process, direct from content provider to the aircraft.”
Launch content partners include BBC News, CNN and EuroNews, and Thales is currently in the process of adding more.
360Stream: Now Flying with AVANT Up on Emirates
360Stream took flight on Emirates’ new Airbus A350-900 aircraft equipped with Thales’ AVANT UP in-flight entertainment system, which officially entered into service on January 3, 2025.
Weidemeyer relays that “feedback has been overwhelmingly positive,” and Emirates’ Senior VP IFE & Connectivity at Emirates Patrick Brannelly has indeed given a glowing review of the solution.
Brannelly said, “Thales is providing by far the best Inflight LiveTV experience in the industry, especially as media moves to a more non-linear format. They have rebuilt the product from the ground up and not just incrementally improved upon what already exists. The passenger experience, intelligent use of bandwidth, flexibility in content and quality are all industry firsts.”
The Future of 360Stream: What’s Next?
With Thales’ history of bold innovation, it is no surprise the company is already working on introducing further features to 360Stream. It already offers convenience for passengers, who can access content on their personal electronic devices without downloading an application.
But in the medium-term, Weidemeyer says it is working on the inclusion of a “multi-view” option, which will mean they “will be able to watch multiple live streams simultaneously, allowing them to enjoy a variety of content at the same time.”
“The Near-Live content workflow […] will be able to accommodate more media types in the future, whether its niche content from social media or other streaming platforms.”
Thales is also excited about creating “showcase pages” dedicated to specific events or topics. “For example, during the basketball finals, a showcase page would offer access to live programming, upcoming events, highlights, analysis shows, related movies, and even shopping options,” he continued.
Looking at the bigger picture, Weidemeyer expects that the opportunities provided by 360Stream will encourage airlines to look at IFE content differently. “The Near-Live content workflow is designed for flexibility, and will be able to accommodate more media types in the future, whether its niche content from social media or other streaming platforms.” He confirmed Thales is actively onboarding partners for a more diverse offering within 360Stream.
He believes that using “Thales’ turnkey automated content pipeline offers potential for new business models in content licensing,” which would “potentially lead to a wider range of content options for passengers and create new opportunities for airlines to partner with content providers.” According to Weidemeyer, the system already allows airlines to establish their own partnerships with content providers in as little as three days.