APEX TECH With Michael Stattmann
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Michael Stattmann
CEO
castLabs
FAST FACTS
Location: Hollywood, Los Angeles
Frequent flight: LAX-LHR
Now watching: Doctor Who, Continuum, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Now reading: Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
The future of flight will be: Faster
Favorite Airport: LHR
Recline or no recline? Recline
Seatback or PED? Both
Brand of suitcase? Samsonite
Passport stamp you wish you had: Japan
Can you explain the basics of the digital entertainment content ecosystem (DECE)? What are the key elements to consider when working with airline clients?
DECE operates a cloud based “rights locker” which holds purchase records for all your digital movies at a central place. It’s a library of your digital content and enables you to watch purchased movies through all connected retailers, not just the one you purchased the movie from. It allows you to “roam” your content among digital services instead of being locked into a single one.
The key element for airline clients is to offer [them] business models that work with the number of airplanes, rather than the number of users, to develop compact technology that’s able to scale to any size aircraft and is able to work in connected as well as unconnected mode.
In your view, will virtual reality (VR) become an important amenity in passenger experience the same way availability of in-seat power and Wi-Fi influence passenger bookings?
VR is the best entertainment technology to make flights more pleasant, enabling you to “leave the plane,” maybe get a first experience of your destination, while you are stuck in your seat for hours. The availability of content will be an important amenity, not so much the technology itself because the most adopted VR technology will be portable and people will bring their own device.
To what extent can video and virtual reality technology contribute to ancillary revenue opportunities for airlines?
The key to VR is presence – the ability to feel present at another place and time. Having the opportunity to experience the differences of various classes before you enter the aircraft is likely to influence purchase decisions.
“Having the opportunity to experience the differences of various classes before you enter the aircraft is likely to influence purchase decisions.”
Without giving too much away from your presentation at APEX TECH, what are the key emerging technologies in digital video content?
Next-generation content will have better, faster and more pixels, and an immersive audio/video experience. The new generation of technologies requires new video formats. Adopting those formats is a natural opportunity to upgrade the technology used to source and deliver that content. That push in technology bears the opportunity to drive automation and hence quality and speed of the digital supply chain while lowering the cost of content acquisition at the same time.
What do you hope APEX TECH attendees will take away from your presentation?
How adopting new technology standards will solve many complexities of delivering in-flight entertainment while opening the door for a much more immersive passenger experience.
Catch Michael’s presentation on Day One of APEX TECH:
Digital Video Delivery Solutions | Nov. 17, 3:30-4:00 p.m.
Michael Stattmann – CEO, castLabs