APEX TECH 2026: Building a Unified Digital Ecosystem Across the Connected Cabin
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At APEX TECH 2026, inflight digital integration took the spotlight during a panel moderated by Runway Girl Network Founder, Editor, and Publisher Mary Kirby. The session brought together five leaders with different perspectives across the IFEC (in-flight entertainment and connectivity) industry: Safran Vice President of Products and Strategy Ben Asmar; Bluebox Avionics CEO Kevin Clark; Panasonic Avionics Senior Vice President of Product Management and Strategy Andy Masson; Thales Avionics Director of Marketing Operations Jon Norris; and AirFi.aero CEO Laura Roesges.
Together, they explored how airlines are trying to connect every inflight touchpoint into one digital ecosystem, from seatback and wireless in-flight entertainment (IFE) to apps, connectivity, and data. The discussion highlighted both the opportunity and the friction. Passengers expect the cabin to work like the internet, while airlines still have to solve licensing, integration, and slower aviation upgrade cycles.
Rights Still Set the Rules for Streaming
Kirby opened by posing a hypothetical about the future of streaming. If a streamer ever owned a major studio, would that change the trajectory of inflight streaming?
Norris, answered by making the baseline clear. Ownership does not erase licensing. “Even if there’s an acquisition, you still have to maintain proper rights and licensing,” he said. He drew an important line between airline-offered streaming and a passenger’s personal subscription. “None of those services, the contract that you have with them covers you to watch anything inflight. It’s only terrestrial. It’s only in your home,” he said.
In other words, the industry still has to treat inflight viewing as a broadcast use case. “If you’re on a plane, it’s not a personal space. It’s a broadcast set up from a licensing rights point of view,” Norris said. That is why, he explained, APEX’s initiatives such as APEX STREAM (Standardized Technical Rights Enforcement for Airline Media) focuses on protecting rights “regardless of what technology is being used to transmit it and what kind of model we have,” whether to seatback screens, personal devices onboard, or through ground-to-aircraft streaming models.
If airlines want streamer apps onboard at scale, Norris explained the aviation industry needs alignment first: “We need to consolidate our view from an industry point of view first, and then understand whether we should reach out to them.”
Streamers Will Come, But the Industry Has to Bring Them In
Masson predicted that inflight distribution eventually becomes too big for streamers to ignore. “It’s gonna happen eventually,” he said, pointing to the size of the aviation market. “There are 4.4 billion people who fly today, and in a couple of years that’s gonna go up to 8 billion people who fly,” he said. “At some point, one of the streaming platforms is going to recognize that that’s a market they don’t want to slice off.”
But Masson also suggested streamers will not move based on vendor enthusiasm alone. “They’re not going to listen to us,” he said. “They’re going to listen to the collection of the airlines and the APEX bodies, but it will ultimately happen for sure.”
Asmar agreed with the long-term direction but highlighted the commercial realities. “Technology is not the hard part here,” he said. “The hard part is, what is the framework, what’s the licensing model, on how do we get these guys involved?” He also laid out the streaming provider incentive in plain commercial terms: “Their objective is subscriber acquisition. That’s why they will get out of bed every morning.”
His message to the industry is show streamers the addressable audience and build the pitch around it. “We as an industry need to work with them to show them the 4.4 billion or the 8 billion people… and get a little bit smart with how we approach them,” he said.
A More Dynamic Cabin Depends on Software
From the wireless IFE side, Clark noted passenger behavior already points toward greater flexibility. Bluebox sees “traditional content, but also lots of short form,” including “curated YouTube videos.” He explained that airlines need solutions that adapt to different fleet types and upgrade cycles. Bluebox’s strategy focuses on portability. “We abstract the software from the hardware,” he said, so airlines can move capabilities to different platforms and “evolve with the demand.”
Roesges added that successful wireless IFE often depends on how airlines define the experience they want to deliver. Wireless works best when airlines accept that passengers will use personal devices and providers can “close that gap.” But the real questions go further. “How holistic should the experience be throughout your entire fleet… what channels connectivity comes in… do you want entertainment as a pacifier, or do you want to gain auxiliaries from it?” she asked. She emphasized that airlines often need guidance to align stakeholders and turn good technology into a consistent onboard experience.
The theme of adaptability surfaced repeatedly. Passengers evolve faster than aircraft upgrade cycles, which means digital platforms must move faster. Norris described this as a need for greater dynamism. “Our whole ecosystem just needs to be far more dynamic,” he said, both in the type of content offered and the speed of change.
He described where he sees the market heading: “If we move to a cloud native environment where things are off the shelves giving the autonomy to airlines that they can change things in real time as they want to.” He pointed to the potential for “real time data feedback” and personalization that starts inflight and carries forward.
Norris said some airlines are preparing for that pace by building internal digital capability. “They have large digital teams,” he said, and they are building the infrastructure to support faster iteration, including tools like “a virtual aircraft,” the ability to “do A/B testing,” and the ability to “launch it live on a plane.”
Data, AI, and the Push Toward Personalization
Kirby then shifted the conversion to the “data is the new oil” promise, and why it has not fully materialized. Asmar argued the industry has collected plenty of data, but the value depends on using it well and quickly. “All that is only possible if we collect data,” he said, “but it’s also only possible if we use it in a meaningful way, and we do it at speed.”
He questioned why software release cycles in aviation remain so heavy compared with other regulated sectors. “Why is it we need to go through a very rigorous test… that takes potentially six weeks when others in financial, medical, and other well regulated industries can publish software in a few minutes?” he asked. “We don’t need to be different.”
Asmar connected the payoff to revenue and loyalty: a “hyper personalized experience” makes passengers “more inclined to buy the product,” and it can “drive loyalty retention.” He also sketched what personalization could look like operationally: learn from a passenger on an outbound flight, then adjust what is offered on the return. That is not science fiction, he argued, if airlines can “move data to the aircraft quickly” and “publish apps quickly.”
Masson echoed that direction and went even further, predicting a shift away from today’s app-centric approach. Masson connected data and personalization to where he thinks the cabin UI (user interface) goes next. Panasonic’s current tools, he said, already allow airlines to “create a simple seat row,” run “A/B testing,” and use “self service toolset” capabilities. Longer-term, he predicted, “You’re going to be presented with an AI, hyper personalized platform without apps. It will beat the app, and it will give you what you want, exactly what you want.”
Roesges grounded the AI buildup in practical constraints. “What a lot of airlines forget is you’re actually limited by wanting to because that is a lot of CPU,” she said. She explained AirFi’s approach as using “very lightweight” connectivity to send a query to the ground and return the response to the cabin, while managing traffic “intelligently” so it stays responsive.
Seatback, Wireless, and the Case for a Harmonized Digital Experience
The panel then shifted to the topic of seatback screens and wireless IFE. Speakers described a future where both coexist, with the digital platform serving as the unifying layer.
Masson argued that seatback remains the strongest way for airlines to keep passengers within their ecosystem. “Even if I connect to Starlink, I’m not sitting in the airline’s digital environment,” he said. “I want to be in the airline’s image…seeing their advertising… creating ancillary… and the passengers see it and they feel it.”
Norris backed the idea that airlines still need an anchor touchpoint onboard. “Seatback is not going anywhere,” he said, calling it “the digital anchor for the airline,” especially if the airline wants to “monetize or provide really good services.” He also argued the experience is becoming “multi screen,” and that you cannot have that without an embedded screen.
Asmar tied that trend to aircraft missions and fleet reality. With longer-range narrowbodies like the A321XLR entering service, airlines want widebody-style engagement. “Airlines want to have an engagement experience, and we’re seeing it now with the reimagining of narrowbody aircraft,” he said. “What we can all work on as an industry is moving digital platforms faster and faster,” he said, whether the touchpoint is wireless, seatback, or the airline’s own app.
Clark’s perspective from the retrofit market highlighted operational realities. Bluebox can “drop it in” to “create a digital network,” and layer services like IFE and retail on top. He noted that airlines cannot refit every aircraft at once, and passengers notice inconsistencies. A consistent software layer helps reduce that gap.
Looking Ahead
As the panel closed, the discussion returned to a practical question. How soon will streaming apps integrate directly into seatback systems? Norris provided a clear answer with an important condition. “If the licensing rights are in place by the end of the year,” he said, adding that with cloud-native platforms, “anything designed for the web on the ground can be served in the air.”
Masson noted that Panasonic already supports streaming provider caching models. “It’s flying today. It works extremely effectively,” he said. Asmar reinforced that the main limitation is not hardware. “Ultimately, the answer is now,” he said. “The limitation is not the hardware, it’s the licensing rights.”
The takeaway from the panel was clear. The cabin’s digital ecosystem will not be defined by one screen type, one connectivity solution, or one vendor platform. Airlines will succeed by building an integrated digital foundation that respects licensing, moves at software speed, and gives them control over every inflight touchpoint.