Panasonic’s JAZZ Seating Concept Jazzes-Up Economy
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Panasonic Avionics had some exciting news to share at the press conference held at Aircraft Interiors Expo April 14th, including a record year for business with 16 percent increase in revenue versus 2013 and a 10 percent increase in the order book. The company also announced their 700th Global Communications Services (GCS) instalment and a partnership with Xiamen airlines that will see six of their aircraft installed with Panasonic’s GCS service.
Following the press conference we went over to their mega booth in Hall B3 to learn more about Jazz seating and get a feel for the design and functionality in person.
The Infamous JAZZ Seats
Brian Bardwell, Corporate Communications manager, Integrated Marketing at Panasonic gave us a walk through of some of the exciting new features on the B/E Aerospace JAZZ seat, a concept that was built with a focus on the seatback as a fully integrated passenger interface. Key features include:
- 13.3 inch monitor and 1080 pixel screen
- Programmable attendant call buttons
- USB, HDMI, and headphone jack peripherals
- NFC enablement for easy payments onboard such as Apple Pay
- Integrated passenger control unit/handset with push buttons
- Integrates with personal devices: passengers can play content from their own devices and interface with the seat.
- A “Do Not Disturb” function
- Integrated reading light: the design is made to decrease the ambient light going into your neighbor’s space.
- Programmable mood lighting (controlled by both airline and passenger)
“The focus here is really on the seat as a whole specifically the seatback to be a passenger interface,” explains Matthias Walther, manager, Integrated Marketing, Panasonic Avionics. And the seat is truly revolutionary from an economy experience standpoint. “Some of the OEMs will say airlines don’t compete on the economy class configuration, but in our view the biggest impact you can have on traveling public is to bring innovation to economy class,” adds Bardwell.
From a development standpoint, Panasonic describes the JAZZ seating concept as a “ground-up” project that began with early conversations with seat vendors. “What we did with this [project] is we basically locked every stakeholder involved in the process in the room until we come up with a solution that’s worthy of what we feel is just outstanding economy class passenger experience,” says Walther.
And outstanding it is. We got all nestled up in the JAZZ seat ourselves and the 13.3 inch screen alone gives the feel of a home theater experience.
Prefer playing games in-flight? Grab the integrated passenger control unit and get gaming! “A lot of companies for video game controllers will do touch screen but we’ve done a lot of research and we know that the people who like to play games still like to have buttons that they push to feel the feedback,” explains Bardwell.
What’s Next?
Panasonic has some exciting projects on the horizon. “We’re expecting to have a business-class seat available at APEX and we’re also working on a first-class seat as well but those are still very much in the design phase,” says Bardwell. We’re looking forward to the unveiling in Portland, Oregon for APEX EXPO 2015.
AIX conference photography: Maxim Sergienko / Raum 11