APEX TECH: ST Engineering iDirect’s Sean Yarborough talks IFEC transformation among space, cloud and ground technology
Share
APEX TECH 2023: Sean Yarborough, VP of Product Management, ST Engineering iDirect kicked things into high gear with a presentation entitled The Future of Inflight Connectivity: Transformation Among Space, Cloud and Ground Technology.
Opening with an overview on some the new and existing technologies at play as space-based IFE converges with terrestrial and wireless networks, Yarborough focused on a few key areas.
“One of the things that we’re seeing as an opportunity is really this convergence of the ecosystem. And when we talk about convergence, you see three or four bubbles pop up,” explained Yarborough. “One is around cloud. One is around 5G and kind of telco standards. One is around the ground infrastructure and then also cloud. These are just a few of the things that are happening in our industry right now at a much more rapid pace than before.”
Also touching on topics like 5G standardization, new orchestration techniques and the ability to change the coverage area dynamically, Yarborough was quick to remind the crowd that maintaining a stellar passenger experience is always key.
“I’m going to start with technology, but I’m always going to try to bring it back to, again, the end user experience, you know, [your passenger’s] time on an airplane,” said Yarborough.
But it was a question during the Q&A that probably best highlighted the urgency behind Yarborough’s underlying message: “Do you think customer expectations are increasing faster than our ability to meet them?”
“Yes,” deadpanned Yarborough. “Look, I’m a customer too, right? So, I want my experience on an airplane to be closer, maybe not exactly, to my experience at my home and at my job. As some of the iDirect people here today know, we’ve moved all of our files and everything onto OneDrive. And so, you know, depending upon whether you have coverage or not, you’re downloading a lot of content or you’re downloading stuff in SharePoint. The reality is our demand is definitely higher than what we do today in aero. But, again, there’s an opportunity and a pathway right now to catch up. Absolutely!”