Touch Inflight and CastLabs Form JV to Deliver IFE Content From ABOVE
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Touch Inflight Solutions and castLabs have formed a joint venture to partner on a cloud-based platform that performs the encoding, storage distribution and delivery of video and metadata. Called ABOVE, the platform aims to solve many of the inefficiencies of delivering in-flight entertainment content to airlines by applying over-the-top market best practices.
Over the past 18 months, Touch has used the platform to deliver thousands of files for IFE systems from various suppliers including Panasonic Avionics, Thales and Gogo. Michael Stattmann, founder of castLabs, said his company’s deep knowledge of working in the cloud environment is trusted by studios and large content service providers. “This is complementary to the perspective Touch’s team has on content and its entire value chain, from licensors through the entire IFE supply chain to licensees,” he said.
Touch Inflight founder and managing director, Joe Carriera, said that castLabs’ previous work with Lufthansa Systems’ BoardConnect solution convinced him of “the efficiencies and drastic cost and timeline reductions that ABOVE can bring to the whole industry.”
Michael Childers, APEX Technology Committee chair and Lufthansa Systems chief consultant, Content and Media Strategy, said the platform, which facilitates automation and adopts the latest security methods, will enable “next-day” content deliveries to aircraft worldwide.
In addition to IFE content delivery, ABOVE is also capable of supporting dynamic content curation, updates and dynamic ad content.