IMS secures new customer for its 4th Gen Data Loader utilizing Solid State Technology
10/5/2009
Brea, CA (October 5, 2009)—A new generation of embedded data loaders with significantly faster content load speeds, increased storage capacity, and the ability to interface with multiple IFE systems will be revealed at the WAEA Conference this week in Palm Springs, California by The IMS Company, the IFE industry market leader in data loading solutions, according to Harry Gray, vice president sales and marketing. IMS has a major airline launch customer for the fourth generation loader that will be announced soon, says Gray, which will increase the total number of aircraft flying IMS data loading technology to nearly 500.
Combining multiple wireless and removable media capabilities into a compact, lightweight, low power solution, IMS’ new TDLg4 puts the emphasis on increasing content load speeds and storage capacity along with labor-saving automation, says Gray.
“With Gigabit Ethernet and an optional Fiber Channel, on-aircraft content loading is twice the speed of the earlier product, and the on-the-ground speed to prepare the load set for the fleet is three to five times faster,” says Gray. “We have also replaced the Removable Hard Disk Drive with Solid State (SD) media, which provides higher reliability, lower cost of ownership, and reduced certification costs for upgrades to higher capacity media.
“These capabilities recognize that content load sets in IFE are increasing, and that more and more airlines are using time-sensitive content throughout the month, like daily news,” Gray observes. “The TDLg4 provides the means to process larger monthly content load sets with faster loading speeds, as well as daily and multiple-times daily news during short stays on the tarmac,” says Gray. “At the same time we have increased the speed and size of data offloads.
“No other data loader in IFE combines the multiple ingest capability of wireless and removable media in a single LRU with ‘Insert-and-Go’ functionality. The upgrade from RHDD to SD technology is truly paradigm-changing.”
Wireless Connectivity—3G, Wi-Fi, WiMAX
TDLg4 also provides dual mini-pc express ports that support two wireless cards with 3G cellular (CDMA, revA, GSM, and HSPDA), WiMAX, and 802.11 a/b/g/n, according to Gray. Diversity antennas are supported for 802.11 connections.
The data loaders wireless capabilities help to automate the IFE content delivery supply chain and data offloading processes at a time when cost-conscious airlines are looking for alternatives to the SneakerNet, observes Gray. “Even the use of removable media is more efficient as it is essentially ‘insert-and-go’ technology rather than a technician typing instructions into a laptop. And it is no longer necessary to have technicians standing by at the end of a flight to manually offload data since the TDLg4 offloads this data automatically and sends it to your network for secure but easy access.”
In addition to wireless and high-speed content loading, TDLs support the capture and offloading of BIT/BITE data, content load status, system conformity, and IFE system logs for IFE health monitoring, says Gray, and assists in system/LRU diagnostics and troubleshooting.
Content Security
TDLs provide excellent content security, according to Gray. Content can be encrypted in post-production and remain encrypted in the TDL, decrypting as it enters the fileserver. TDL supports AES-128 encryption and is FIPS 140-1 Level 2 and 3-compliant. These security levels meet the needs of content providers and WAEA 0403 requirements.
About The IMS Company:
Founded in 1996, The IMS Company is an entertainment and communications solutions provider in the travel industry serving planes, trains and automobiles. The Entertainment Group has a focus on portable entertainment, wireless communications, and content management services, while the Engineering Group focuses on systems and software development. Historically, the company’s core business is the provision of advanced systems and software engineering support to aerospace companies in the development and deployment of the latest in inflight entertainment, cabin avionics, and media distribution systems. IMS has expanded into the provisioning of content services and hardware solutions for business aviation, rental car, rail passenger, and related markets reaching the traveling public. In 2007, IMS was named the 24th fastest-growing privately-held company in technology-heavy Orange County, California by the Orange County Business Journal. See: www.imsco-us.com.