IdeaNova and SPI partner to launch connected cabin solutions
Janne Pelkonen, CTO, IdeaNova (left) and Juraj Siska, CEO, IdeaNova at the IdeaNova booth on April 8, 2025
IdeaNova and Safran Passenger Innovations (SPI) announced at AIX yesterday a partnership to elevate inflight entertainment, unveiling integration of two connected cabin solutions. The innovations promise to enhance the passenger experience with advanced technology, seamless functionality and exceptional entertainment options. The two new products include: Enhanced IPTV with Inplay edge integration and Inplay Flow for user generated and YouTube content.
Enhanced IPTV with Inplay edge integration
SPI’s RAVE system, combined with IdeaNova’s Inplay Edge technology, delivers an unparalleled IPTV experience for passengers. This innovative solution supports both live TV and Video-on-Demand (VOD) content, ensuring versatility and entertainment variety. Passengers can enjoy new features, such as the ability to rewind live broadcasts to relive their favourite sports moments and quickly catch up to live action. It also reveals seamless transitioning from live broadcast to DVR content, configured to be stored in local cache.
Caching is provided by Inplay Edge, which provides configurable storage for DVR content and optimizes bandwidth usage, all while ensuring high-quality streaming, efficient content caching and robust Digital Rights Management (DRM) for secure, reliable and offline-ready entertainment.
“IPTV combines the benefits of watching live content and DVR content. With its ability to seamlessly transition between live and DVR it offers passengers quick review of a just played scene, such as a scored goal, or complete review of previous events, think games or prior broadcasted TV,” IdeaNova CEO Juraj Siska tells PAX Tech. “With Inplay Edge, it provides intelligent, standard compliant caching with ability to leverage single connectivity to pull content to a local server for subsequent viewing.”
Both live and DVR content is accessible from SPI’ seatback displays, which have been configured to seamlessly transition from the VOD to the IPTV feature. The solution comes with configurable interface for managing cache options such as disk space allocation, cache cleaning and per channel DVR configuration.
Inplay Flow for User Generated and YouTube Content
A unique solution, IdeaNova and SPI Inplay Flow for YouTube content enables passengers to mirror and cast YouTube videos directly to SPI seatback IFE screens with ease. The feature creates a more personalized and immersive experience, empowering passengers to access and enjoy their favourite content while in the air.
“We’re delighted that SPI has embraced Inplay Flow for its seatback entertainment as we see opportunities beyond YouTube and user generated content,” adds Siska. “We believe this product will become essential for all connected, and even disconnected, aircraft in the future.”
Ben Asmar, Vice President of Products and Strategy at SPI, said, “As the demand for high-resolution streaming, multi-device compatibility and seamless viewing experiences continues to grow, SPI is proud to lead in redefining inflight entertainment. By integrating advanced technologies like Inplay Edge and Inplay Flow into our innovative products, we are setting new standards in connected personalization, delivering premium, user-focused entertainment solutions, something we call the passenger curated experience."
SPI and IdeaNova’s collaboration marks a major advancement in reshaping inflight entertainment, reflecting the shared commitment to enhancing the travel experience for passengers globally.
