aerobod

Not at this point, as the current Ku satellite antennas we use on the 737 and 767 are too big to fit on the Q400 and ground based systems don't have coverage very far north of the US border. There are new technology flat-plane satellite antennas that should be certified in a couple of years, though.

PilotTobe

Thanks for the info! I always love your insights ^

XFed2001

Hi. I'd like to ask a question about IFE. I'm flying in Plus from YYZ to Vancouver in Sept. Will I get headsets or should I bring my Boise? Thanks

aerobod

There are ear buds from basic to noise cancelling available for purchase, but bring your own is generally a better proposition.

XFed2001

Thanks for your quick reply.

Shareholder

Was unable to use the comp wifi voucher I received on my flight from YVR-YYZ the other evening. As I don't have another WS flight planned before the end of this month when it expires, the first person to PM me will be sent the PIN.

PIN is now gone.

Frequentlander

Friday May 20 WS 719 YYZ-YVR Fin 836.

Aircraft was Westjet connect enabled. I could watch BBC News (which was quite blocky) but nothing else. The other two satellite TV channels were inactive. Tried to connect to free TV and Movies but nothing.... just black where the viewing pane is.

I was using Chrome on a MacBook Pro. Tried using Safari but got a message that told me Flash was required... so no joy there.

It wasn't that big a deal to me personally as I always bring enough of my own IFE to last me at least twice the scheduled trip length, but I'd like to be able to use Westjet connect when it's available.


Was I dong anything wrong? Are there known issues with the hardware and browser combo I was using?

Anyone, Aerobod? Aerobod?

aerobod

Safari and Firefox on Mac OSX 10.6 and above is supported, the flash plugin from the aircraft server has to be installed along with a DRM (digital rights management) plugin, there should be a prompt to do each of these installs, if not browser settings may be preventing the plug-in or pop up message windows. Using flash is not ideal, in my opinion, as it is not the most secure product, but unfortunately on Windows and Mac OSX, it is the only method of using the DRM plug-in (mandated by the Hollywood studios). The implementation on iOS and Android devices with the DRM built into the apps is far simpler and less error prone.

Here is the WestJet Connect device support info: http://www.westjet.com/guest/en/trav...html#General_2

The black screen with Chrome is due to NPAPI no longer being supported on Chrome 42 onwards.

Frequentlander

OK. I think I got all that (I'm an engineer but not an IT person...and I have no idea what a NPAPI is) so if I understand correctly, if I'd have used the App that's installed on both my iPhone and Samsung Galaxy Tablet (which was in my carry-on) it would have worked?

Darn....

aerobod

That is correct, very few issues with the apps (although v2.5.1 of the WestJet App from Google play is needed for 64-bit Android OSs, as v2.5 will crash when loading the 32-bit DRM library). Overall due to it's homogeneity as an OS, iOS has the least problems with WestJet Connect, followed by Android on Samsung devices, followed by other platforms. we test with 40 to 50 specific hardware devices with commonly used software configs, typically any platform that has more than 1% of market share.

The browser NPAPI interface is used by the DRM plug-in and Flash, as of v42 of Chrome PPAPI is the only supported interface (which Flash supports) and is a much more secure access method. At the moment there seem to be some problems using PPAPI with the Marlin DRM plugin that Panasonic uses in the IFEC system.

Frequentlander

Thanks.

The rest was mostly lost on me, but I sincerely appreciate you taking the time to respond on a Sunday night on a holiday weekend.

aerobod

No problem, just surfing the web as there isn't much decent on TV at the moment, I'm just in a hotel room in Edmonton for an auto track day tomorrow and my wife decided to stay in Calgary with the weather being so wet.

Altaflyer

Any update on the install? Have/are any 600s getting Connect?

aerobod

No -600s with Connect yet, they will be installed after the bulk of the -700s (which will mostly be done this year). At the moment we are at 50% of the jets installed, with typically 4 aircraft being installed at any point in time. The -600s are more complicated to fit due to the radome being in the same location as the removed Live TV one, requiring significant engineering sign-off. All the other aircraft have the Connect radome installed on fresh structure, further aft than where the Live TV radome was installed.

YVR Cockroach

Any chance this is being done by KF in YLW? I've been observing about that number of 737NGs clustered around the KF maintenance hangar there.