Delta Air Lines announced new branding for the inflight entertainment options today with the introduction of Delta Studio™. Delta Studio will be available on all domestic and two-cabin regional jets beginning August 1. According to Delta, “Delta customers, in every class of service on flights longer than one and a half hours, will have access to a selection of free entertainment options, either at their seat or through their laptops, mobile and tablet devices. Free entertainment options are available on flights with seat-back entertainment systems or on demand video streaming onboard Delta’s Wi-Fi-equipped aircraft. All Delta customers will have a selection of free options, but customers seated in BusinessElite®, first class, and Economy Comfort will have free access to an even greater variety of entertainment. Economy class customers on international flights will enjoy the same access.
One of the most interesting things to me personally is access via GoGo inflight wi-fi. I know this is not necessarily new, but even more demand via inflight wi-fi would seem to create further strains on the GoGo network. Perhaps it’s just me, but I’ve noticed a significant deterioration in the quality of inflight wi-fi……almost no doubt because more and more travelers are taking advantage of it. It will be interesting to watch and see if Delta can deliver quality internet and streaming entertainment content. Given Delta’s proven ability to execute, I think there’s a good chance that Delta Studio™ proves to be yet another product differentiator when it comes to choosing which airline to fly for business and leisure travelers alike. From personal experience on three Delta flights over the last 1.5 weeks on AVOD equipped aircraft, color me hopeful. Though I think it’s important that wi-fi quality not be impacted for those of us that just want a reasonable internet connection speed. Kudus to Delta for their latest efforts on inflight entertainment.
-MJ, July 29, 2014
[…] Notably, this is also the first day of Delta’s new inflight entertainment offerings branded as Delta Studio™. I covered the rollout of Delta Studio™ earlier this week. […]
Actually the more I think about it, it would be very smart to eliminate all that in-seat screen nonsense altogether. It’s a lot of wiring and weight for all that stuff. A server on the plane and let everyone Bring Your Own Device to watch it with, would be far less trouble and lighter and cheaper. I generally don’t watch the seatback screens anyhow since I got my first tablet. Load up content on it that I want to watch, or that I want to let my kid watch, and I’m ready to fly. The only thing I do with… Read more »
@Vincente,
I primarily use the in-seat stuff for the moving map display. I occasionally use it for a movie, but not often. That’s just me though. I see it being frequently used on flights where it’s available….but I do wonder if the added weight and expense is worth it.
I’m pretty sure what they mean here, is a small NAS device of some sort on the plane with a selection of movies. So you’d be accessing content via WiFi to a device locally on the aircraft, not over the slow cellular tower network they use for uplink. This is very good approach. I have something similar, a considerable archive of content on a very compact Synology DS112j NAS device in my garage, that I can access from any device in the house.