Wavelengths

The National Business Aviation Association's 70th Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition is buzzing and so are we. Take a look at three press releases we issued this week.

For the second year, SmartSky exhibited at the Airline Passenger Experience EXPO (APEX EXPO) as a Diamond Sponsor. This year's EXPO was held at the Long Beach Convention Center in Long Beach, California.

From Singapore to Long Beach, it's time for APEX EXPO! 

SmartSky Networks is pleased to be the Diamond Sponsor for APEX EXPO 2017 in Long Beach, CA. Beginning Monday, September 24 through Thursday, September 28, we’ll exhibiting at Stand 1229, so stop by our booth to say hello and learn more about SmartSky's great solutions and products for Commercial Aviation.

SmartSky's Senior Vice President of Digital Aviation, James Ladd, has been selected to participate on the 2018 Global Connected Aircraft Advisory Board.

The Global Connected Aircraft Summit provides airlines, operators, integrators, and technology vendors complete connected solutions – from ground to air and from nose to tail. The Advisory Board is composed of the industry’s most forward thinking leaders. Their main responsibility is to guide the Summit to cover relevant content that will connect business, technology, and industry perspectives that will go beyond just in-flight entertainment to include operations, communications and technologies that impact the aircraft.

At the APEX TECH conference in Los Angeles in June, SmartSky Networks’ President, Ryan Stone, participated on a connectivity panel with representatives from Inmarsat, ViaSat, Gogo, and Panasonic Avionics. We asked Ryan to share his thoughts on the panel and provide some insight into ATG in Commercial Aviation as APEX EXPO approaches. You can read Ryan’s Pre-APEX TECH Interview on the APEX website here: https://apex.aero/2017/06/06/pre-apex-tech-interview-smartsky-president-when-open-kimono

What did you learn from the other panelists? 

The future is going to be pretty exciting, as the pace of technology change is accelerating.  Many companies are developing new software-based applications to take advantage of better connectivity. These advances should significantly improve the passenger experience. 

Big Data and the Internet of Things are knocking on aviation’s door, which will mean more data will need to come off airplanes than ever before.  At the same time, as expectations continue to rise, passengers do not care about “details” related to radio physics limitations and frequency bands, they just want their devices in the air to work exactly as they do on the ground. 

What was a topic of discussion on Business Insider a few years ago is quickly becoming a reality: Managing Aircraft Big Data.

Two weeks ago, SmartSky's VP of Product Development, Blane Rockafellow, participated on a panel detailing connectivity that supports real-time aircraft monitoring and the Big Data it creates. Modern aircraft are capable of transmitting huge amounts of data, leaving operators to look for new ways to more efficiently capture and analyze the bits they can act upon.