The Press Box

Bluebox Wow deployment expands and goes app-free

Bluebox Aviation Systems and Vistara, the Indian joint-venture between Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines, are marking the 1st anniversary of the launch of “Vistara World” by going app-free. Vistara World is the airline’s free wireless streaming in-flight entertainment (IFE) service which streams content from the Bluebox Wow portable wireless IFE platform to passenger devices.

Since launching last year, Vistara World has been progressively rolled out to Vistara’s entire fleet of 31 aircraft, including Airbus A320 and the recently inducted Boeing 737-800NG aircraft.

As well as enabling passengers to stream IFE via the Vistara World app, Bluebox and Vistara will now provide passengers with an app-free solution. From 1 September 2019, passengers are able to watch Vistara’s DRM-protected content from their personal device browser*, without downloading the app. Previously only DRM-less content could be viewed without the app.

Vistara’s evolving content library includes a flight moving map, movies, TV shows and music in varying genres. In addition, one of the most popular elements of Vistara World is the membership enrolment page for “Club Vistara”, the airline’s loyalty programme – not surprising for an airline enjoying enormous popularity among its passengers.

“At Vistara we continue to invest in enhancing our service offerings to stay ahead of the curve. In the last year we have flown over 5 million customers who have consumed a variety of engaging content on ‘Vistara World’ and enjoyed the Vistara experience even more. The Bluebox platform’s convenience, robust capabilities and flexibility will now take this experience a notch higher,” said Mr. Sanjiv Kapoor, Chief Commercial Officer, Vistara.

“As well as providing secure, revenue-generating, feature-rich, and cost-effective wireless IFE platforms, we aim to make these as friction-less as possible for both our airline customers and their passengers,” said David Brown, Business Development Director, Bluebox. “With device software now available to enable us to provide app-free DRM content, we are able to make it easier for passengers to access the platform. That, in turn, means more of the benefits to Vistara of deploying the system can be realised – both in terms of positive passenger experience and the ancillary revenue generated by the system.”

Bluebox Wow provides wireless content streamed to passenger devices in any aircraft cabin, including a wide range of film, TV, audio, games and other digital content. With a remarkably low cost of ownership, Bluebox Wow is a discrete, portable, lunchbox-sized unit stowed securely in overhead bins.

* Technical requirements app-free DRM content viewing:

• Smartphones: iOS 11.2+ with Safari and Android v5+ with Chrome v75+
• Laptops: Chrome V69+ and Safari V11