Innov8 Cabin Solutions’ New CFLEX Cast and CFLEX Command Products Breathe New Life into the Cabin Management Systems of Legacy Aircraft
More than 8,000 aircraft built from the 1990s through the 2010s are facing obsolescence, supportability and functionality issues in the cabin. Innov8’s CFLEX Cast delivers a flexible, wireless cabin that easily integrates with other products and current source equipment, enabling easy and efficient use of personal electronic devices (PEDs). Innov8’s patented CFLEX Command liquid crystal display (LCD) programmable switch technology gives customers a simplified, highly reliable, easily supported cabin-control capability at an affordable price.
“Earlier cabin management systems were based on the premise that integrating cabin entertainment with cabin control in the same system and over the same network was a good idea. With the explosive growth of personal electronic devices over the past decade, though, passengers now prefer to carry on their own devices for productivity and entertainment. This renders much of the current CMS obsolete and rarely used except for features like moving map, external cameras and satellite TV,” says Steve Galipeau, Product Development leader at Innov8.
The CFLEX Cast product line solves the cabin entertainment management challenges by enabling current and future sources of entertainment to be wirelessly distributed to the PEDs on the aircraft, including the new CFLEX VŪ bulkhead monitor replacement products from Innov8. CFLEX Cast also allows the customer to retain and use existing monitors if desired. When the older technology devices eventually fail, Innov8 replacement products are both affordable and flexible. CFLEX Cast includes the CFLEX Cabin Entertainment Unit (CEU) and CFLEX Wireless Access Point (WAP). CFLEX Cast achieves a truly “wireless cabin” capability, and it does so in an affordable, flexible and supportable manner.
CFLEX Command provides both federated and networked solutions that can be adapted to provide the most cost-effective, updated cabin-control system for the customer. Innov8 owns the intellectual property for programmable display switches. The CFLEX Cast products greatly simplify the audio/video control functions by removing them from the current CMS and allowing them to be handled by PEDs. CFLEX Command takes advantage of this by offering LCD programmable switch panels that fit in the cutouts for the existing panels and support the reduced control functions. On-board software enables loading and reloading of switch programming without having to send the units back to Innov8 in the unlikely event that a switch fails. CFLEX Command is both proven and flexible, allowing supportability and adaptability which translates into much lower overall acquisition and life-cycle costs.
CFLEX Cast and CFLEX Command join the Innov8 CFLEX Simplicity family of products that include the CFLEX VŪ products, the CFLEX Charge USB Charger, and the CFLEX Arm with CFLEX Holder for ease and efficient use of PEDs. For more information about these products, please visit www.innov8cabin.com.