LOADED. Talking Software for Connected Aircraft

Personalization has been a buzzword in this industry for years. Only now is the discussion turning to how to actually build it. Today the crew may know who is on board, but the systems on board don't.

In this eighth episode of "LOADED. Talking Software for Connected Aircraft", Ralph Wagner and Stefanie Schuster (Axinom) look at the technology behind in-flight personalization. They start with the data: one passenger record in the cloud that the airline's own systems and its vendors write to and read from, and the segmentation and anonymization of that data. Then they look at putting it to work: recommendations prepared on the ground before the flight and real-time decisions on board and in the cloud. They close with how an airline can build it step by step.

Chapters:
0:00 Where Personalization Stands Today
5:22 One Passenger Record
11:46 Keeping Data Fresh and Private
14:26 Where and When to Use the Data
21:37 Building It Step by Step
23:57 Conclusion

Watch now and let us know your thoughts in the comments. And don't forget to like and subscribe for upcoming episodes.

The seatback screen used to be the only thing a passenger could look at: the only way to watch something or get information during a flight. With low-latency, high-bandwidth connectivity on every seat, that monopoly is gone. So what does the seatback actually need to be?

In this seventh episode of "LOADED. Talking Software for Connected Aircraft", Ralph Wagner and Stefanie Schuster (Axinom) trace the seatback screen from its traditional, closed, server-centric setup to what it becomes once LEO connectivity reaches every seat: a cabin device among many, split cleanly into infrastructure and applications, with the cloud, not the onboard server, acting as the brain for passenger engagement. They cover what stays on board (avionics data, cabin devices, a disconnected fallback), what moves to the cloud (personalization, authentication, payment), and how a passenger's own phone becomes part of both networks at once.

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
1:53 Why the Seatback Still Matters
5:39 Traditional IFE Architecture
11:14 Disassembling the IFE
15:04 Structuring Tomorrow's Seatback
20:15 Conclusion: The Personalized Device

Watch now and let us know your thoughts in the comments. And don't forget to like and subscribe for upcoming episodes.

"You want to know what happens in the cabin. You want to know which devices are functioning. You want to share data between devices - already on board." That's the promise. Today, most airlines get that data from different vendors, in different formats, and try to stitch it together weeks or months later.

CSMIM changes that math. It's ARINC 853, a standard for centralizing cabin messaging so every device - the light, the smart oven, the seatback screen, the avionics feed - can plug into one network instead of negotiating a separate handshake with every other system it needs to talk to.

In this sixth episode of "LOADED. Talking Software for Connected Aircraft", Ralph Wagner and Stefanie Schuster (Axinom) unpack why airlines should be adding CSMIM as a standard requirement to their RFPs now: what a CSMIM broker actually is and what it takes to run one, who should own the broker, how centralizing cabin data turns into real-time maintenance insight on the ground, and why it's airlines - not airframers or suppliers - who have the most to gain from pushing this standard forward.

Chapters:

0:00 Intro

0:50 Connecting Cabin Devices

4:39 How ARINC 853 Works

10:15 Leveraging Cabin Data

15:02 Getting Started Today

18:43 Who Owns The Broker

Watch now and let us know your thoughts in the comments. And don't forget to like and subscribe for upcoming episodes.

"The cloud becomes the brain, and the aircraft is just an edge node." It sounds like a slogan, until you ask what it actually means for an airline. Great connectivity that keeps passengers online mid-flight is nice. But if that is all an airline does with it, the benefit ends at passenger comfort. The real value starts when the cabin becomes part of the airline's cloud, not the other way around.

In this fifth episode of "LOADED. Talking Software for Connected Aircraft", Ralph Wagner and Stefanie Schuster (Axinom) unpack cloud-first thinking for the connected aircraft: where the border between cloud and onboard really runs, why connection loss should be architected as an exception rather than the main flow, and which proven cloud technologies airlines can finally leverage instead of reinventing everything for the aircraft. They also lay out how an airline that isn't cloud-ready today can get started, why this matters for full-service and low-cost carriers alike, and what a single onboard infrastructure looks like where an oven, a seatback screen, and a crew app all connect the same way.

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
01:11 Why Connectivity Is Only the Beginning
04:13 Drawing the Line Between Cloud and Onboard Processing
09:17 Bringing Proven Cloud Technologies into Aviation
16:01 Getting Started: From First Steps to Airline-Wide Adoption
21:19 Designing the Onboard Infrastructure
26:54 Conclusion

Watch now and let us know your thoughts in the comments. And don't forget to like and subscribe for upcoming episodes.

Ask around in aviation and you will hear the same promise: add edge caching, and your in-flight entertainment keeps running when the connectivity drops. It does not. Edge caching only exists as a combination of what sits on board and what stays in the cloud. So what is edge caching really, and where does it stop?

In this fourth episode of "LOADED. Talking Software for Connected Aircraft", Ralph Wagner and Stefanie Schuster (Axinom) take edge caching back to its origins in OTT streaming and content delivery networks, then bring it into the aircraft. They lay out the triangle of edge cache, edge compute, and cloud services, draw the line between edge caching and over-the-air sync, and explain what a genuinely disconnected, resilient in-flight entertainment (IFE) experience actually demands on board. Along the way: mixed fleets and personal devices, the three ways to fill a cache (pull, predict, push), why caching reaches well beyond movies into IoT, crew applications, and transactions, and why an open platform is what lets an airline decide what to cache in the first place.

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
01:34 What is edge caching? Cache, compute, and cloud services
05:40 Edge caching on the aircraft vs. over-the-air sync
11:12 Connectivity, resilience, and the disconnected case
17:39 Mixed fleets and personal devices
21:51 Filling the cache: pull, predict, push
26:15 Decision variables, open platforms, and conclusion

Watch now and let us know your thoughts in the comments. And don't forget to like and subscribe for upcoming episodes.

Connectivity is changing what is possible in the aircraft cabin. And one of the biggest shifts it unlocks is live streaming – not as a niche add-on, but as a real part of the in-flight entertainment experience. The infrastructure is arriving. But there is more to it than flipping a switch.

In this third episode of "LOADED. Talking Software for Connected Aircraft", Ralph Wagner and Stefanie Schuster (Axinom) discuss what live streaming really means for in-flight entertainment: from the shift away from traditional linear TV channels toward live events and FAST content, through the aviation-specific challenges of time-shifted viewing and DVR management, to licensing rights, content ingest infrastructure, and edge caching on board.

Chapters:
00:40 Intro
04:52 From live TV to live events
13:10 Licensing rights
16:32 Content ingest
19:42 Edge caching on board
22:27 Conclusion

Watch now and let us know your thoughts in the comments. And don't forget to like and subscribe for upcoming episodes.

Airlines have more passenger data than ever. The connectivity is arriving. But knowing your passenger often ends the moment they board – and starts again only after they land. That gap is closing.

In this second episode of "LOADED. Talking Software for Connected Aircraft", Ralph Wagner and Stefanie Schuster (Axinom) discuss how a connected passenger journey looks end-to-end: from managing passenger identity on the ground, through authentication and transactions on-board, to the cloud architecture that ties it all together. And how airlines should approach building it.

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
01:08 Passenger identity and data on the ground
06:03 How connectivity changes cabin devices and data collection
11:36 Authentication, transactions, and crew context on board
15:07 Aircraft as one edge node in the cloud
18:35 Use-case-first vs. platform-first: how to approach the build
22:41 Managing a mixed fleet with one software architecture
27:16 Conclusion

Watch now and let us know your thoughts in the comments. And don't forget to like and subscribe for upcoming episodes.

For decades, the aviation industry was used to buying hardware. Software was just an add-on. That is not what today's world looks like anymore. The technology is here, and airlines want to use it.

In this first episode of "LOADED. Talking Software for Connected Aircraft", Ralph Wagner and Stefanie Schuster (Axinom) dive into decoupling software and hardware in the cabin, and how airlines can benefit from it: why it is happening, what connectivity is changing, what it means to combine cloud services with onboard infrastructure. And what it takes to begin that journey.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Hardware/software decoupling in aviation
• Connected aircraft
• In-Flight Entertainment and Connectivity (IFEC)
• Cloud services and onboard infrastructure
• Software-defined aircraft and digital cabin
  

Watch now and let us know your thoughts in the comments. And don’t forget to like and subscribe for upcoming episodes.