V-Flyer

We were on VS003 on Sunday 27th and were expecting the new A330 Little Miss Sunshine, as it had been on this route since coming into service. However, we ended up on African Queen in PE and took part in a trial with a Virgin Atlantic rep on board getting feedback. U/C and PE were given Samsung tablets to use for IFE as well as the normal Odyssey system on the 340-300s.
We had a long chat with the guy from Virgin and they are piloting this with a view to using it in place of the IFE on older planes.
There was a good selection of TV and movies and reasonable selection of music. They are attempting to offer something similar to the new JAM system on the A330s.
Worked quite well, but not easy at meal times as there is nowhere to put it, but was a great improvement on the offering that would have been on the Odyssey system which I didn't even bother to turn on!

Interesting way around the challenges of timing refurbishments. Did the UC / PE trial suggest that the idea was only to offer this in those cabins, or throughout the aircraft? If the former, isn't this the first time that there has been a different entertainment capability on a VS flight?

I hope they have a good system of counting them out and counting them back again.

On one VS flight at the end there were several annoucements re returning the DVD players and the final one being 'If the missing player is not returned the police will be waiting at the gate'

Sounds like a good idea (though recent IFE content even on vport has meant updating my iPad). What size was the tablet? Any idea if same size in UC?

tontybear wrote:I hope they have a good system of counting them out and counting them back again.

On one VS flight at the end there were several annoucements re returning the DVD players and the final one being 'If the missing player is not returned the police will be waiting at the gate'

Easy. Passport in, tablet out. Tablet in, passport out ):

Good idea, although I'd prefer using an iPad.

Would anyone actually want to steal a Samsung tablet though??? ): ):

CWLCY uses iPads, and they are ok (though I'd prefer an Android), but the problem is where to put them. The arm that held the old media players doesn't fit, so you have to use your table, which makes it hard to eat, lie back, etc and still keep watching.

So to answer the questions so far..............

The trial was expected to only be rolled out to UC and PE. I suspect trying to control 300+ tablets on a flight would prove difficult.
Each device was labelled very securely with the seat number, so no argument about who had not handed it back! The size was the same in UC and PE and was the same size as an iPad. They have been made specifically for Virgin and are banded Virgin Atlantic and have a built in fold-over cover that also acts as a stand with variable viewing angles.
The only real difference from an iPad was that the touch screen was not as reactive as an iPad, so if you were scrolling sideways through the viewing chioce, the screen did not always stop in the right place.
However, these were easy to use but the only real downside was that you have to hold them or put them on your table. I suggested to the VA guy getting feedback on the trial that something on the seatbacks to hold them might work, although reclining seats might make this a challenge in PE.
The flight time certainly seemed to go very quickly, as is usually the case when I have a new toy to play with on a flight!
Looks like my return flight is scheduled on the new A330 from the seat map, so will be using the JAM system which does have a slightly wider selection of movies than the Samsung Tablet had.

I love that someone manages to make it an operating system war.

You are getting something to borrow for a 7-10 hour flight to watch movies on, you are not owning it, and its to watch movies on, why would you care???

I'd assume it would have to be the larger flash size version, in order to hold sufficient movies (Depends on the definition, but I'd estimate 1.4G a movie, so 10-11 movies on the low end of the tablets). The danger of it being higher, especially when those are still higher costs and they are not marked sufficiently, is to get someone elses 16Gb version handed back while someone bogs off with the 32/64Gb version (though I'm sure tracking software could deal with that nowadays).

There would be no chance of swapping this for a lower spec tablet when handing it back - the Virgin Atlantic branding was very evident on a panel beneath the screen!

tontybear wrote:I hope they have a good system of counting them out and counting them back again.

On one VS flight at the end there were several annoucements re returning the DVD players and the final one being 'If the missing player is not returned the police will be waiting at the gate'

Couldn't they just have the seat numbers printed on them?

If tablet 79A is missing, it shouldn't be too difficult to figure out who has it...

jh71283 wrote:Couldn't they just have the seat numbers printed on them?

If tablet 79A is missing, it shouldn't be too difficult to figure out who has it...

I'm guessing that would be a total nightmare to manage. 79A has broken, and we've a spare one, we'll mark that 79A. We've now got a replacement and two 79A's etc etc...

Smid wrote:

jh71283 wrote:Couldn't they just have the seat numbers printed on them?

If tablet 79A is missing, it shouldn't be too difficult to figure out who has it...

I'm guessing that would be a total nightmare to manage. 79A has broken, and we've a spare one, we'll mark that 79A. We've now got a replacement and two 79A's etc etc...

The OP has already mentioned that the seat number is on them.

locutus wrote:CWLCY uses iPads, and they are ok (though I'd prefer an Android), but the problem is where to put them. The arm that held the old media players doesn't fit, so you have to use your table, which makes it hard to eat, lie back, etc and still keep watching.

I read on flyer talk that they are going to install a replacement holder in the seat when the LCY planes go off for maintenance in August.

Could this not be the way forward with a seat design that allows the tablet to fit into a bracket which had a simple locking mechanism operated by flight crew. Would do away for IFE refits and any passenger with a IFE problem could just ave their tablet swapped there and then. Tablets could also charged in situ and pardon my ignorance but possibly Internet.

slashand lemmy wrote:

Smid wrote:

jh71283 wrote:Couldn't they just have the seat numbers printed on them?

If tablet 79A is missing, it shouldn't be too difficult to figure out who has it...

I'm guessing that would be a total nightmare to manage. 79A has broken, and we've a spare one, we'll mark that 79A. We've now got a replacement and two 79A's etc etc...

The OP has already mentioned that the seat number is on them.

For the record, having used this just yesterday, the tablets do NOT have the seat number on them. They do have a number on them which is then checked off against seat number by the cabin crew. Tablet on start-up says it's security tagged. I really don't see how anyone can walk away with them as long as the cabin crew are diligent, no need to hand over passport in my opinion, seems to work well as is.