At LiveFromALounge, we have extensively covered the launch of the Air India Vista in-flight IFE Streaming project. Now we know some more details courtesy of Air India and Bluebox Aviation.
Air India’s Wireless In-Flight Entertainment is live on select widebody aircraft.
As we’ve reported before, Air India has launched its wireless inflight entertainment (IFE) service, Vista, across select aircraft on the existing wide-body fleet to provide customers with uninterrupted entertainment until the retrofit. The airline has rolled it out on all the legacy Boeing 777 and Boeing 787 aircraft in the fleet, bar a couple, still in fitment (excluding the ones added to the Delta/Etihad fleet recently). Later, Vista will also be available on narrow-body aircraft already fitted with PED holders.
A passenger on board an Air India widebody aircraft using Vista (Image: Air India)
Air India’s content library features over 950+ hours of entertainment across formats and genres. It includes classic melodies, timeless favourites, BAFTA and Oscar-winning/nominated titles, short films, acclaimed series, specially curated content for children, and various options customised periodically. This is lower than the 2200 hours on the seatback entertainment option but much better than not having any IFE. Vista will enable customers to stream content on their personal electronic devices. Additionally, Vista features a live map display for flight tracking. The streaming platform is available on iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS devices.
Air India’s Vista: wireless IFE
Powered by Bluebox, Vista is being deployed on Bluebox’s Blueview digital services platform and delivered to customers via the Bluebox Wow wireless network system.
A 2023 recipient of the PAX Tech Readership Award for Technology, Blueview is an innovative software platform that provides both a browser-based portal through which passengers can view and access a range of digital services, such as onboard retail and in-flight entertainment alongside a moving map, as well as all the underlying functionality which ensures secure payment processing, delivery of content, third-party app integration, content management and analytics. It is a digital ecosystem that allows airlines to engage and entertain their customers on board and earn ancillary revenue for the airline in the process.
Bottomline
Air India has confirmed the launch of its streaming IFE service, Vista, onboard its Boeing 777/787 aircraft. The service provider is Bluebox Aviation, and the airline will offer over 950 hours of content on these aircraft equipped with IFE streaming. These are intended to be a stopgap replacement until the retrofit of the widebodies is complete and they get fully functional seatback IFE all over again.
Have you tried Air India’s streaming IFE? What has been your experience?
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While this seems to be a stop-gap measure put in place ahead of the old legacy 77W / 77L and 788 cabin and IFE refurbishments, it is still a welcome change as now the pax will be able to have IFE..
And am quite sure that most pax travelling will certainly be having an android device or tablet in their possession when travelling to either Europe / North America so streaming on their personal devices should not be a problem..
Also another thing I noticed in the image provided by Air India mentioned that it’s a pax trying to use vista onboard a boeing 787, but the fact that the tray table knob has that distinctive design makes me believe that it may be a 77W or 77L instead of a 788..