Astronics PGA Avionics Introduces New Products at the Aircraft Interiors Exposition

Astronics Corporation , through its wholly owned subsidiary Astronics PGA Avionics, is launching several new unique and innovative products in cabin management systems (CMS), in-flight entertainment and connectivity components (IFEC), and motion and lighting systems at the Aircraft Interiors Exhibition from April 4-6 in Hamburg, Germany. Astronics PGA will host key customers from the global aviation industry in Booth 3B30.

New Mila and Philea Personal Lighting Systems

Astronics PGA Avionics is introducing two new lighting systems for integration into the seat or cabin to increase passengers' comfort and their enjoyment of the cabin environment.

Mila, the new 2-in-1 personal reading light of the Carat® Light family, illuminates the passenger environment. The modern and intuitive design offers excellent functionality while providing optimal visual integration in the cabin. The passenger touches the center of the light to illuminate it, while setting the position to achieve any reading angle. This new lighting product includes a mood lighting effect coupled with a primary lighting function, and will be commercially available in early 2018. 

The new Philea light illuminates the premium economy seat. Its directional light beam dims via head capacitive control and provides direct light for passengers. This intuitive light easily mounts into the headrest of the seat and includes an innovative embedded USB charging port, which operates independently for the passenger in the seat behind.

New Carat In-Seat Motion Offerings

Astronics PGA also extends its actuator family for airlines with the new Slim Linear Actuator, optimized for small spaces. It moves up to a 100 daN load in motion to enable motion in headrests, footrests, armrests, privacy dividers, pop-up TVs, doors and more. With a low profile of less than 1", this high performance actuator weighs less than 1.7 pounds.

The Carat® Tools EMS (Easy Monitoring Solution), a new unified maintenance and configuration suite, will also be available at the show. Designed for use by technicians on the seat manufacturing assembly line or in the cabin for maintenance, the EMS is easy to use and provides complete, intuitive control over the entire actuation system. The new interface is available for either tablets or standard laptops.

The Carat® Motion Series products and solutions support lower costs of operation with easier maintenance, smarter fault detection and wireless connectivity.

New Passenger Controls for the VVIP Aircraft Cabin

Astronics PGA Avionics' new Smart Wireless Handset, the latest concept in passenger controls, will be on display at the show. This personal handset provides passengers with cabin, telephone and IFE access at their fingertips, and features the latest technologies including Qi wireless power charging and a 5.5" full HD Super Active-Matrix OLED (AMOLED) screen. The Smart Wireless Handset integrates an airborne router application suite into the server to provide an upmarket connectivity solution. The router, now qualified, works with any antenna system technology (Ka-band, Ku-band and Swift BroadBand) for seamless integration into the Carat® Senses system. 

To enable the control of the entire VVIP cabin from the passenger seat, Astronics PGA is also introducing a new range of high-end Passenger Control Units (PCUs). Adaptable to fit any cabin interior, these in-seat passenger control units are available in a selection of shapes, finishes and coatings for a unique and exclusive appearance in the cabin. The PCUs come with power supply outlets, multimedia plugs, audio plugs and switches.

Finally, Astronics PGA is announcing that its Wi-Fi audio/video on demand (AVOD) system is now approved by all Hollywood partners to broadcast the latest digitally rights-managed (DRM) content on tablets or other personal electronic devices. These on-demand selections can also be shown on the complete PGA IFE system, which features 4K ultra-high definition (UHD) large screens and full HD in-seat screens.