Panasonic Avionics Opens First Innovation Studio

Panasonic Avionics has opened its first Innovation Studio in Pleasanton, California.

Breaking ground as the first of five planned locations worldwide, Panasonic’s new Innovation Studio in Pleasanton will serve as a hub for innovation, ideation, and solution-building. It is designed as a space where airlines and partners will gather and co-create the future of travel experience.

David Bartlett, Chief Technology Officer of Panasonic Avionics Corporation, says: “Innovation is at the center of everything Panasonic Avionics does. Our new facility in Pleasanton will play a major role in fostering our collaboration ethos, and is the first of five such hubs that will enhance and enrich the future inflight travel experience for passengers around the globe, helping travel to become the fourth place.”

The Innovation Studio is located close to Silicon Valley which is recognized as a global center for tech innovation. The facility will act as a hub from which Panasonic will work with airlines to investigate, illuminate and implement new ways of transforming the passenger experience in a socially collaborative environment.

Panasonic’s Innovation Studios across the globe will all be located in close proximity to major destinations, leading universities and centers with an established innovation and start-up culture. Each studio will be a place for companies to leverage Panasonic’s skilled workforce to prototype, showcase and evaluate product concepts, digital solutions, and user experience paradigms. 

The fourth place has become Panasonic’s rallying cry to the aviation industry to improve the experience of travel. The fourth place ties into the concept introduced in 1989, by the sociologist Ray Oldenburg who coined the term “the third place” - the first place being home, the second work and the third a neutral zone where people can interact and collaborate with their communities. Panasonic believes that the act of traveling is the fourth place.