Yada Yada
Established Member
- Joined
- Dec 6, 2004
- Posts
- 1,875
As I walked down the air bridge this morning I peered out the porthole and was happy to see that my SYD-MEL flight was being operated by VH-VBO. Finally, I'd get the chance to check out Virgin Blue's live2air.
VH-VBO is a 737-700 and has a small hump on top of the fuselage towards the rear, the only tell-tale sign from the outside that this is a live2air fitted aircraft (aside from the registration).
I took my allocated seat approx 10 mins before departure. All of the screens were on and playing a looping video containing Virgin Blue live2air promos and some travel content. The cabin supervisor announced that live2air would be activated upon push back and would be free to use until we were airborn, after which it would require payment via credit card.
The system is very easy to use. I swiped my card just after push-back and a prompt immediately appeared on the screen telling me to push the channel up button to accept the $6.00 charge or channel down button to cancel.
There is a card in the seat-back pocket listing all of the channels - there are 29 all up, 24 of which are Foxtel channels, 1 is a map flight tracking screen, 1 is "Voyeur Active" (the looping promo channel mentioned above) and 3 radio station channels.
All seats have a pair of ear plugs in a clear plastic satchel waiting for you when you board. These provided great sound. The arm rest houses the controls - channel up/down, volume up/down and brightness up/down buttons. The ear plug socket is in the front of the arm rest, which was not immediately obvious.
The screens are a good size given the short distance in front of you and they were bright with a crisp image and viewable from a wide angle, and have tilt adjustment.
It was great to have 24 channels of live Foxtel to watch. It was like being at home with the remote control!
I was impressed by the ease of use and the quality of the picture, and the fact that I could watch it from push back until we docked in MEL. In fact after I stood up and was waiting for the door to be opened, my program was still playing, so you get good bang for your buck.
Being a live system, when an announcement is made in the cabin the program is not frozen - it just keeps playing. Looping IFE's obviously have a small advantage here. In addition, when the pilot made a hard turn approaching MEL, the program disappeared for approx 5 seconds and was replaced by a screen that said something to the effect of "due to aircraft operations, your program has been temporarily suspended". No big deal really.
It looked like about 25% of the pax were using the system, and most of those who did not pay kept their earplugs in and watched the Voyeur Active channel for free.
live2air is fantastic. It made the flight go so quickly. I was surprised when we touched down as I was not really paying attention to where the plane was on approach. My flight home this afternoon will be boring by comparison unless I happen to be lucky and get VH-VBO again. Fingers crossed... sitting here in The MEL Lounge.
EDIT: I forgot to mention that my flight docked in MEL on the southern pier, formerly used by OzJet. They have put DJ signage on the gates down there so it looks like they have expanded somewhat in MEL.
VH-VBO is a 737-700 and has a small hump on top of the fuselage towards the rear, the only tell-tale sign from the outside that this is a live2air fitted aircraft (aside from the registration).
I took my allocated seat approx 10 mins before departure. All of the screens were on and playing a looping video containing Virgin Blue live2air promos and some travel content. The cabin supervisor announced that live2air would be activated upon push back and would be free to use until we were airborn, after which it would require payment via credit card.
The system is very easy to use. I swiped my card just after push-back and a prompt immediately appeared on the screen telling me to push the channel up button to accept the $6.00 charge or channel down button to cancel.
There is a card in the seat-back pocket listing all of the channels - there are 29 all up, 24 of which are Foxtel channels, 1 is a map flight tracking screen, 1 is "Voyeur Active" (the looping promo channel mentioned above) and 3 radio station channels.
All seats have a pair of ear plugs in a clear plastic satchel waiting for you when you board. These provided great sound. The arm rest houses the controls - channel up/down, volume up/down and brightness up/down buttons. The ear plug socket is in the front of the arm rest, which was not immediately obvious.
The screens are a good size given the short distance in front of you and they were bright with a crisp image and viewable from a wide angle, and have tilt adjustment.
It was great to have 24 channels of live Foxtel to watch. It was like being at home with the remote control!
I was impressed by the ease of use and the quality of the picture, and the fact that I could watch it from push back until we docked in MEL. In fact after I stood up and was waiting for the door to be opened, my program was still playing, so you get good bang for your buck.Being a live system, when an announcement is made in the cabin the program is not frozen - it just keeps playing. Looping IFE's obviously have a small advantage here. In addition, when the pilot made a hard turn approaching MEL, the program disappeared for approx 5 seconds and was replaced by a screen that said something to the effect of "due to aircraft operations, your program has been temporarily suspended". No big deal really.
It looked like about 25% of the pax were using the system, and most of those who did not pay kept their earplugs in and watched the Voyeur Active channel for free.
live2air is fantastic. It made the flight go so quickly. I was surprised when we touched down as I was not really paying attention to where the plane was on approach. My flight home this afternoon will be boring by comparison unless I happen to be lucky and get VH-VBO again. Fingers crossed... sitting here in The MEL Lounge.
EDIT: I forgot to mention that my flight docked in MEL on the southern pier, formerly used by OzJet. They have put DJ signage on the gates down there so it looks like they have expanded somewhat in MEL.
. If there was a live sporting event that I was interested in, well I would just pay regrdless of the flight duration!
