scope:

Purpose of this Specification

The factors cited above have an impact on all parties involved including IFE suppliers, Cabin Electronics Compartment (CEC) providers, aircraft manufacturers, and the airline operators. This document defines a standard set of guidelines and requirements necessary for reliability of nonessential in-flight entertainment equipment, and compatibility of this equipment with the airplane environment and operations. These guidelines and requirements are pertinent for the following reasons:

a. Aircraft operators are accustomed to being able to store, maintain, and operate airplanes per manufacturer's specifications that accommodate wider temperatures than some IFE systems and equipment can tolerate. The installation of IFE equipment leads to changes in procedures for storing airplanes and conditions under which IFE equipment can be operated to perform routine maintenance. This document defines cooling and temperature-related operational standards deemed necessary for airplane IFE systems.

b. IFE supplier equipment, whose thermal performance is not compatible with the full range of airplane temperature environments, may exhibit lower equipment reliability. This document defines cooling and temperature related requirements for IFE systems and equipment design and testing necessary to maximize reliability and minimize cost of ownership for the airline customer.

c. Airframe manufacturers are being asked more frequently to install and certify in-seat video systems in airplane models not designed to accommodate them. In order to better accommodate such systems in the future, this document defines cooling related LRU form factor standard design and testing requirements that will enable cost effective solutions for the installation and operation of diverse IFE systems and equipment.

d. IFE CEC providers need to ensure that their designs provide adequate cooling airflow to each LRU, while maintaining the total CEC level airflow rate at the aircraft manufacture's cooling system capacity. This document addresses installation parameters that an IFE CEC should comply with in order to ensure it performs to thermal specifications while also meeting noise and interface standards.

Optimized Solutions

The various issues related to the thermal impact of IFE systems can be addressed in a variety of ways. Solutions can impact the design of the IFE equipment, require modifications to or addition of airplane cooling systems, and affect the environment, operation and maintenance of the airplane. One objective of this standard is to identify optimized solutions that minimize the impact to each of these areas. However, the following areas are affected by the standards defined herein:

a. The physical and functional designs of IFE systems/equipment,

b. The design of future aircraft air conditioning and equipment cooling systems, and

c. The operation of IFE systems in the environmental extremes to which the airplane will be subjected.

In effect, these standards promote solutions that allow the same IFE equipment to be used in both production and retrofit installations. Solutions that are practical only for new airplane designs should be avoided if they are impractical in retrofit applications.