Lido attends Inmarsat World Conference 2017

What was the Inmarsat World Conference all about?

The 2017 Inmarsat World Conference was held in November in Lisbon, Portugal. The theme of the conference centred on digital transformation as a result of constant IP connectivity via satellite networks.

Attending the conference, I had the opportunity to meet a wide variety of attendees and sit in a number of breakout sessions from across many industries including aviation, military, maritime and more.

For us at Lido Navigation this presented the opportunity to see how other industries are using satellite connectivity to build innovative solutions for their customers. At times I was truly overwhelmed by the advanced applications of satellite connectivity to software and hardware in these other industries.   

I was also excited to meet several young companies in the “Start-up Zone”. These bright energetic minds are working on solutions to interesting problems; from AI chat bots to air pollution modelling that can be used to improve the famed “digital twin” engine models being developed by the large engine manufactures.

What did we learn at the conference?

Overall I learnt that the scope of what a company can do with a single asset or their entire business once they add constant connectivity is revolutionary. I had the opportunity to attend a number of sessions covering big data, block chain, digital analytics and cyber security.  Although these sessions were packed full of buzz words, most gave real world case studies and results that we have brought back to the teams in the office for inspiration. 

Lido Navigation was also fortunate enough to be invited by Inmarsat to provide an insight on the benefits of connectivity in the cockpit. I gave a short presentation on the value of airline IT departments and 3^rd party application providers like Lido Navigation working together to build solutions quicker using open API’s and cockpit connectivity. In this case I specifically spoke about the advantages of importing WX data to visualise as a layer on top of our Lido eRouteManual charts in real time, using an IP pipe in the cockpit to deliver the data.   

As expected, maintenance and fuel savings formed the majority of business cases for adding connectivity. However, I did notice that reducing CO2 emissions seemed to be a more prevalent topic than at other conferences.  The increase in popularity of this topic may be due to the aircraft CO2 emissions standard which was announced by ICAO at the start of the year. The standard will apply to new aircraft type designs from 2020 and to aircraft type designs already in-production as of 2023. Those in-production aircraft which do not meet the standard by 2028 will no longer be able to be produced unless their designs are sufficiently modified.

In Summary

Demand for real-time data on the flight deck is continuously increasing. Anthony Spouncer from Inmarsat spoke about the time when the A380 was launched and the industry marvelled at the 4GB of data produced per flight, but now the B787 produces 500GB and all this without factoring in the data requirements of external 3^rd party applications. The demand for secure, reliable data will continue to be a driving force in the future and I look forward to seeing what solutions the innovative companies can deliver with a secure IP pipe in the cockpit.

See you next time at Inmarsat World.

Leigh Pember