Seat upgrade.
In an increasingly expensive, tiresome, and joyless travel environment, the chance to spend a long flight absorbed in a movie remains an enduring treat.
Now, an entertainment company promises to take the in-seat viewing experience to new heights and immersive depths.
Entertainment system company RAVE Aerospace and plane seating expert Safran Seats have joined forces to elevate premium travel with business-class suites/seats featuring a wraparound TV screen.
These high-flying, high-falutin suits, dubbed the “Origin” suite, are outfitted with an “Immersive Display Concept”: a micro-LED screen that offers travelers the equivalent of a personal IMAX movie screen.
The wrap-around design means more than one passenger can view the selected films or videos
Beyond entertainment, the screen can also display a background that mirrors the “mood” you’re trying to achieve on board, showcasing landscapes and soothing sounds.
In my case, that “mood” would be dissociative survival, but you do you.
“It’s about creating experiences – we want to be able to take you someplace,” says RAVE Aerospace vice-president of products and strategy Ben Asmar.
Asmar’s aim is to have the onboard experience be on par with Disneyland or the Sphere. He considers the Origin suite “the future of premium flights.”
The “experience” is supported by Safran’s Euphony headset-free audio system, described as producing a ‘deep sound’ that can be felt throughout the seat.
“Future display technologies are about more than just consuming content,” said Asmar.
“They enable curated experiences, whether that’s deep immersion or the ability to escape into environments beyond the physical.”
The suite seat was unveiled at the Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg, and Asmar believes the Origin could be airborne in five to ten years.
“Our goal was to experiment with technology,” he said, admitting that “a little more maturing is required”.
He maintains that the next steps include soliciting feedback from airlines and a proper assessment of consumer demand.
It ain’t just big screens and surround sound that help travelers “escape,” the seats themselves are designed with passenger-controlled, cocoon-esque cushion bladders that redistribute pressure to reduce fatigue and improve comfort on long-haul flights.
Origin is also decked out with passenger-controlled heating and cooling systems, upgraded stowage solutions, and adaptive lighting.
“‘With Origin, we bring together seating innovation and future display technologies to create an immersive, adaptive environment that puts comfort, well‑being, and passenger control at the forefront,” said Jean-Christophe Gaudeau, VP of marketing at Safran Seats.
While you wait for the suite to launch and your bank account to grow enough to facilitate this kind of travel, you can book a sardine-style flight experience courtesy of Air New Zealand.
The airline will soon open bookings for four-hour stints in its triple-tier bunk-bed Skynest sleep pods, which it says will be the first lie-flat beds for budget air travelers.
Each berth is about the length of a regular bed — 80 inches or 203 cm — but the pods don’t leave headroom for sitting up and access “requires bending, kneeling, crawling, or climbing into the space,” the aircraft’s website says.
Cozy.
The curtained berths will be available to economy and premium economy fliers on the airline’s new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft from November.
In another blow to the kneecaps of the middle class, United Airlines released its plebian eschewing new cabin designs last month, which will include an increased number of premium seats with fewer options in the standard coach section.
For the well-heeled who prefer wheels to wings, a travel startup is charging a staggering $18,500 for a six-person charter aboard a private-jet–style rail car hooked onto an Amtrak train, so passengers can travel in “ultimate luxury.”
The opulent, restored 1950s-era cars feature glass-domed ceilings, plush leather seating, a full dining room stocked with fine china and crystal, showers, a chef, and a media room with a flat-screen TV and bar.
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