Qantas Ipad Trial - thoughts?

[AirKat]

I flew BNE-SYD last week and experienced the new ipad trial. At first my companion and I were simply over-awed at how many ipads we thought they would lose. After much discussion though we came to the conclusion probably not many due to the security devices etc.

We were in 24J/K so the first thing we noticed was if we had the back of the seat systems we would be able to watch it much earlier. The ipads can't be used until you are in the air nor can they be used on descent. Not surprising but on a 60 min flight I'd prefer back of the seat if I had a choice.

The second issue that arises is what to do with your ipad when the meal is served. It is difficult to find space for your ipad and meal on the tray table. Perhaps qantas needs some sort of a device that would allow you to hang it on the seat in front... although this is probably not the point of an ipad!

It did make for an interesting flight though as we were intrigued by something new. Interested to hear other impressions.

I should add that by far the most annoying thing was the introductory video playing on loop during boarding. I think we viewed the same thing 7+ times

 

[Limewood]

Have an iPad2 and love it, but if any airline is going to flog their wares over and over, run adverts too long this will be a big turnoff to pax. As said, they need to find away to hang it off seat in front, ok who wants to invent it?.

 

[mannej]

Have an iPad2 and love it, but if any airline is going to flog their wares over and over, run adverts too long this will be a big turnoff to pax. As said, they need to find away to hang it off seat in front, ok who wants to invent it?.

How are Jetstar doing it? I do remember someone saying they may have had something that holds it to the seat back?

 

[medhead]

The iPads are a temporary feature anyway as the details say they'll move to streaming of content to you own device in the long run. So on board wifi of some sort. This is backed up by the news that flights to LAX will have in board wifi, which was in the business newsletter they emailed out.


Sent from the Throne (80% chance) using Aust Freq Fly app

 

[samh004]

I previously posted about this in the other thread on the pilot, but will post my email here in the interests of consolidating things. I sent them an email, as they said would be acceptable feedback, as the survey on the device itself is rather crude and doesn't allow for much.

To whom it may concern,

I recently had the chance to try Q Streaming onboard QF824 and QF825 between BNE and DRW. I was very happy to learn that I would be on VH-OGH at the gate, and happy to provide feedback on the device, but the survey provided was rather lacking.

Overall, I was very impressed with the service, and can't wait till I can download the Q Streaming app on my own devices and use it whenever, but I did have some more questions/ (hopefully) constructive feedback.

First off I know there weren't any other apps available on the devices, but I noticed the Q Streaming app wasn't able to multitask. If I went to the loo and locked the screen all was fine, but if I exited the app and came back to it I had to start from the beginning. I hope some sort of multitasking/preserving of the state it was in comes to the freely available app.

I found the volume on the Qantas-provided noise-cancelling headphones lacking. I struggled to hear things. I saw another passenger get help with this but wasn't sure if they achieved anything. However I then tried my own headphones (despite being a single jack on your double jacked port) and was happy to find I had stereo and much better volume control. Letting people know this will work would be nice.

In one show I wanted to 'scrub' backwards to see a scene again. While the fast forward/rewind button was useful, it went too far back and I couldn't 'scrub' with my finger as I found the interface lacking in that area. Could I suggest making the playback display longer, allowing a finger to more easily and accurately 'scrub' forwards or backwards.

I poked around a little too, as I wanted to learn about how it all worked, and found you have multiple access points in the aircraft, and had problems with too many devices connecting to one point. I'm told in the US the planes there only have one access point, so is there a reason it has to be done differently here?

I'm not sure if this is possible, but could an app be created and loaded onto the devices solely to shut them down after use? I'm not sure if Apple's APIs allow that, but some people just don't know how to shut these devices down properly. On one flight there had to be another announcement to shut the devices down but my seat mate didn't manage it and I had to do it for her. An app would be useful.

Movies in addition to TV shows in the future would be good, and I know you asked specifically about games and ebooks in your survey too, which could work, though I think actual iPad games would be preferable to a home grown game played through Q streaming. Perhaps if you licensed some games to play through the app, but no offence, the games you offer on say the A380 just wouldn't cut it on an iPad. You need made for iPad games.

Lastly, I'd have loved to see the flight stats on the iPad. Things like altitude and speed, perhaps a really good map too. On planes with cameras, the ability to see them would be nice, such as on the A380.

Oh and I nearly forgot, the date and time of the iPads, can it be set from the time in the plane? I know most of the time your passengers are going to be in the app, so won't see the time across the top, but having the right time could be beneficial, perhaps even setting the time to the destination so passengers know how much longer there is to go. Certainly if when passengers devices connected to the wifi their time changed too, it would be a nice little addition.

Also, the SAS series of 2 episodes is out of order.

Hopefully you can take something away from what I've said here. I really enjoyed the experience, I just wish it was available on all my flights sooner. You're right on the money at last, keep up the good work!



 

[AirKat]

The iPads are a temporary feature anyway as the details say they'll move to streaming of content to you own device in the long run. So on board wifi of some sort. This is backed up by the news that flights to LAX will have in board wifi, which was in the business newsletter they emailed out.

Hmmm, not sure using my own ipad/laptop will help my issues with take off/landing or trying to eat a meal.

But wifi... now that's something to be very excited about!

 

[samh004]

Hmmm, not sure using my own ipad/laptop will help my issues with take off/landing or trying to eat a meal.

But wifi... now that's something to be very excited about!

The idea is it might not be gate to gate but if you don't finish a show you'll get a 'pass' to watch it within a certain amount of time of landing.




 

[medhead]

Hmmm, not sure using my own ipad/laptop will help my issues with take off/landing or trying to eat a meal.

No it wouldn't help. Sorry, I forgot to add that I consider the iPads a temporary thing for the trial only and they won't spend too much more on fancy holders. Once they move to streaming to customer devices, the variety of devices would preclude holders as well, IMO.

 

[MrHyde]

I had a chance to trial out the iPads on VH-OGH as well last night between MEL and SYD. Not much more that I can add here other than what has already been said... main issues being, sound was terrible even on max and not having gate to gate entertainment.

What is the email address to provide the feedback to Qantas. I would have loved to use the online survey, but was told that we had to stow away the iPad for landing.

 

[Red Roo]

Hi All,
For anyone who has experienced the Q Streaming trial and have thoughts after landing please spend a moment and provide your feedback through the website Wireless Inflight Entertainment then click on "tell us what you think".
Thanks,
Red Roo

 

[samh004]

I had a chance to trial out the iPads on VH-OGH as well last night between MEL and SYD. Not much more that I can add here other than what has already been said... main issues being, sound was terrible even on max and not having gate to gate entertainment.

What is the email address to provide the feedback to Qantas. I would have loved to use the online survey, but was told that we had to stow away the iPad for landing.

Did you try using your own headphones, if you had any with you, in one of the two ports? I found that worked wonders beyond belief!

Hi All,
For anyone who has experienced the Q Streaming trial and have thoughts after landing please spend a moment and provide your feedback through the website Wireless Inflight Entertainment then click on "tell us what you think".
Thanks,
Red Roo

On board, the welcome video suggests sending feedback via email to '[email protected]', is this not correct?

 

[Berlin]

Had the chance to trial out the new service last night on my flight back from Brissy. Now- as others have mentioned, the sound is quite bad on the headphones and the movies resetting itself after a few minutes of not watching is a real nuisance :evil:

But the real question here: Who in the world needs the usual inflight entertainment cough streamed to an Ipad? If you want to watch "2 and a half men" back to back, then you could just download it onto your own device, couldn't you? Or better even, you could download what YOU like which is what I've been doing for two years now. You can't even get the seatmap on this thing which would be the only "program" I'd be half-way interested in! This so called "innovation" is therefore utterly useless in my eyes and just takes your attention away from the obvious fact: That they are not replacing those old rattlers anytime soon but at the same time don't want to waste the money to equip them with "proper" inflight entertainment either.

Saying all that- the one thing that would change all the above was to offer internet streaming. That is what everyone really needs and you wouldn't need those Ipads either. Just provide Wifi internet that anyone can use with their own devices, that's all I'd want. As an added benefit, this would also have the added value of FINALLY getting rid of that stupid superstitious many times de-bunked "The use of electronic devices will make planes fall out of the sky" rubbish

 

[samh004]

Had the chance to trial out the new service last night on my flight back from Brissy. Now- as others have mentioned, the sound is quite bad on the headphones and the movies resetting itself after a few minutes of not watching is a real nuisance :evil:

But the real question here: Who in the world needs the usual inflight entertainment cough streamed to an Ipad? If you want to watch "2 and a half men" back to back, then you could just download it onto your own device, couldn't you? Or better even, you could download what YOU like which is what I've been doing for two years now. You can't even get the seatmap on this thing which would be the only "program" I'd be half-way interested in! This so called "innovation" is therefore utterly useless in my eyes and just takes your attention away from the obvious fact: That they are not replacing those old rattlers anytime soon but at the same time don't want to waste the money to equip them with "proper" inflight entertainment either.

Saying all that- the one thing that would change all the above was to offer internet streaming. That is what everyone really needs and you wouldn't need those Ipads either. Just provide Wifi internet that anyone can use with their own devices, that's all I'd want. As an added benefit, this would also have the added value of FINALLY getting rid of that stupid superstitious many times de-bunked "The use of electronic devices will make planes fall out of the sky" rubbish

Well it is a trial, I think potentially in the future the content would be expanded based on the numbers using the service.

As for additional features, did you send feedback? I would have liked to see games and of course internet, and sent them feedback about it. If you don’t tell them, they wont know

 

[MarkD]

That is what everyone really needs and you wouldn't need those Ipads either. Just provide Wifi internet that anyone can use with their own devices, that's all I'd want. As an added benefit, this would also have the added value

Pop into the virgin forum, they whinging like hell because that has been suggested as their new IFE. I have. One to the conclusion that some people on here will never be satisfied and will find fault with everything. Agree re content, and iPads, BYO preloaded is the way to go

 

[MrHyde]

I can see the benefits to the airlines and the users of streaming to users' devices... the big question is what about those users who don't have Ipads or Androids pads or laptops?? Are those users going to be left with the current coughpy IFE?

 

[samh004]

Pop into the virgin forum, they whinging like hell because that has been suggested as their new IFE. I have. One to the conclusion that some people on here will never be satisfied and will find fault with everything. Agree re content, and iPads, BYO preloaded is the way to go

That is and always was the plan, but for the trial it’s best for them to provide the iPad’s to collect data properly and make sure everything works. Eventually there will be apps from the various stores available to download for the various devices.

Good to see Virgin australia is still just copying everything Qantas has been doing… question is though, will they do it better

 

[Mgjdubs]

I was lucky enough to experience this the other week on my SYD-BNE flight. It's a great concept. The video quality was infinitely better than the projector screen at the front of the cabin. Although the audio wasn't loud enough - which was a total buzz-kill.

 

[sarvowinner]

Article in recent SMH points to potential cost savings,especially when we all are using our own devices. Qantas, Virgin wireless in flight technology | Hotspots at 30,000 feet