Airlines are increasingly burdened by the in-service failure of IFE audio jack units (also known as RJUs or ‘sockets’) resulting in replacement rates ranging from 30% to more than 100% annually, depending on the airline, cabin class configuration and passenger profile.
As well as parts replacement costs, airlines are affected by the increased workload for engineering teams and by the increased stress on ‘front line’ staff, as cabin crew manage passenger frustration from non-delivery of an on-board IFE experience – particularly in premium cabins where the IFE component of the flight is frequently a key brand differentiator. Social media is just one way in which resulting poor passenger experiences are quickly circulated.
In summary, audio jack failures result in additional costs, the consumption of scarce engineering resources, an increase in both passenger and crew stress, and very real damage to the airline’s brand promise of the passenger experience.
As a means to mitigate these effects, IFE providers typically require seat jacks to have operational lifetimes of more than 30,000 connection insertion cycles. But this stringent requirement cannot address the other key element in seat jack failures: the corresponding mechanical failure of most aircraft headphone pins – which generally, are not capable of more than a few dozen insertions before they fail and immediately compromise the audio jacks and IFE delivery.
Headphone pin failures occur because the majority of low-cost headset pins are not fabricated to withstand the substantial force applied at an angle to the audio socket. (This type of force is generally the result of common events such as when passengers stand up, still wearing the headphones or when neighboring passengers become entangled in the headphone cords as they climb over seats to-and-from the aisles.)
Headphone pin breakage can be mitigated through airline specification of headphone pins with consistently high tensile strengths. For high quality headphone manufacturers such as Phitek this consistent pin-tip tensile strength can be achieved at a comparatively low cost, compared with the overall production cost of the premium headphone. Such headphones are typically deployed in Premium cabin classes and far outlast the operational life of low cost headphones, whilst substantially eliminating pin breakage damage.
In Economy class cabins airlines frequently select ‘disposable’ or short-lifetime rotable Economy class headphones which are required to be a very low-cost item. As any requirement for pin quality increases economy headset unit costs those headsets are widely recognised to have a very low tensile strength, resulting in headphone pins breaking easily in the aircraft jack.
Phitek’s innovative solution to the industry-wide problem of ensuring audio jack reliability without increasing operational costs is now being introduced to passenger airlines through the installation of the MJU™ – a device that enables the complete elimination of headphone pin breakage and corresponding jack damage.
The MJU™ is a replacement seat jack that is reverse-compatible with traditional headphone plugs. It is fully integrated with a quick-release magnetic seat jack, which fits into existing aircraft seat cut-outs in order to minimise change-out time and costs.
Phitek’s corresponding innovation has been the development of the MJ-Plug™ – an open source magnetic audio connector, designed to replace all traditional pin connectors on any type of headphone. The MJ-Plug™ provides up to 10x the in-service life of existing unreliable headphone audio plugs for the same low cost and can be easily purchased through an airlines’ existing supply chain.
When the Phitek MJU™ is used with passenger headphones equipped with the MJ-Plug™ the combination automatically releases headphones when potentially damaging forces are exerted from any direction, avoiding failure of both jack or headphone plug pins. Importantly, these Phitek innovations save cost, reduce the demand on engineering and cabin crew teams and importantly, sustain the positive passenger experience with airline branded on-board IFE.
Developed and patented by Phitek Systems Ltd., the MJU™ and corresponding MJ-Plug™ are stand-alone units that when integrated, present all passenger airlines with a total jack-and-pin solution across all cabin classes in a clean, simple design format that’s fully functional in execution and operationally reliable in full-cabin deployment.
For information on IFE connectivity, from RJUs to noise-cancellation headphones, and to discuss your specific needs please contact:
Paul Simmonds
Director – Airline Sales
Phitek Systems
paul.simmonds@phitek.com