The Next Flight

Pravin and Leanne Jumabhoy, founders of content service provider Images in Motion, tell Hong Xinyi what it takes to triumph over turbulence in in-flight entertainment

- Hong Xinyi

MANY AVIATION pundits believe that in the near future, tech-savvy passengers will prefer watching shows downloaded straight onto their own devices, and conventional seat back systems will give way to headsets delivering virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR).

Not so fast, say Pravin and Leanne Jumabhoy, the husband-and-wife team behind content service provider Images in Motion. Headquartered in Singapore with offices in Hong Kong, Beijing and Ireland, the company works with content creators and hardware suppliers to encode and curate movies, televisions shows and music for over 30 Asian airlines. Its founders believe there is still some way to go before in-flight entertainment enters a brave new world.

“A lot of people think Bring Your Own Device is the way things are going to go—you load up your device with what you want to watch, and there’ll be a charging port on the plane,” says Pravin. “But I can’t see many premium passengers bothering to download hours of content for a long-haul flight.”