Gulf Air, the national carrier of the Kingdom of Bahrain, has announced the launch of Sport 24, a 24-hour live sports channel produced by IMG Media, broadcaster of the Formula One races, including the 2012 Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix held at Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir.
Sport 24 will be available on ‘SkyHub’, Gulf Air’s comprehensive entertainment solution. This addition to the airline’s on-board global live television services offers fans the opportunity to watch the races uninterrupted on-board Gulf Air flights throughout the F1 season.
Gulf Air also announced the successful retrofitting of almost 90% of its A330-200 fleet with the new ‘SkyHub’, offering passengers full broadband connectivity to access internet, mobile phone services and, for the first time in the world, live television content on-board.
Gulf Air also announced the successful retrofitting of almost 90% of its A330-200 fleet with the new ‘SkyHub’, offering passengers full broadband connectivity to access internet, mobile phone services and, for the first time in the world, live television content on-board. The Panasonic’s Global Communications Suite will complete installation across Gulf Air’s entire fleet by summer 2012.
Gulf Air CEO, Samer Majali said, “This is yet another important milestone in Gulf Air’s journey as we continuously improve our customer service and product offering, in particular, our in-flight entertainment system, ‘Sky Hub’.”
“By providing Gulf Air travellers with an opportunity to experience and follow the Formula One races, we are catering to all international motor sports fans travelling across our network. Our valued customers can also enjoy fully integrated broadband connectivity offering high speed internet, 3G-4G mobile data speed, voice over the internet (VOIP), streaming videos and the world’s first in-flight live TV satellite stream across continents.”
Richard Wise, senior vice president, IMG Media, said: “Sport 24 is revolutionising the way passengers watch live sports on airlines and cruise ships. For the first time ever, viewers will be able to enjoy live coverage of the Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix and the 2012 F1 season while travelling. Sports fans will no longer have to miss their favourite team, or event, with this new, dedicated sports channel.”
Using Panasonic’s Global Communications Suite, Gulf Air provides two-way broadband connectivity at speeds of up to 50 Mbps that allows passengers to browse the internet faster, chat and use other internet-based services.
Passengers are also able to browse the web at broadband speeds and access social media services such as Facebook and Twitter. In addition, business travellers can access their virtual private network (VPN) to send and receive emails while watching live news and stock market updates at 35,000 feet. They simply need to turn on their personal device, connect to the in-flight Wi-Fi network and log into the service through Deutsche Telekom, the wireless internet service provider on-board.
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