LONDON – Safran, a company based in France specializing in manufacturing and designing aircraft seats introduces the ‘Europhony’, a headset-free seating solution, for premium cabins, namely Business and First Class.

The new concept will soon be revealed at the Aircraft Interior Exhibition (AIX) in Hamburg. 

Safran has worked together closely with a world-leading acoustics engineering company called Devialet, to develop the ‘Europhony’ seat. 

Quentin Munier, Safran Seats EVP Strategy & Innovation stated:  “Bringing Euphony to the market aligns with Safran’s vision to innovate and offer the best passenger experience.”

“Our partnership with Devialet, a world-leading acoustic company, brings one more option for our airline customers to customize their seat out of a wide range of options available across our full range of products”

Franck Lebouchard, CEO at Devialet says: “We are incredibly excited about our partnership with Safran Seats, bringing Devialet’s world-class technology to aircraft through this unique innovation.”

“We believe great sound should be available at every moment, whether on the ground or in the sky and with Safran Seats we are one step closer to that goal.”

The new ‘revolutionary’ seats are made possible by my Devialets expertise and craftsmanship in sound technology. The two companies worked together closely on enhancing the passenger experience on Safran’s seats.

The Europhony seats themselves have equipped with two Devialet tailor-made loudspeakers on each side of the passenger’s headrest. Passengers can enjoy a high-quality sound experience system, and yet without disturbing other fellow passengers on board. 

This technology will also reduce miscommunication or ‘barriers’ when passengers talks to the crew member.

Many find themselves in an awkward position having to repeat themselves and or remove headsets whilst talking to the crew. This technology hopes to cut that completely. 

No more dangling headphones?

These new seats are an extra notch further in terms of innovation. But, having this system co-developed by Safran and Devialet, would shave costs from airlines, having to maintain and transport headsets on flights.

This would translate to lower cost, and less effort for the crew on board to distribute, collect, and clean headsets.

This is definitely not a farewell to headphones (yet), but some seats are well equipped with Bluetooth to connect their personal hearing devices to their respective seats. 

These are one of the innovations which may lead to greater endeavors.

Take Finnair’s non-reclining business class seats, for example, they set new trends and standards, and this also gives Safran becoming a first movers advantage in this particular field. 

Overall…

This represents a clear step in innovation when it comes to overall seat product onboard an aircraft, and SAFRAN & Devialet seem to have done an excellent job with this.

By identifying the clear needs of the passenger, the manufacturers have come together to produce a product that will no doubt revolutionize the passenger experience.

Looking ahead, it will definitely be interesting to see which customers will opt for this system, as well as what sort of success it will have going into the future.