Qantas Airways will test whether first class passengers are interested in putting down their champagne glasses in favour of strapping on virtual-reality headsets to experience a unique new entertainment offering.
The headsets are fitted to Samsung Galaxy Note 4 phones loaded with three-dimensional, 360-degree content including footage of Kakadu National Park designed to help promote the Northern Territory as a tourist destination. Hollywood blockbuster movies could be loaded eventually but that is not expected during the three-month trial period.
Qantas, in partnership with Samsung, will run the trials on some of its A380 flights between Australia and Los Angeles from mid-March and in its first-class lounges in Sydney and Melbourne from mid-February.
During that period, Qantas will be monitoring customer feedback, both in the lounges and at 40,000 feet.
"We'll see what type of customers like or don't like watching," said Olivia Wirth, Qantas's head of brand, marketing and corporate affairs. "We know our customers are open to different experiences. There is obviously only so much we can do with seat-back entertainment and this is the next evolution if you like of what type of entertainment you can provide. "
She said one step to work out would be whether first class is the appropriate cabin to test out the new form of entertainment.
"Should it be extended to business class? And should we be rolling it out potentially to other lounges across the network? It is a wait-and-see approach," Ms Wirth said. "You get a lot of insight when you speak to people who experience it."
She said Qantas was interested in seeing if customers would use the headsets to watch movies on board or if they viewed the device as more of a "short experiential opportunity" to watch films of tourist destinations.
Qantas will provide four of the headsets on the A380s during the trial period. The first-class cabin on that plane has 14 seats.
Members of the public not flying first class will soon be able to purchase the Samsung Gear VR headsets, albeit not with the Qantas content.
The headsets will be on sale globally from mid-February, priced locally at $249 each (not including the phone). An app store will have films available for purchase.
Samsung Electronics Australia chief marketing officer Arno Lenoir said while Qantas was the first-mover, other companies had also expressed interest in purchasing the devices.
"There could be applications for banks creating banks of the future," he said.
"There could be applications for training and development. I can film once and train many times. But more importantly, as you train you can share that experience people want to create, whether it be a customer experience or an in-house experience."
