The free WiFi at selected Qantas airport lounges now comes with a side-serve of news, sport and entertainment plus live flight updates.

It’s all rolled into a news portal called QView which the airline is positioning as a ‘one stop shop’ for travellers waiting for their flight.

Developed under the codename ‘Runway’, QView is the centrepiece of an ambitious high-tech upgrade to the airline’s lounge network.

And yes, that includes a significant boost to the lounge WiFi itself, with twice the bandwidth at the back end for faster signals to each passenger’s device.

But QView isn’t limited to tablets and smartphones.

It also provides the smarts behind new HD screens mounted in the lounges which now show the time it’ll take to get from the lounge to any flight’s boarding gate.

And there’s an added twist: the news content shown on the larger screens is driven by the most popular QView stories that visitors to the lounge are reading on their own devices.

(However, this will be limited to what’s being read in the QView portal, which pulls all its stories from an Australian Associated Press feed – whatever you read on other websites won’t be shared with the rest of the lounge.)

Qantas sees this as a clever way to tailor the large-screen content to what people will be most interested in at any given time by tapping into the choices of individual QView users to effectively curate what’s seen on the wall-mounted displays.

For example, the screens are likely to be news-heavy during weekday peak hours but could lean towards lighter content such as entertainment during the day and evening, and sports on the weekend.

The bespoke feed is specific to each lounge in the network, which means that QView screens in Melbourne’s Qantas Club will favour wall-to-wall AFL coverage while Sydney lounges will see more rugby league but with a dash of Sydney Swans in the mix.

Qantas says there’s no censorship of QView content, as exemplified by several MH17 reports appearing on the large screens during the media launch of QView in the Sydney Business Lounge.

“The technology seems simple but it’s not as easy as it looks," says Brendon Cook, CEO of 'out of home' advertising specialists oOh! Media, which has been working on the world-first multi-million dollar project since 2013.

"We’re taking content from multiple sources and we’re also pushing to multiple devices."

Those displays also include advertising, of course, unlocking a new revenue stream for the Flying Kangaroo, but Qantas is quick to say this is less about the cash than the customer experience.

“We know that balance is important” says Olivia Wirth, Qantas Group Executive Manager for Brand, Marketing and Corporate Affairs.

“This is absolutely not about pushing advertisements at our customers, it’s about proving content and a great experience for them.”

The large wall-mounted QView screens show 15 seconds of advertising every minute with Westpac, Jaguar and The Economist as launch partners.

"It's about the experience in the lounge, providing our customers with an additional reason to choose Qantas and an additional way to feel valued for being a Qantas Club member or being a Platinum member and having access to the lounge” With told Australian Business Traveller.

When visitors to each QView-equipped lounge first connect to the free wireless network they’re prompted to select their flight...

... before being taken to the main QView news screen.

A constant banner atop the QView screen displays live flight information such as the boarding gate, time until boarding and how long it will take to walk to that gate.

Some parts of the QView screen are also customised accordingly, such as the weather display showing a forecast for the city you’re flying to.

Changes to your flight are pushed directly to your QView screen, with plans to extend these to pop-up smartphone and tablet notifications which appear even if you’re using another app.

“Push notifications are the next things to come” says Jo Boundy, who heads up Qantas’ Digital and Entertainment  team. “Even if you’re on Facebook you’ll see a notification on your screen if there’s a gate change or a new flight time, as long as you’re still logged in on your Web browser.”

“It’s not going to be for everyone” Qantas exec Wirth admits, “but I know when I travel, I sit down in the lounge and I want to find out what’s going on in the world, but I also want to keep up to date with my flight details.”

“So in QView I’ve got reliable and up-to-date news, I’ve got flight details and the weather for where I’m flying to, all in one spot.”

QView is currently available at all domestic Qantas Business lounges plus Qantas Club lounges in major cities, with its international lounges in Australia and potentially overseas next on the list.

The airline is also looking at installing QView monitors throughout selected domestic terminals such as Sydney and Melbourne.

Follow Australian Business Traveller on Twitter: we're @AusBT