BOSTON, MA - (June 6, 2008) – With consumer purchases
of HDTVs growing at an amazing rate, hotels are rushing to meet the demand
caused by travelers seeking the same picture quality when they’re in their
hotel room. For years, however, hoteliers have been installing simple
analog television sets and turning over in-room entertainment to a default
incumbent provider so this new process of evaluating more advanced TVs
and selecting the right service provider to make the most out of that investment
can be somewhat daunting. To help the industry in this regard and
to make this evaluation and implementation process easier for the hotelier,
a group of technology leaders have formed a new consortium, HDVODINABOX.
 The
charter members of this group include KoolConnect Technologies, Superclick,
Amino Communications, InfoValue, Hospitality Leasing Corporation and Verimatrix.
These companies first became associated via their contribution of their
particular expertise to KoolConnect’s Intrigue HD Video on Demand solution.
Through that work, they realized that they share a commitment to the hospitality
industry as well as a desire to inform hoteliers about the available options
for advanced in-room entertainment and the futuristic new ways that they
can interact with and serve their guests via the television. To serve
as a platform for the achievement of this goal, they formed HDVODINABOX
and as one of their first collaborative initiatives, have begun a campaign
to educate the industry on both the opportunities and misconceptions surrounding
this new “must have” technology.
As the head of the company marketing the solution
that encompasses the efforts of these individual partners, KoolConnect
CEO Dave Tahan explained the significance of this alliance. “In today’s
complex technology environment, companies that attempt to directly develop
all of the components of their solution are taking a big risk and putting
their customers and guests in significant peril,” he said Dave Tahan.
“We recognize it’s virtually impossible to be proficient in every diverse
area of a complex technology solution without sacrificing performance or
settling for less than complete excellence. That’s why KoolConnect
is proud to be associated with ‘best of breed’ technology experts in this
alliance which allows each company to utilize each other’s specialists
and perfect a solution that is becoming more and more affordable for most
hotels. And the great news for the industry is that this HD solution
is available now. We have a proven solution that we are installing
today in hotels in many parts of the world. The HD set-top box that
the marketplace has been promised is here and working in the Amino 130H.
Utilizing the InfoValue IPTV video server technology with Verimatrix VCAS™
content security, hotels can rely on a true HD experience and guests can
enjoy the finest HD titles Hollywood has to offer. Additionally,
as high speed internet access has evolved over the past 10 years, no company
has been more on the leading edge of internet technology than Superclick.
Their multi-homing solution and traffic shaping technology is allowing
hotels to provide in-room wired and wireless solutions while keeping pace
with demands of hotel guests requiring more and more bandwidth.”
“While KoolConnect was the first to market with
an HD solution,” Tahan added, “I am most proud of how the KoolConnect solution
has evolved over the past decade with the help and leadership of these
fine partners who are true experts in their area. The result is that
we’ve been able to provide hoteliers with a solution that is not only highly
advanced, but is also easily installed and has been fully proven in some
of the world’s most discriminating properties.”
In speaking with the founding members of the consortium,
many noted their desire to lend their expertise and familiarity with advanced
technologies to help hoteliers to navigate through a challenging process
that is often fraught with misinformation. “Since I work in financial
services and help hoteliers of all types to acquire a wide range of technologies,
I’ve seen first-hand that many of them know that they have to install HD
but are at a loss in regard to exactly how to do it,” said Peo Akesson,
President & Founder of Hospitality Leasing Corporation. “Mostly
it’s due to the fact that they think that implementing HD is a complex
process, or that they can’t install it over their existing infrastructure
or that they don’t have any alternatives other than the same old service
provider. That couldn’t be further from the truth and we’ve even
chosen our group’s name, HDVODINABOX, to help communicate that a better
solution is available, that it can be installed in most properties without
boiling the ocean and that it can even offer business models that provide
more revenue for the hotel,” he added.
Each of the HDVODINABOX partners will be individually
exhibiting at HITEC, June 16-19 in Austin, TX and have information about
the consortium at their booths. For more information, hoteliers and
vendors interested in joining the group can visit www.hdvodinabox.com.
About HDVODINABOX
HDVODINABOX is a consortium of leading companies
serving the hospitality industry who have banded together to promote HD
technology and to educate and assist hoteliers on the implementation and
capabilities of this “must have” service. The founding members of
HDVODINABOX are Amino Communications, Hospitality Leasing Corporation,
InfoValue, KoolConnect, SuperClick and Verimatrix. To learn about
HDBVODINABOX, please visit www.hdvodinabox.com.
About KoolConnect Technologies
KoolConnect Technologies, Inc. is a leading provider
of advanced digital and HD media on demand solutions to luxury and upscale
hotels worldwide. KoolConnect was the first company to offer HD VOD in
the hospitality industry and today serves nearly 20,000 rooms in prestigious
properties in the US, Japan, Hong Kong, Dubai and the Caribbean. KoolConnect’s
solutions are available in a variety of flexible business models including
complete revenue share options. To learn more about KoolConnect,
visit www.koolconnect.com.
About Superclick, Inc.
Superclick, Inc. is a leading provider of Internet
Access Management Solutions to the hospitality, multi-tenant unit, education,
and healthcare markets. Through its proprietary application SIMS (Superclick
Internet Management Server), Superclick is dedicated to meeting the business
needs of its customers by providing them with cost-effective, reliable
and network-efficient internet access in both wired and wireless environments.
The SIMS platform for the wired and wireless HSIA environment offers a
more manageable and better overall service to guests. Ask us about
how we can better support your property with 24x7x365 support, or how you
can leverage your network infrastructure to more effectively brand services
and amenities, and even how to serve ads on your network. Current
clients include Intercontinental Hotels Group and all of its different
banners such as Holiday Inn, Staybridge Suites, Manderin Oriental, Four
Seasons, Starwood Hotels, Marriott Hotels, and Fairmont Resort Hotels and
many more suituated worldwide.
About Amino Communications
Amino Communications (www.aminocom.com)
supplies the AmiNET™ series of set-top boxes, renowned for their low-cost
and reliability. The AmiNET range materially reduces service operators'
capital expenditure, whilst offering the full range of specification required;
MPEG2 and MPEG4 encoding standards, standard and high definition TV, personal
video recording and home networking. The high performance coupled with
the innovative design of Amino's set-top boxes, have brought the series
industry accolades and the company a leading position within the IPTV market.
The AmiNET series of IPTV set-top boxes has been used by more than 500
customers in commercial deployments and trials in over 50 countries worldwide.
The set-top boxes have also been sampled by another additional 700 customers.
Amino Communications' principal customers are telecommunications,
broadcast and hospitality service operators. Generally, AmiNET products
are supplied with the IntAct™ IPTV software stack pre-loaded. Amino
Communications is a wholly owned subsidiary of Amino Technologies plc.
listed on the London Stock Exchange AIM, symbol AMO. Amino is based near
Cambridge, UK, and has offices in Atlanta Georgia and Hong Kong.
About InfoValue
Founded in 1994 and experts in providing comprehensive
IPTV platforms and solutions, InfoValue is recognized for innovations and
advances in IPTV technology that has set the pace in performance, scalability
and intelligence. InfoValue delivers turnkey IPTV solutions for specific
industries, including InfoValue SuiteTV for hospitality, InfoValue BizTV
for training and communications, and InfoValue NextGenTV for residential.
InfoValue's corporate headquarters is located at 4 Westchester Plaza, Elmsford,
NY 10523. More information on InfoValue and its products and services is
available at www.infovalue.com, via e-mail at info@infovalue.com,
or by phone at (914) 345-5980.
About Hospitality Leasing Corporation
Hospitality Leasing Corporation is the only full
service leasing company focused entirely on the hospitality industry. Our
thorough understanding of the hospitality sector, its equipment and its
end users gives us the knowledge to provide our customers with "outside-the-box"
creative solutions. Our unique knowledge of hospitality combined with our
creativity, passion, and "financial intellectual capital" allows us to
structure customer financing programs in harmony with our customer's revenue
recognition requirements, sales objectives and end-user expectations.
About Verimatrix
Verimatrix sets the standard for software-based
content security and revenue enhancement technologies in pay-TV networks,
with a global customer base of telecommunications providers. The
Verimatrix Video Content Authority System (VCAS™) offers a suite of next-generation
technologies that has been independently-audited and ranked as the global
leader in IPTV content protection. VCAS was designed for two-way
and hybrid networks to protect content and enhance revenue streams, while
combating digital piracy wherever it occurs within the distribution chain.
The company’s content security experts maintain close relationships with
the major studios and broadcasters to help address the challenges facing
pay-TV networks of today, and those of tomorrow. Verimatrix customers
benefit with most favorable access to premium content, enabling the richest,
most versatile viewing experience for their digital video subscribers.
For more information on why VCAS is the most widely deployed IPTV content
security system with tier one operators, please visit www.verimatrix.com.
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