News for the Hospitality Executive |
Guest-Tek Announces Growth in the HD Benchmark
for Hotel Television Services
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CALGARY, Alberta, Canada, June 16, 2008 � Guest-Tek Interactive Entertainment, Ltd. (�Guest-Tek�), announced the arrival of a new benchmark for television services in the hospitality market. A growing base of Guest-Tek customers are now providing their guests with a TV viewing experience that is a significant departure from what travelers have begrudgingly become accustomed to. These hotels have established a leadership position in this key amenity in order to satisfy the vast majority of guests who watch free to the guest TV during their stay in addition to the approximately 8% or less who buy a VOD title� These hotels are opting to present guests with up to 70 channels, all 100% digital, and are currently offering up to 40% of their channels in HD. �We felt it was critical to provide a better television experience at the Water Club,� said John Forelli, VP of Information Technology from The Borgata. �Our channel line up of 60 channels and 27 of those in HD is certainly meeting that mark and allows Borgata to continue the trend of making Atlantic City properties a national destination.� �Borgata is also excited at the prospect of using the Guest-Tek solution to communicate with guests on the TV in areas such as itinerary and hotel/spa reservations.� �Hotel 1000, Liberty Hotel, and Willows Lodge expect high expectations from our guests at every touch point,� said James Simkins, Executive Vice President of MTM Luxury Lodging. �We believe in utilizing leading edge technology to enhance MTM service and thus wanted to have a rich line-up of HD linear channels along with presenting HD art and photography, achieving this with our 100% digital channel lineups.� One of the driving factors behind the growing slate of HD channel availability in hotels is the adoption of the MPEG-4 format in programming delivery. Many broadcasters are currently transforming their services so they can broadcast in MPEG-4, which is roughly twice as efficient as the current MPEG-2 standard being used to broadcast HD signals to the TV. Guest-Tek�s decoding solutions allow its customers the ability to view a large number of MPEG-4 channels without having to replace older televisions that do not have the ability to display the newer, more effective format. �DISH Network is pleased to work with Guest-Tek to deliver the full benefit of emerging technologies for their commercial customers; MPEG-4 is core to DISH Network�s strategy to continue to lead the market in providing more HD programming to all of our subscribers,� said Brian Yohn, vice president of Commercial Services at DISH Network. �We will continue to see the majority of new HD channels coming on-line in the MPEG-4 format.� �It is exciting to be part of the current revolution in hospitality entertainment,� said Arnon Levy, CEO of Guest-Tek. �We are pleased to see our plans become reality and to help our customers deliver an experience that is as good as or better than what guests are used to watching at home. We believe we have established a leadership position in the market as the only vendor in the industry today who is delivering a 100% digital solution for HD and SD TV in MPEG-2 and MPEG-4.� ABOUT GUEST-TEK Guest-Tek (Toronto Stock Exchange: GTK) is the world's largest provider of IP based technology solutions for the hospitality industry. Guest-Tek's OneView platform provides hotels with converged data, video and telephony services. Guest-Tek is a preferred vendor to major hotel brands, providing services including network design, procurement, implementation, and post sales customer support to over 3,000 properties and over 507,000 rooms. The company's head offices are in Calgary, Alberta, and it has major support facilities in Irvine, California, and Warsaw, Poland as well as Sales offices located throughout North America and Europe. For more information about Guest-Tek, go to www.guest-tek.com |
Arnon Levy, President & CEO
Geoff Clark, CFO
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