The combination of these products provides comprehensive, end-to-end coverage for both the business and leisure guest. This allows the Holiday Inn Johannesburg International Airport to fully address the needs and expectations of both guest profiles. 

MagiNet Laptop Connect (MLC) 

To address the needs of the business traveler who travels with his/her laptop, MLC offers full-bandwidth connections to the Internet without the need for a local ISP. 

With MLC, guests no longer need roaming capability or need to pay monthly subscription charges to an ISP. The dedicated leased line installed at the Holiday Inn Johannesburg International Airport ensures that guests will be able to download email, attachments, and surf the 'Net at the full speed of their modems, without being plagued by busy signals, failed connections or getting disconnected in the middle of a session, problems ubiquitous to local ISP services. 

Passport 

Passport is a sophisticated Internet portal designed for both business and pleasure.  Tailored exclusively to the discerning tastes of international travelers.  Passport is available through MLC while at the hotel, with continued access once the guest is back home.  It brings the hotel guests 12 menu items that comprehensively cover the finest sites in both business and leisure, including News, Stock Quotes, Weather, Sports, Entertainment and the Best of the Web. 

Also available through Passport is an extensive selection of the best local web sites. Guests may search for the best French restaurant close to the hotel, a nightspot with live jazz, buy tickets to a theatre performance, find maps on how to get to their appointment tomorrow, or opening times to the city museum. All this and more, continuously monitored and updated by MagiNet's dedicated content researchers, to ensure the guest's information is up-to-the-minute current. 

MagiNet Internet TV (MITV) 

MITV offers a revolutionary interactive experience which redefines in-room entertainment and information services.  MITV works seamlessly through the hotel's existing video-on-demand system, and by bridging the gap between TV and the Internet, successfully marries these two divergent paradigms into a single integrated, interactive experience. 

Of appeal to both the novice and Internet-savvy power user, MITV is an Internet "portal", consisting of twelve Menu categories carefully selected to match the interests of international business travelers. 

The Email menu category allows a guest to use his existing email address or to create a new one, to send and receive messages during his stay and thereafter. The Travel Menu category offers current itineraries, flight connections and airport guides, while the News and Business sections enable guests to read today's news from hundreds of newspapers worldwide or peruse up-to-the-minute breaking global news. The Stock Quotes category offers today's closings on major exchanges around the world. 

Prelude, the Guest Preview Channel 

Designed to auto display when the guest first turns on the television, Prelude is a dynamic multi-media presentation that informs the guest on hotel and in-room services. 

Prelude consists of five continually updated windows which feature movie previews, MLC and MITV videos, rate information, movie line-ups, a "How to" on operating the TV, and hotel information. 

On the 2 Offerings 

According to Burger van Aswegen, Managing Director for MagiNet South Africa, "We have had a long and fruitful relationship with the Southern Sun Group.  MagiNet Video-on-Demand is already installed in 23 of their properties in South Africa, and we expect to roll-out Hotel Web Connect into many of those soon." 

Southern Sun Hotel Interests Group Marketing Director, Richard Weilers, states, "Southern Sun continually strives to maintain the highest standard of excellence in all of our product and service offerings. As a group we are committed to research and development programs to ensure that we are at the forefront of technology for business travelers. Being able to provide our guests with MagiNet's state-of-the-art in-room technology reinforces this commitment to consistent first class quality." 

Southern Sun Hotel Interests 

Southern Sun Hotel Interests is the largest hotel operator in Africa, with a successful chain of 74 hotels providing 12,774 lettable rooms in prime sites throughout southern Africa.  It has structured itself to meet rising demand for accommodation in the domestic and international business and leisure sectors.  Southern Sun's portfolio comprises Southern Sun Inter-Continental Hotels and Resorts, Crowne Plaza, Southern Sun Resorts, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Garden Court and Holiday Inn Express hotels, Formule 1 and Formula Inn hotels. 

MagiNet Corp. 

MagiNet, the largest provider of video-on-demand products and Internet services to hotels in international markets, has now leveraged its experience, core competencies and installed base to become the turnkey, total solution provider of in-room entertainment, information services and Internet solutions geared expressly to the hospitality industry. 

The company's product penetration encompasses over 84,000 rooms in 264 properties worldwide. 

Headquartered in Manila, Philippines, MagiNet is represented via subsidiaries in South Africa, Hong Kong, Israel, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, Taiwan and Thailand, through distributors in Guam and Saipan, and through strategic partners throughout Europe.