Industry Leaders Band Together to Form "HDVODINABOX" Consortium

"Best of breed" partners team to educate the hospitality industry

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. October 14, 2008

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 VCASTM 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.