London - iBAHN, leading provider of digital converged services for hoteliers to today announces the launch of ETVi, the complete digital in-room entertainment package.

ETVi delivers digital services direct to the guest room, combining digital TV entertainment, secure high-speed internet services, and electronic booking capability for hotel services including room service and reservations. Using ETVi, Hoteliers will be able to totally integrate guest services with entertainment packages. For example, a half-time snack offer could be advertised directly to the TV screens of those guests watching an important football match in their rooms. Any guest that wished to order the snack could do so via the TV remote control, which would send the order directly to the kitchen. These features are combined in one easy to use interface allowing the hotel to increase guest entertainment usage while reducing costs.

Until now hoteliers’ digital convergence options have been limited to their existing television providers whose entertainment solutions use older generation analogue signals. In addition, the internet solutions from these providers are often slow, incompatible with corporate VPN networks and sometimes may even expose guest information to security risks.

ETVi is the long-awaited digital integration of multiple hotel services that has been designed and purpose-built as a complete end-to-end IP system combining digital TV, video on demand, digital audio and thousands of music titles. The full suite of converged network solutions is distributed over a single wire and provides a digital signal direct to the guest room. This digital quality experience is especially important as hoteliers add flat screen televisions to their guest rooms which expose the poor quality of most existing analogue signals.

This means that guests can enjoy superior picture and sound quality across a range of entertainment services, and browse the web securely. ETVi is the result of the ongoing integration following ETV’s acquisition by iBAHN.

Graeme Powell, Managing Director EMEA, iBAHN, comments: “iBAHN is pioneering the delivery and integration of hotel networks with guest applications heralding a new digital convergence era for the hotel industry. Guests will be truly amazed by the range and quality of services accessible through their hotel room, but we believe that this is just the beginning. Emerging technologies represent a huge opportunity for hoteliers to converge entertainment, hotel services and technology requirements onto one managed system. In doing this the hotel can reduce supplier costs, differentiate its offering and increase customer revenue with a new range of integrated digital services.”

To support the new Digital Convergence package, which is now available to hoteliers in Europe, Middle East and Africa, iBAHN has restructured its senior sales and support team with the promotion of Michael Vargosko to Director Strategic Accounts EMEA. Michael has worked in the hospitality industry for over 20 years including time at Swissotel New York, The Drake Hotel and over five years working for iBAHN. Michael and the team will work with premium hotels across EMEA to offer digital entertainment as part of iBAHN’s digital convergence strategy.