Successful Interactive Milestones
and Industry “Firsts” for
Interactive Media Marketing on the TVPC
Guestserve
Innovations
“...While president of Guestserve, Edwards created
many of the innovations now standard in TV-based guest
room systems.”
CKC
Report May 2001
Smart
TV
“...Breakthroughs in TV-based guest services reached
the market during the 1980s. In 1984 a hotel in California
was the first to install a smart “boxless” in-room
TV system with remote control. Developed by Guestserve
Systems the boxless system was more trouble free and provided
more programming flexibility.”
Hospitality Technology, March
1999
Multichannel News
“Time Warner Cable’s
New York system is the first to pitch the Guestserve Network
to hotels it serves, representing 140 hotels. The system
will combine ICPI’s MeTIL technology platform and
SeaChange's Media-Cluster storage technology.”
MCN,
Dec. 1996
Broadcast & Cable
“Digital ad insertion vendor
SeaChange Internationanl and IPC Interactive will deliver
VOD movies, targeted commercials and information services
from cable headends to hotels and MDU’s via operators
existing fiber. IPC Interactives’s Guestserve system
provides interactive multimedia services to more than
60,000 hotel rooms worldwide.”
B &
C, Nov. 1996
Time Warner Cable
IPC Interactive’s Guestserve
network, based on its proprietary interactive software
platform, MeTIL, provides interactive, multimedia and
multi-lingual services that will enable Time Warner Cable
of New York to enhance its existing business with city
hotels. Eric Tveeter, Vice President and General manager
of Communications Services for Time Warner Cable said,
“...the Time Warner Hotel network demonstrates our
ability to address ever-changing business needs of our
hotel customers and to provide services in one of the
world’s most demanding hotel markets.” Edwards,
Chairman and CEO of IPC Interactive Pte Ltd Singapore
said, “The Time Warner_IPCI relationship will bring
an unprecedented selection of new business opportunities.
Hotels will now be able to provide an array of new guest
amenities for both the business and convention markets
and the tourist trade as well.”
IPCI
New Release July 1996
Hyatt International
“The Hyatt Video Network demonstrates
our continued commitment to deliver superior and cutting
edge services to our guests,” according to Bernd
Chorengel, President of Hyatt International. “We
are especially excited about the one-to-one connection
the network will build with our guests as well as the
new products and services it allows us to bring directly
to each guest in their room.”
Maginet News Release
March 1996
Guestserve Systems
Guestserve President, Johnathan
Edwards, said: “the lodging industry is changing
in the information age and becoming more competitive on
a global scale. The hotel corporations spend a lot of
money to bring the guest in to the hotel room but they
have failed to use the television, the great communicator,
to its advantage. The introduction of this exciting interactive
television shopping service is another step towards Guestserve’s
long held vision that the television in the room is a
cost effective communications tool which rightfully belongs
to the hotel and not a movie vendor.”
Guestserve News Release March
1995
ICG
The vision: to use interactive
television in the hotel room to build a technology platform
for interactive media marketing as a “trojan horse”
and stepping to the multi-dwelling unit and finally the
single family residence. To develop cost-effective early
market entry technology which was reliable, adaptable
and expandable... a “migratory” strategy to
reach the marketplace today to research what needs to
be delivered tomorrow... in a more convenient way.
ICG Company Introduction 1995
Sheraton
The interactive hotel shopping
service was developed in a joint venture between Guestserve
Systems and The Thursley Group, which operates the Voyagers
Collection. “The interactive version of the Voyagers
Collection contributes to our efforts to meet the needs
of our guests in two ways,” explains Sheraton New
York Managing Director Paul O’Neil. “First,
the expedient next morning delivery of catalog items provides
a beneficial service to out guests, many of whom are business
travelers with little time for shopping. Second, the interactive
medium on the TV offers our guests an easy and entertaining
way of ordering and viewing items they may have forgotten
to pack or which they wish to purchase as creative gifts.”
Thursley Group News Release
March 1995
Wall Street Journal
Forget about using hotel TV’s
just to watch movies. Travelers can now use them as a
sort of high-tech concierge. At the Sheraton New York
Hotel and Towers guests can watch video channels describing
local attractions, shops and restaurants. “You can
see what the restaurants look like and hear about its
specialties” says the general manager.
Wall Street Journal July 1993
MGM Grand
After one of those tough competitive
battles that is becoming characteristic of the market
in TV based guestroom services, MGM Grand has selected
Guestserve Systems International for its 5000 room hotel,
the world’s largest.
CKC Report May 1993
USA Today
Hotel room TV’s are becoming
high tech information centers for business travelers on
the go. “We are going to start seeing the TV being
used more as a communication device,” technology
manager for Westin Hotels. Johnathan Edwards, President
of Guestserve Systems says the lodging industry has been
slow to catch on to technology. “TV is an amazingly
cost effective way to reach guests in the room,”
he says “hotels could start by promoting themselves.”
USA Today April 1993
Guesterve Systems
Guestserve’s market goal as
the first integrator of in-room multi-media technology
is to be the leading provider of integrated and interactive
video, voice and data communication systems for the hotel
room, used for entertainment and interactive media marketing.
This will create substantial recurring sales and service
revenue streams and profitability by providing information
services, entertainment, merchandising and advertising
for the hotel and targeted to the guest. The hotel guest
room of today, as a home away from home and an office
away from office, must utilize the television as an information
tool to improve guest services and provide additional
revenue streams for the hotel. The increase in the number
of ATM transactions in the last few years is an astounding
indicator of how people have become accustomed to accessing
information and services with simple technology.
Guesterve Systems, 1991
Prime Cable
Las Vegas franchise operator, Prime
Cable of Austin Texas formed a partnership with Hospitality
Network to dominate this hotel market using Guestserve’s
system recognized as the best available on the market.
Johnathan Edwards said the cable industry’s aggressive
response in attacking this available market share is due
to a farsighted look at the revenue potential, in addition
to entertainment, as vendors look to the advertising and
transaction market.
News Release May 1988
Multichannel News
Simulnet Corporation has announced
the sale of all the assets of the corporation to a New
York limited partnership. Simulnet President, Johnathan
Edwards said the company had increased revenues up to
60% in some properties.
Multichannel
News Nov 1987
