Guest-Tek and EchoStar Sign a Multi-Year Strategic Agreement for Hotels Nationwide
July 03 2007 - 12:34PM
PR Newswire (US)
CALGARY, Alberta and ENGLEWOOD, Colo., July 3
/PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Guest-Tek Interactive Entertainment Ltd.
(Toronto Stock Exchange: GTK) and EchoStar Communications
Corporation (NASDAQ:DISH) and its DISH Network(TM) satellite TV
service today announced a multi-year strategic agreement to deliver
DISH Network programming to hotel properties. The agreement will
provide significant benefit to hoteliers throughout the United
States by delivering a package of television programming services
called Free-to-Guest (FTG), which includes a wide range of premium
content and more HD channels than previously available. "This
agreement with DISH Network to offer Free-to-Guest HD programming
allows us to provide our clients a robust and entertaining
package," said Arnon Levy, CEO for Guest-Tek. "Adding Free-to-Guest
to our HD video-on-demand platform has created the most
comprehensive and flexible HD solution available, delivered over a
single network." "We are pleased Guest-Tek recognizes that DISH
Network offers the best choice and value for hoteliers," said Brian
Yohn, vice president of Commercial Services for EchoStar. "We look
forward to providing hotel guests with a selection of all-digital
quality channels from our programming line-up." Guest-Tek brings
additional value to the hotelier through its ability to provide the
FTG programming over a converged network along with its
video-on-demand (VOD), high-definition video-on-demand (HD-VOD) and
telephony services. Guest-Tek offers this converged 'triple-play'
service set through multiple network platforms including coax, or
local area network infrastructures. Guest-Tek's ability to deliver
all services through one network is a significant advantage to
hoteliers adding ancillary products such as high definition
televisions into their guest rooms. The agreement with EchoStar
allows Guest-Tek to offer FTG within their already successful
OneView Media group of solutions, offering hoteliers the choice of
hundreds of all-digital channels including movies, sports, news,
music and the most national HD channels in the country. The OneView
solution allows hoteliers the ability to converge infrastructure
for OneView Media, OneView Voice, and OneView Internet technologies
saving on hardware and maintenance costs. 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 3,400 properties and over 505,000 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 http://www.guest-tek.com/. About
EchoStar Communications Corporation EchoStar Communications
Corporation (NASDAQ:DISH) has been a leader for more than 26 years
in satellite TV equipment sales and support worldwide. The
Company's DISH Network(TM) is the fastest-growing pay-TV provider
in the country since 2000 and currently serves more than 13.4
million satellite TV customers. DISH Network offers a premier line
of industry-leading Digital Video Recorders (DVRs) and hundreds of
video and audio channels as well as the most national HD and
International channels in the U.S., Interactive TV, Latino and
sports programming. DISH Network also provides a variety of package
and price options including the lowest all-digital price in America
and the DishDVR Advantage Package. EchoStar is included in the
Nasdaq-100 Index (NDX) and is a Fortune 300 company. Visit
http://www.echostar.com/ or call 1-800-333-DISH (3474) for more
information. DATASOURCE: Guest-Tek Interactive Entertainment Ltd.
CONTACT: Arnon Levy, President & CEO, +1-403-444-8488, , or
Geoff Clark, CFO, +1-403-444-8427, , both of Guest-Tek; or Kevin
Hubbard of EchoStar Communications Corporation, +1-720-514-5351,
Web site: http://www.guest-tek.com/ http://www.echostar.com/
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