(Newswire Today) —  London, United Kingdom, 2009-04-22 - iBAHN, one of the worldwide leaders in digital entertainment and Internet solutions for the hospitality and meeting industries, announces the official launch of its High Definition (HD) offering at the soon to open Hilton Reading.

The installation is the first full collaboration in the global partnership between iBAHN and Hilton to create exceptional information and entertainment experiences for the world's travellers and to increase profits, productivity and customer loyalty. iBAHN will install the HD offering next at the prestigious Hilton Dubai Jumeirah Resort and upgrade the digital entertainment services to HD at the Hilton Luxor Resort & Spa in Egypt.

Hilton Reading is the latest hotel opening in the UK from one of the world’s leading hospitality companies. As one of the most accessible hotels in the south of England it is expected to be a popular venue for business travellers demanding high quality Internet access and services. As well as wired and wireless broadband, guests in the hotel’s 210 rooms will be the first to enjoy iBAHN’s ETVi complete digital in-room entertainment package with unrivalled image quality, and even watch and control digital TV within the hotel gym equipment.

ETVi has been designed as an all-digital system, combining HD digital TV, HD digital video, secure high-speed Internet services and digital audio. Guests will enjoy a true home-from-home experience, with enhanced digital picture and sound quality compared to current analogue systems. Intuitive navigation and multi-language capability to cater for global travellers means that guests now have a greater choice of high quality entertainment.

HD offers picture quality with up to five times more detail than Standard Definition (SD) TV, delivering vibrant colour, stunning detail and incredible depth. It also uses millions more colours than SD TV, increasing the richness and intensity. Hilton Reading has selected Samsung screens, but ETVi is tried and tested to work over most of the world’s leading TV brands.

iBAHN’s HD offering is a complete and cost-effective solution for hotels. Unlike some providers, iBAHN provides both digital entertainment and internet services over a single network maximising cost efficiencies.

The service provides hotels with real time performance reports to help drive revenue opportunities, and with a range of brand customisation options, hoteliers can incorporate logo and colour schemes into the newly designed core screen menu, while maintaining ease-of-use for their guests.

Furthermore, the digital entertainment offering provides both HD and SD viewing. This means that guests can enjoy the widest choice of content, including the best HD programmes, while still having access to a full range of films and TV channels in SD format.

iBAHN, as well as other approved Hilton Integrators, is working in partnership with leading film distributor, Filmbank, to deliver the very latest HD box office titles from studios including Warner Bros, Sony Pictures, MGM, Buena Vista International and Twentieth Century Fox.

Meredith Bevan, general manager at Hilton Reading, comments: “As the newest Hilton in the UK and the first to offer the full range of iBAHN products we are looking forward to offering our guests the best visual experience for their entertainment as well as high quality Internet services in their room and throughout the hotel.”

iBAHN’s MD EMEA Graeme Powell, comments: “iBAHN is leading the way in HD development for the hospitality industry and our installation at Hilton Reading will be the first of many that will follow and builds on the existing relationship and vision we share with Hilton. The new installation will strengthen direct revenue potential and increase customer satisfaction for iBAHN’s hotel partners.”

About iBAHN
iBAHN (ibahnemea.com) is the only global provider of digital entertainment and Internet solutions for the hospitality and meeting industries. Monthly, more than 1.7 million travellers and meeting attendees rely on iBAHN to increase productivity with secure high-speed Internet access options in more than 2,500 hotels, conference centres and meeting spaces in 28 countries worldwide. iBAHN’s digital entertainment offering, ETVi, offers hotel guests leading digital video and entertainment services. Operating one of the largest MPLS networks in the industry, the company provides technology solutions to more than 50,000 events annually, ranging from small group meetings to major industry conferences, while serving more than a third of Fortune 100 corporations.

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