Amino, leading IPTV software and customer premises equipment provider, has been selected by EONA and La Communication Hospitaliere, technology providers and integrators respectively of on-demand digital solutions for hospitality, corporate and education markets, to enable its delivery of interactive IPTV services to patients of the Centre Hospitalier of Valenciennes, in France. Amino's presence in the international hospitality entertainment sector is strengthened with a deployment of several thousand units. The AmiNET103 is the ideal choice as it allows patients to take full advantage of the hospital's IP network, offering high-speed Internet access, multicast Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) and true video-on-demand straight to their bedside.

"Amino has a great track record in the hotel industry, as well as in hospitals. We wanted to provide a hotel-quality service for patients, alongside good revenue opportunities for the hospital, and the features offered by the AmiNET103 really fit the bill", explained Stephane Hunot, General Director at La Communication Hospitaliere.

By working with Amino, we have ensured that our hospitality IPTV solution offers the highest levels of performance and flexibility for our customers," noted Grégory Louf, Sales Director for EONA. "Our security and VOD software has been extensively pre-tested with Amino's technology to ensure interoperability, allowing LCH to deploy interactive VOD and gaming services and premium content to patients. Amino leads the market for IPTV set-top box innovation, allowing customers to deploy advanced services at lower cost".

With an Ethernet input and TV video and audio output, the AmiNET103 STB provides an elegant, low cost and powerful means of delivering sophisticated interactive digital television including multicast and on-demand video.

The deployment at the Centre Hospitalier of Valenciennes is EONA's first completely digital, interactive IPTV service in a hospital, and was carried out using DSL technology to remove the need for new wiring; instead the existing installed network was utilised. The deployment marks a new stage in EONA's development, and the company plans to embark on similar projects in France and other countries in the future. "This deployment signifies the expansion of IPTV into the hospitality environment," commented Karthik Ranjan, Vice President of Product Marketing at Amino "we see the IPTV hospitality sector market growing, as public service infrastructure upgrades their data networks to offer triple-play services."