Sky UK Teams with ATX Networks to Revolutionize the Hotel/Hospitality TV Experience

ATX Networks said it is supplying the critical technology behind Sky UK’s recently launched Sky Select, a commercial television service aimed at the hospitality industry that delivers unmissable content in stunning high definition. Europe’s leading entertainment and communications company has selected the ATX MD16, which it is branding as the Sky Bright Box, to provide hotels with the ability to deliver their guests a premium in-room television experience with less complexity.

The MD16 Satellite Gateway is a single-box system designed for deployment at Multiple Dwelling Units (MDUs), hotels and other hospitality venues that significantly lowers the barrier of entry for the delivery of premium video services. In recent years, PayTV service providers have faced challenges delivering compelling commercial services due to the cost, complexity, unreliability and lack of utility of available technology.

A headend in a box, the MD16 overcomes these business obstacles by integrating everything Sky UK requires to provide hospitality services with a compelling video offering into a single 5-RU system. Scaling from a few to 96 channels of premium video content, along with hundreds of off-air channels, the MD16 delivers incredibly high density, lowest cost per HD channel and an unmatched feature set. The MD16 decrypts, re-encrypts and rebroadcasts content in Multicast IP or DVB-T, while providing end-to-end content protection from the dish to the TV. It also seamlessly fits into any deployment environment, regardless of whether the hotel is wired for coaxial cable or Ethernet.

The multi-utility nature of the MD16 enables Sky to replace racks of equipment with a single box that can be managed remotely and provides output to every display in the hotel, from state-of-the-art Smart TVs to the expensive-to-replace displays in the hotel’s bathrooms.

The MD16 is also designed to accommodate future technology advances. Its modular architecture, for example, allows for the easy integration of additional image-quality enhancements, codecs and streaming services.