hp and Intertainer Asia to jointly develop and deploy broadband and rich media initiatives to advance entertainment-on-demand solutions in Asia Pacific
SINGAPORE, 31 July, 2002 -- Hewlett-Packard in Asia Pacific and Intertainer Asia (IA) today announced a three-year strategic alliance aimed at bringing advanced entertainment-on-demand solutions to Asia Pacific, where end users can select what they want to watch when they want to watch it.
HP will provide next-generation technology and services which will make it possible for Intertainer Asia (IA) to develop customized end-to-end entertainment-on-demand solutions for broadband service providers across Asia Pacific. Viewers will be able to watch movies, time-shifted TV shows, documentaries and music video clips as well as play interactive games which will be delivered digitally to the PC or TV.
This "video store at home model" will allow programs to be viewed 24-hours a day, 365-days a year, at a subscriber's convenience. Subscribers will have access to full VCR capabilities and can fast forward, rewind, pause and stop any program at any time. Combined with high-quality digital transmission, this system will offer superior quality of service as it is transmitted across a fault-tolerant broadband network, rather than over the Internet.
In Asia, this alliance is a key step in HP Network and Service Provider's strategy to facilitate the transport of rich media, consisting of audio, video, text and images, over a broadband network in the region. It will enable service providers to deploy new broadband services to gain faster time to revenue and increase return on investment with minimum upfront costs as they can utilize the HP/IA solutions for a fee. Hence, the partnership will relieve service providers of much of the burden of building leading-edge solutions and getting them deployed quickly, easily and cost-effectively.
Under the agreement, HP will be IA's sole preferred technology provider for core technology purchases such as servers, storage, workstations, notebooks, PDAs, software and services. IA will utilize these to develop and enhance its infrastructure, including its cutting-edge production centers. In addition, through HP's consulting and services arm, IA will explore technology collaboration initiatives on content management systems, DVP (digital verification and protection), hosting and distribution.
IA will actively recommend HP's products and solutions to its existing and potential customers to ensure that customers have a high quality infrastructure to get the maximum benefit from IA's services; and IA's solutions will be promoted via bundles with HP's products to service providers and enterprise customers.
"We are very excited about this alliance which helps us to put our broadband rich media solutions and capabilities to work for customers," said K. Raman, general manager, HP AP network and service provider business unit. "Creativity and a strong technical base are a key part of HP's corporate strengths and together with IA, we look forward to combining our unique abilities to help our customers reach the market more quickly with revenue-generating services and provide end users with a more enriched experience."
"Content and digitization is clearly the wave of the future. We're delighted to be partnering with HP on such leading-edge and exciting fronts that will create new business demand and opportunities for service providers around the region," said Andrew Yap, CEO and executive vice chairman, Intertainer Asia. "Both companies have strong expertise to help service providers benefit from this growing market. With this alliance, IA is paving the way towards empowering broadband entertainment-on-demand solutions for the Asia Pacific region."
IA entertainment-on-demand services is currently available in Hong Kong, and will be launched in other Asia Pacific countries over the next few months.
About HP
HP is a leading global provider of products, technologies, solutions and services to consumers and businesses. The company's offerings span IT infrastructure, personal computing and access devices, global services and imaging and printing. HP merged with Compaq Computer Corp. on May 3, 2002. The merged company had combined revenue of approximately $81.1 billion in fiscal 2001 and has operations in more than 160 countries. More information about HP is available at http://www.hp.com.
About Intertainer Asia
Intertainer (Asia) delivers today the future of entertainment. With a unique combination of quality content and proven technology, Intertainer (Asia) offers a revolutionary way to provide movies, music videos, television shows, concerts, games and shopping on-demand, with a host of other digital content, streamed to PCs and televisions across high-speed digital broadband networks.
The Intertainer (Asia) service features global, regional as well as local content from major international content providers in the USA, Europe and Asia, like Shaw, MGM, Village Roadshow and Universal studios. Please visit www.intertainerasia.com for more information.
Editorial Contacts:
Sharon Lee
+65 6374 4591
Sharon-pl_lee@hp.com
Adrian Heng
+65 6398 8806
adrian.heng@intertainerasia.com
Corrine Ng
+65 6330 6224
Corrine.ng@porternovelli.com
