Sonifi Solutions

SONIFI Solutions
FormerlySatellite Movie Company (1980–1991)
LodgeNet Entertainment Corporation (1991–2008)
LodgeNet Interactive Corporation (2008–2013)
SONIFI Solutions (2013–2020)
PredecessorsThe Hotel Networks
On Command
Stay Online
Founded1980 (as the Satellite Movie Company)
HeadquartersSioux Falls, South Dakota
Key people
  • Ahmad Ouri (CEO)
  • John Chang (Chief Financial Officer)
Number of employees
650
Websitewww.sonifisolutions.com

SONIFI Solutions, Inc. is a provider of guest-facing entertainment and internet technology in hotels and healthcare settings.

The company's corporate headquarters are in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, with offices in Los Angeles, California, Mexico, and Canada. SONIFI has approximately 650 employees. While SONIFI's primary customer base is in the United States, the company also delivers services in Canada, Mexico, and over 30 other countries through relationships with local licensees.

History

1980–2008: Early history and hospitality expansion

The company was founded in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, in 1980 as the Satellite Movie Company to distribute satellite television programming to lodging properties. It was renamed LodgeNet Entertainment Corporation in 1991 and became a publicly traded company on the Nasdaq (under the ticker symbol LNET) in 1993.

Operating as LodgeNet, the company provided in-room entertainment services to major hotel chains and cruise ships by installing and maintaining free televisions and offering video-on-demand entertainment, splitting the resulting fees with the hotel operator.

In December 2006, LodgeNet announced a $380 million agreement with Liberty Media to acquire its primary pay-per-view hospitality rival, On Command Corporation. Between 2006 and 2007, LodgeNet completed the acquisitions of On Command, hotel broadband provider StayOnline, and advertising subsidiary The Hotel Networks. Following these acquisitions, the company changed its corporate name to LodgeNet Interactive Corporation in 2008.

1993–2012: Nintendo video game partnerships

One of the two versions of the Super NES LodgeNet controller
The LodgeNet Nintendo 64 controller. Hooked up to TVs in hotel rooms, it allowed guests to pay to play Nintendo 64 games for a limited time.
The LodgeNet GameCube controller. Hooked up to TVs in hotel rooms, it allowed guests to pay to play GameCube games for a limited time.

In 1992, Nintendo of America partnered with Hughes-Avicom International to develop the Nintendo Gateway System, an on-demand video game and multimedia platform initially introduced on commercial airlines in July 1993. To expand the platform into the lodging sector, Nintendo partnered with LodgeNet in December 1993 to launch its on-demand hospitality service, including worldwide delivery of Super NES games to hotel guests via its proprietary building-wide networks.

LodgeNet reported that its partnership with Nintendo to deliver Super NES games had reached 200,000 worldwide hotel guest room installations by April 1996. On June 16, 1998, Nintendo and LodgeNet entered a 10-year licensing agreement for an upgrade to add Nintendo 64 support to their existing 500,000 Super NES-equipped guest room installations. LodgeNet reported that in five years to date, the system had "caused Nintendo to become the most successful new product rollout in the history of the hotel pay-per-view industry". LodgeNet also stated that within the middle of 1998 alone, 35 million hotel guests encountered the Nintendo name as an amenity, generating sales of more than 54 million minutes of Nintendo-based gameplay.

On June 10, 1999, LodgeNet and Nintendo began expanding and upgrading their existing Super NES buildout to include Nintendo 64 support. In mid-1999, LodgeNet reported that its 530,000 hotel room installations were increasing at a rate of 11,000 rooms per month. In September 2000, Nintendo and LodgeNet began delivering newly released Nintendo 64 games, beginning with Mario Tennis, to hotel rooms at more than 1,000 hotel sites concurrently with the games' retail releases, demonstrating "the capacity to update [LodgeNet's] interactive digital systems with fresh content virtually overnight".

In June 2003, marking ten years of their alliance, LodgeNet and Nintendo announced the addition of GameCube titles to the service through LodgeNet's digital "Signeture TV" platform, targeting 100,000 rooms by the end of the year. By June 2003, LodgeNet's Nintendo service was installed in more than 875,000 hotel rooms and had logged over one billion cumulative minutes of gameplay.

2009–present: Decline, bankruptcy, and rebranding as SONIFI

Facing competition from other companies and the rise of internet streaming services, the number of hotel rooms LodgeNet served globally dropped from 2 million in 2009 to 1.5 million in 2011.

On December 31, 2012, LodgeNet announced its intention to file for a prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy as part of a $60 million recapitalization that transferred controlling ownership of the company to investment firm Colony Capital. The commencement of formal bankruptcy proceedings was announced on January 28, 2013, alongside a memorandum of understanding with DirecTV to operate as strategic partners for free-to-guest television programming within the hospitality and healthcare markets. The Nintendo gaming service was discontinued in conjunction with the bankruptcy filing.

On March 28, 2013, Colony Capital completed the acquisition alongside an approximately $70 million recapitalization and a $358 million long-term credit facility, concluding the company's emergence from Chapter 11. Hospitality executive Mike Ribero was appointed CEO, joined by president of hospitality Tom Storey, general counsel Ed Kaufman, and chief financial officer John Chang.

The company officially rebranded as SONIFI Solutions on June 25, 2013, with an announcement at the HITEC trade show. In 2015, former Technicolor executive Ahmad Ouri succeeded Ribero as CEO. In January 2020, its parent corporate entity became SONIFI Incorporated.

Games

Through its Nintendo Gateway System partnership, LodgeNet offered pay-per-hour access to games across six Nintendo platforms: Super NES, Nintendo 64, GameCube, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance.

Rather than placing an individual console in every room, hotels installed a compact receiver box connected to the room's television and telephone-style wiring, which communicated with a centralized server rack in the building containing a predetermined number of system gateway cards. When a guest purchased play time, the server allocated an available gateway card to that room's television. For GameCube installations, the central server racks used standard retail GameCube memory cards.

Because each hotel room was equipped with a single controller wired via an RJ-11-style connector, the controllers and game software differed from their retail counterparts. The custom black Super NES LodgeNet controller added dedicated Menu, Reset, and Volume buttons to operate the television interface, and it was manufactured in two layout revisions that varied the size of the D-pad relative to the system control buttons. Similarly, the LodgeNet Nintendo 64 controller added television control buttons, substituted a GameCube controller-style analog stick, and omitted the rear expansion port. The slot where accessories would normally be inserted was sealed with a molded plastic cover carrying support disclaimers, which prevented the use of the Controller Pak, Rumble Pak, or Transfer Pak.

First-party offerings on the service included Super NES titles such as Super Mario World, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, and Donkey Kong Country, alongside Game Boy and Game Boy Color titles such as Super Mario Land, Super Mario Bros. Deluxe, and Wario Land 3. Later additions included Nintendo 64 titles such as Super Mario 64, Mario Kart 64, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and Super Smash Bros., followed by GameCube releases such as Luigi's Mansion, Super Mario Sunshine, and Mario Kart: Double Dash. Because the hotel hardware did not support local multiplayer, several Super NES and Nintendo 64 ROM builds were officially modified for LodgeNet to gray out or remove multiplayer menu options. Other custom alterations included an optional "Training" toggle added to Donkey Kong 64 that allowed hotel guests to bypass the introductory tutorial within their rented hour, as well as a startup splash screen in Paper Mario advising players that pressing the controller's Reset button would erase all saved data.

Because games were stored on proprietary hotel server drives rather than retail media, most LodgeNet-specific software revisions became inaccessible following the service's discontinuation, though video game preservationists subsequently recovered 31 of the 38 Nintendo 64 LodgeNet ROMs from surviving server hardware.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Schwan, Jodi (December 3, 2018). "Sonifi Solutions, formerly LodgeNet, quietly building new business model". SiouxFalls.Business. Retrieved October 16, 2026.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "LodgeNet Entertainment Corporation - Company Profile, Information, Business Description, History, Background Information on LodgeNet Entertainment Corporation". Retrieved February 5, 2015.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "The TV Loses Its Top Spot in Hotel-Room Entertainment". Today (Singaporean newspaper). The New York Times. June 1, 2013.
  4. ↑ "Virgin Airways fleet to get US$19m interactive systems". Business Times (Singapore). UPI. August 13, 1993.
  5. 1 2 Donohue, Steve (December 13, 2006). "LodgeNet to Buy On Command". Multichannel News. Retrieved October 16, 2026.
  6. ↑ "Form 10-Q: LodgeNet Interactive Corporation". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. August 5, 2011. Retrieved October 16, 2026.
  7. 1 2 3 4 G., Evan. "What is the Nintendo Gateway System?". SNES Central. Retrieved October 16, 2026.
  8. 1 2 3 "Hotel-based video game and communication system". Google Patents. Nintendo of America, Inc. December 3, 1996. Retrieved February 6, 2015.
  9. ↑ "LodgeNet, Nintendo Sign N64 Agreement" (Press release). Sioux Falls, SD: LodgeNet Entertainment Corporation. PRNewswire. June 16, 1998. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved February 6, 2015.
  10. 1 2 "LodgeNet, Nintendo Celebrate Guest Room Video Game Milestone" (Press release). Sioux Falls, SD: LodgeNet Entertainment Corporation. PRNewswire. September 3, 1998. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved February 6, 2015.
  11. 1 2 "LodgeNet Begins Installing Hotels With Nintendo 64 Game Systems; Initiative Includes New Installations, System Upgrades for Thousands of Hotel Rooms" (Press release). Sioux Falls, SD: LodgeNet Entertainment Corporation. PRNewswire. June 10, 1999. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved February 6, 2015.
  12. ↑ "LodgeNet Brings Mario Tennis(TM) to Hotel Guests Nationwide; New N64(R) Game Will Appear in Stores, Hotel Rooms Same Week" (Press release). Sioux Falls, SD: LodgeNet Entertainment Corporation. PRNewswire. August 29, 2000. Retrieved February 6, 2015.
  13. 1 2 "LodgeNet Upgrading to Gamecube". Game Developer. June 23, 2003. Retrieved October 16, 2026.
  14. ↑ Rodriguez, Steven (June 24, 2003). "Play GameCube Games in Your Hotel Room". Nintendo World Report. Retrieved October 16, 2026.
  15. 1 2 3 Warner, Melodie (2012-12-31). "LodgeNet Files for Chapter 11; Colony Capital Invests $60 Million for Control". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on January 2, 2013. Retrieved 2 January 2013.
  16. ↑ Smith, Rich (2013-01-28). "LodgeNet Files for Chapter 11". The Motley Fool. Retrieved 2020-11-13.
  17. 1 2 "LodgeNet Interactive Rebranded As SONIFI Solutions" (Press release). Sioux Falls, SD: SONIFI Solutions. PR Newswire. June 25, 2013. Retrieved October 16, 2026.
  18. 1 2 "SONIFI seeks to shake LodgeNet nightmare with new products and innovation lab". PhocusWire. June 25, 2014. Retrieved October 16, 2026.
  19. 1 2 "Nintendo Gateway Game Boy Airline Game List". Nintendo. Archived from the original on January 13, 2008. Retrieved October 16, 2026.
  20. ↑ "Nintendo Gateway SNES Hotel Game List (NTSC)". Nintendo. Archived from the original on January 2, 2008. Retrieved October 16, 2026.
  21. ↑ "Nintendo Gateway 64 Hotel Game List (NTSC)". Nintendo. Archived from the original on January 2, 2008. Retrieved October 16, 2026.
  22. ↑ "Nintendo Gateway GameCube Hotel Game List (NTSC)". Nintendo. Archived from the original on December 29, 2007. Retrieved October 16, 2026.
  23. ↑ togemet2 (April 25, 2023). "Nintendo LodgeNet 64 (Gateway System) ROM Collection". Forest of Illusion. Archived from the original on April 26, 2023. Retrieved October 16, 2026.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)