Company History
Allen Technologies' vision is to be the premier provider of interactive patient TV systems for forward-thinking hospitals seeking to provide a unique and cost-effective method for the converged delivery of television, telephone, Internet, nurse call and clinical applications to patients and medical staff.
Allen's product focus is on entertaining hospital patients while creating operational efficiencies for the hospital staff. Vigo is an interactive television system, which provides multiple applications to meet the demands of both patients and staff.
Allen was founded in 1977 to serve the hospital television market. In its early days, the company provided TV distribution plants, coax cabling of TV's, CRT TV's and pillow speaker control over a TV. There was a large demand for these services. As more-and-more TV-only systems were installed, Allen became aware that hospitals could benefit from advanced features. It introduced the first networked TV system in 1982. By today's standards, this system had few features. The most significant feature allowed hospitals to recover the cost of premium television and expensive landline telephone services.
These early systems were called "telephony" because they allowed customers to order features by talking with a telephone operator, and later by inteacting with an interactive voice response (IVR) system. Surprisingly, company's still offer these types of systems.
In 1986 Allen introduced P1, its first interactive TV system. P1 merged TV and data, offering automated distribution of patient and staff education materials, on-demand premium television and telephone services and interactive patient surveys.
From the 1970's through the mid-1990's computers and networking made gigantic leaps forward in technology, which continue to this day. Telephone technology radically changed with the introduction of mobile phones. However, during that same time period, TV technology was stuck in the mud. In the mid-1990's, most people used the same big, bulky CRT technology for TV's as their parents did back in the 1960's.
As technology advanced, Allen upgraded its technology. Eventually, in 1996, Allen introduced a next generation technology called P2, which upgraded the level of services to include support of LCD TV's, streaming, on-demand videos, on-demand patient and staff training, interactive testing, patient surveys and meal ordering.
In 2003, the company stopped selling and developing its television-only, P1 and P2 product lines. However, Allen continues to provide support to these legacy systems. While these systems are dated, Allen prides itself in providing on-going support for its systems. At last count, over thirty P1 and P2 systems are still in use decades after being deployed.
When Allen stopped development of P2 it began migration to a new platform called Vigo. Vigo allows a hospital to choose from wall-mounted LCD TV's to swing-arm, bedside touch screen monitors. Vigo can run on a set top box (VigoSTB), similar to a cable company's DVR, or on a personal computer (VigoPC). Vigo merges the benefits of TV with all the benefits of the Internet and computer technology. Vigo is a convergence of television, movies, games, health education, telephone, Internet, hospital services and clinical applications.
Vigo and Vigo OneTouch systems are installed in small, medium and large hospitals throughout North America, Puerto Rico and Australia.
Allen Technologies owns the distinction of having installed the first interactive television network in a hospital. The company has remained at the forefront of its industry for more than twenty years, a testament to the company's passion, commitment to customer service, and reputation for innovation and delivery.