SMARTreport - Deuromedia

SMARTreport 

Information Intelligence by 

CLEVERDIS Edition • October 2007 – April 2008 

THE ULTIMATE SOURCE BOOK 

FOR HOTEL TECHNOLOGIES 

CREATING THE MEMORABLE GUEST EXPERIENCE 

Including: > IN-ROOM ENTERTAINMENT > COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES 

> IN HOUSE AUTOMATION > DIGITAL SIGNAGE AND CUSTOM TV 

> CONFERENCE TECHNOLOGIES > RESERVATION SYSTEMS • GDS AND PMS 

> SECURITY 

Meet the visionaries 

Nick Price 

CIO/CTO – 

Mandarin Oriental 

Hotel Group 

> page 6 

Fraser Hickox 

General Manager 

Research and 

Technology – 

Peninsula Group 

> page 9 

Ian Crabb 

Chief Executive 

Officer – 

Quadriga 

Worldwide Ltd 

> page 22


THE ULTIMATE SOURCE BOOK FOR HOTEL TECHNOLOGIES 

03 Tracking Emerging Technology 

Interview with Douglas Rice – HTNG 

06 Knowing The Guest 

Interview with Nick Price – Mandarin Oriental 

Hotel Group 

09 When Hotels Lead the Way 

Interview with Fraser Hickox – Peninsula Group 

13 IN-ROOM ENTERTAINMENT 

14 Pacific Media Predicts Rapid Growth for Hospitality 

HDTV Sales 

15 The TV of the Future 

15 Internet TV ‘Gold Rush’ 

16 Deuromedia Interactive Platform 

Interview with Markus Hiebeler – Deuromedia 

17 Licence to Screen 

19 MCOM – First to offer a VC-1/MPEG4 IPTV 

platform with a VOD multilingual subtitling service 

to the hospitality industry... 

Interview with Costas Sakellariou – Media 

Communications 

20 Convergence – In Room Centric Trends in Hotel 

Technologies – The vision of a market leader 

22 Meeting New Guest Entertainment Demands The 

Trends 

Interview with Ian Crabb – Quadriga Worldwide Ltd 

24 Massive Roll-out for Genesis System 

Interview with Myron Tataryn – Quadriga 

Worldwide Ltd 

26 CASE STUDY – A Taste of Genesis 

27 Quadriga Worldwide Ltd KEY FIGURES 

28 NxTV First of Kind to Earn HTNG Certification for 

Guest Itinerary Display on Hotel Televisions 

29 CASE STUDY – Trump International Hotel & Tower 

Chicago Installs Next Generation HD IP Video on 

Demand Entertainment Services 

31 The Shift from Pay TV Provider to Veritable “Media 

Partner” 

Interview with Tonio Fruehauf – Premiere Hotel 

Entertainment 

32 CASE STUDY – Surprising Guests with Simplicity, 

Quality and Quantity (of channels) 

33 One Step Beyond!!... 

Interview with Patrick Goubet – ArtDisplay 

34 Strength, Security and Aesthetics 

37 COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES 

38 IP PABX: Stepping into the Future 

A White Paper by Percipia, Inc. 

43 Virtual Private Networks 

44 Wireless Phones for Staff – a Key to Improved 

Service 

45 No New Wires! 

46 Communication (and other) Technologies that will 

impact hotel operations in the future 

47 IN HOUSE AUTOMATION 

48 Enlightening ideas 

49 DIGITAL SIGNAGE & CUSTOM TV 

50 "…It's pure marketing, but with an emotional 

dimension…" 

Interview with Betty Castaldi – Idylle Production 

53 CONFERENCE TECHNOLOGIES 

54 Conference Room Technologies 

57 RESERVATION SYSTEMS 

• GDS AND PMS 

58 Interview with Kaweh Niroomand – Micros-Fidelio – 

EAME (Europe, Africa, Middle East) 

60 HTNG Certification for IDeaS Revenue Optimization 

61 CASE STUDY – Optimising hotel and conference 

center operations on one database… 

63 SECURITY 

64 CASE STUDY – Security Evaluation and Verification 

by HP Strengthens interTouch Service Offering 

A CLEVERDIS PUBLICATION - SMARTREPORT ENGLISH Ed n°5 October 2007 

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CONTENTS


THE ULTIMATE SOURCE BOOK FOR HOTEL TECHNOLOGIES 

EDITORIAL 

Richard BARNES 

Editor-in-chief 

Tel. +33 (0)4 42 77 46 08 

E-mail: richard.barnes@cleverdis.com 

Enhancing Guest Satisfaction 

Technology… and the Part it SHOULD Play… 

The savvy use of technology in hotels should lead to a number 

of positive outcomes… a win-win scenario for both hoteliers 

and guests… if approached the right way. The aim of this 

SMARTreport is not only to demystify some of the latest digital 

technologies and their applications in the hotel field, but also 

to encourage the intelligent use of these technologies in such a 

way that they save money and/or increase profits for the 

hotel, while vastly improving the guest experience. We have 

timed the launch of this edition to coincide with the European 

meeting of HTNG (Hotel Technology Next Generation) in 

Lausanne; a conference which truly marks the forward march 

of the industry world-wide and underlines a new form of 

understanding between hoteliers and service providers. What 

is extraordinary today is the extreme effort put in by some 

hotel groups, such as the Mandarin Oriental Group and the 

Peninsula Group, in beating a path through the jungle as true 

pioneers in the field of technology convergence. This is 

underlined in interviews with Nick Price of the Mandarin 

oriental Group and Fraser Hickox of the Peninsula Group, both 

of whom are true visionaries and leaders among their peers. 

The time given by people such as these (as well as all those 

who have participated in this edition) towards helping their 

peers and advancing the industry in general through the 

movement created by the HTNG is proof of their selflessness 

and dedication to improving guest services across the board. 

To this extent, Nick Price has even agreed to give his 

“personal touch” to each of our sections in this SMARTreport... 

an input which is greatly appreciated due to his astute and 

broad vision of industry issues. This SMARTreport is, I believe, 

more than ever in the spirit of Cleverdis, our mother 

organisation, in terms of giving a clear and unbiased view of 

the industry at large. The broad contribution and support 

shown by leading companies from all walks of technology 

gives it an unequalled richness and uniqueness, making it a 

true reference work. Again thanks to all of you who have 

contributed to making this edition a real “keeper”!

© photo: HTNG 

www.cleverdis.com 

HTNG 

(Hotel Technology Next 

Generation) 

Douglas Rice 

Executive Director 

Douglas C. Rice has been working as Executive Director of Hotel Technology 

Next Generation (HTNG) since September 2004. Mr Rice moved into the 

HTNG executive role from a successful career spanning more than 15 years 

as a consultant to senior executives throughout the hospitality industry. He 

was one of the original visionaries and founders of HTNG, recruited many 

of the CIOs that formed its first Board of Directors, and has remained 

integrally involved throughout the early years of the organization, serving as 

Executive Advisor to HTNG since the organization was formalized. 

INTRODUCTION 

Interview with... 

Tracking Emerging Technology 

Spotlight on the HTNG European Meeting in Lausanne 

With HTNG’s European meeting again 

taking place in Lausanne, we spoke to 

Mr Rice about the main thrusts of the 

organisation, and what outcomes are 

expected from the meeting... 

The main thrusts of our conference are 

always multi-fold. One is to update our 

members on the accomplishments and 

directions of our various work group 

activities. Each group spends between 

20 minutes and more than an hour 

going through the specific things they’ve 

done, talking about the benefits for 

hotels and about how vendors can 

engage with some of their initiatives 

and some of their future directions. The 

other thing our conferences always 

emphasise is thought leadership. We try 

to identify some areas of emerging 

technologies that aren’t being covered 

well by other conferences in the industry 

and find speakers who can address 

those issues and present some thought 

provoking ideas about how these 

technologies can be used in hotels. As 

far as the European activities go, we 

have now more and more of our 

workgroups that are engaging with 

European hoteliers and vendors... we 

now have two work-groups that have 

regular meetings in Europe. We have 

other work-groups that still have most of 

their regular meetings in the US, but that 

still have significant European 

participation, and a lot of the 

presentations will be made by the 

Hotel SMARTreport October 2007 – April 2008 / 3


© photo: HTNG 

4 / 

European participants in the various 

work-groups. 

The European In-Room Technology workgroup 

will be officially meeting for the 

first time just after the meeting in 

Lausanne. This is something that is 

going to be very important for the 

forward movement of the HTNG in 

Europe... 

We certainly think so. We’ve always 

believed that the needs of the industry 

are global because many of the 

companies that operate in our industry 

are global... both on the hotel side and 

on the vendors’ side. There is no way to 

“regionalise” it in a way that doesn’t 

disenfranchise someone. So from the 

very beginning we have had extensive 

participation from a number of 

international companies and this is an 

opportunity to get more engagement in 

Europe in the in-room technology area, 

where a lot is going on, and we are 

very much looking forward to getting 

that greater engagement. 

One of the interesting facts that was 

brought up during the initial briefing for 

the work-group in London was the fact 

that there are a lot of differences in 

between the issues that have to be dealt 

with in the US and in Europe, and which 

of course are different to Asia as well. Is 

this one of the main factors that will 

have to be addressed? 

Absolutely. We know some certain 

fundamental differences exist in Europe 

in terms of the physical structure, in 

particular of the older or smaller hotel 

buildings. To a degree we have 

addressed that already, but we 

Hotel SMARTreport • October 2007 – April 2008 

probably have some more work to do in 

that area. There are some major 

differences in the entertainment system 

technologies ... in particular the speed 

at which HD is being deployed is quite 

a bit slower in Europe than it is in 

America, and all these things change 

the landscape of what needs to be 

done. Probably even more important 

though is the vendor community... it’s a 

very different set of vendors... in some 

cases more fragmented, because there 

may be different vendors in different 

parts of Europe that have dominant 

positions, and the companies that 

operate across Europe need solutions 

that work across Europe and across the 

world. So both the technology and the 

vendor set are different and that’s really 

what this work-group, and indeed all 

our work-groups need to address. 

In different regions of the world, hotel 

chains have vastly different levels of 

penetration as opposed to privately run 

individual establishments. How 

important is it for us to come to grips 

with the differences in needs for each 

category? 

To benefit the entire industry I think we 

definitely have to. The main thing that 

we see different between the major 

chains and the independents (and the 

smaller chains that fall somewhere in 

between) is the amount of resources they 

can devote to analysing and selecting 

future technologies. Larger chains can 

devote some resources to deciding what 

they want and engaging vendors to go 

build it, driving some of the activities 

through HTNG in terms of developing 

industry solutions. The independent 

hotels don’t have the resources to do 

INTRODUCTION 

that. They don’t have dedicated 

technology resources, so many of the 

larger chains view their role as 

delivering technology solutions to 

independent managed or franchised 

hotels within their group. A lot of our 

larger participants do consider the 

needs of individual hotels that are their 

customers. So independents can still 

benefit without necessarily being active 

participants. We can’t expect a small 

hotel to devote the resources, although 

we do have a few who want to and we 

certainly welcome them, but we have to 

find ways to give them the derivative 

benefit of the work of the larger groups. 

At the end of the day, every one of them 

is deploying into individual hotels and 

the way they may want to do it may be 

different if they are a large chain but the 

actual physical things that go into the 

hotel are generally the same. 

On the one hand there are individual 

problems, and on the other we’re 

dealing with global issues. How 

important are issues such as in-room 

technologies in general, flat-screen TVs, 

HDTV, new networking technologies like 

IPTV and so on? 

There’s a balance. The global trends we 

see in in-room entertainment are the 

move towards converged IP networks, 

and a move definitively towards digital 

TV and increasingly towards IPTV. The 

regional differences are topics like HD 

versus SD. Trends differ between 

different regions, so this is an important 

consideration. Obviously, on a more 

technical level, it’s interesting for hotel 

operators in different parts of the world 

to look at internal signal distribution for 

entertainment systems. We’ve seen 

some great HD systems in the US (e.g. 

Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas etc.) and 

it’s no doubt interesting for people to 

learn about this... We have one session 

that is a group of hoteliers that have 

struggled through the deployment of a 

distribution with the objective of getting 

an all-IP network, and they will talk 

about the evolution over the last years 

and their ability to do that as technology 

has evolved. Some of them have had a 

goal of doing this over five, six or seven 

years and in their first projects they ran 

into a number of barriers ... then in the 

next projects, they were able to remove 

www.cleverdis.com

a few of these, and some of them are 

finally getting close to getting exactly 

what they want now... but I hear a lot of 

real life horror stories about distribution 

within the hotel, and some of the real 

barriers you have even in new hotels to 

getting systems to work well. 

No doubt the US operators attending 

the European conference will also be 

able to get the inside line on IPTV which 

is much more advanced in Europe than 

in the States... 

Exactly. This is a good opportunity for 

both sides to share. We’ll have several 

of the major companies who are 

involved in the in-room entertainment 

systems from both sides of the Atlantic 

as well as in the Pacific zone, getting a 

chance to see what’s happening in parts 

of the world where they may not 

operate directly. 

We’ve been talking a lot about in-room 

technology, which has become a sweet 

spot, but obviously everything that is 

built around is becoming integrated and 

part of an entire system… And this is 

one of the most exciting things that 

hoteliers can work on as well... 

Yes. In Lausanne we will certainly be 

talking about bringing together all the 

systems. This is particularly valid in a 

complex hotel or resort system that has 

a spa, perhaps golfing activities, 

concierge, theatre tickets, meeting 

rooms, etc. The aim is to have a 

common way for the different systems 

that manage each of these activities to 

communicate about the guest and to 

manage their schedules and various 

appointments and to make that 

information available both to the staff 

and the guest. We’ve made some really 

tremendous strides in that area and 

when you have a converged network, 

you can share data much more easily. It 

doesn’t mean that it happens without 

some work, but I think we’ll see some 

real live results with hoteliers talking 

about how they’re using these solutions 

in their hotels. Five years ago people 

told us you’d never get the vendors to 

share their customer data or work with 

each other to manage a guest itinerary 

across several of these systems and this 

is happening today. 


I guess it comes down to building on 

existing IT platforms that are often 

proprietary systems and have been builtup 

with either home-grown or vendor 

specific interfaces? 

I think what is happening is that both the 

vendors and the hoteliers are realising 

that one-off interfaces don’t make a lot 

of sense. I think vendors had a lot of 

concern that because they got a lot of 

their revenue from interfaces, 

particularly some of the Property 

Management System vendors and other 

core system vendors, that this would 

threaten their revenue stream. And in 

fact what is happening is that they are 

Why HTNG? 

Hotels deal with scores of technology 

systems, but only a few were designed for 

hotels! Guests and staff need the systems to 

work together: 

• Hotel systems, e.g. PMS, PoS, sales & 

catering • Telephony systems 

• Entertainment systems • Building control 

systems • Distribution systems 

• Administrative, financial & control systems 

• Customer relationship management 

systems • Human resource systems... 

HTNG Mission 

The mission of HTNG is to provide 

leadership that will facilitate the creation of 

one (or more) industry solution set(s) for the 

lodging industry that: 

• Are modeled around the customer and 

allow for a rich definition and distribution 

of hotel products, beyond simply sleeping 

rooms 

• Comprise best-of-breed software 

components from existing vendors, and 

enable vendors to collaboratively produce 

world-class software products 

encompassing all major areas of 

technology spending: hotel operations, 

telecommunications (PABX), in-room 

entertainment, customer information 

systems, and electronic distribution 

• Properly exploit and leverage a base 

system architecture that provides 

integration and interoperability through 

messaging; and that provides security, 

redundancy, and high availability 

• Target the needs of hotel companies of all 

sizes and geographic locations 

• Will reduce technology management cost 

and complexity while improving reliability 

and scalability 

INTRODUCTION 

finding that by running with open source 

interfaces it reduces costs quite a bit 

because they don’t spend so much time 

doing custom development and they get 

a whole lot more revenue potential 

because the customers now look at these 

interfaces as something that is not oneoff 

but which is reusable. There is a lot 

more willingness among hotels to start 

to buy these interfaces as they are 

starting to become standardised. I don’t 

want to overstate this as we have a long 

way to go, but certainly if you look at 

some of the major vendors and some of 

the major customers, all are going 

towards HTNG standard interfaces. 

• Can be deployed globally, managed 

remotely, and outsourced to service 

providers where needed. 

HTNG Workgroups: 

HTNG is moving information technology in 

hospitality forward by bringing all industry 

constituencies-hoteliers, vendors, consultants 

and others--together to address the most 

pressing needs. The method by which HTNG 

is attacking this problem is Workgroups. 

What's a Workgroup? 

Workgroups are groups of HTNG member 

companies, typically numbering 10 to 25 but 

sometimes more, chartered with addressing a 

specific business or technical problem. Hotel 

companies (technology buyers) and vendors 

(technology sellers) work together to solve the 

problem and implement one or more 

solution(s). Other industry participants 

(consultants, academics, media) may also 

participate. A key difference between HTNG 

and other industry organizations is that 

HTNG's focus is facilitating the creation of 

industry solution sets. Workgroups are not 

think tanks or standards bodies. They may 

produce white papers, specifications, and 

other documents, but these are simply means 

to achieving their primary objective. HTNG's 

workgroup process is inclusive of all HTNG 

members. Moreover, small and large 

companies participate on an equal footing – 

one company, one vote. 

In-Room Technology Workgroup - 

European Chapter 

The European Chapter of the HTNG’s In- 

Room Technology Workgroup (spawned 

originally by Nick Price in 2004) officially 

becomes operative in 2007. 




© photo: Mandarin Oriental 

6 / 

HTNG 

(Hotel Technology 

Nick Price 

Next Generation) 

President Emeritus – HTNG 

CIO/CTO, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group 

Nick Price joined Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group in January 2000 as Director of 

Technology. A newly created position, the appointment was in line with the Group's 

objective of strengthening its corporate and specialist core competencies in areas 

most critical to success. With more than 19 years experience in IT and emerging 

technologies, Nick brings to Mandarin Oriental, an in-depth understanding of 

current and emerging technology trends and their commercial application. Nick 

reports directly to the Group's Managing Director, Edouard Ettedgui. 


INTRODUCTION 

Knowing The Guest 

Making Information Accessible In-House 

Nick Price is one of the most respected people in the industry when it comes to having a global (in 

more ways than one) knowledge about Hotel Technologies and how they should be leveraged to 

truly enhance the guests’ experience. We asked Nick what was new at the Mandarin Oriental 

Group, and how he is leveraging technology to create a near to perfect guest experience... 

To some extent we are refining the path 

we’ve been on for a while, especially 

since 2003, leveraging networks to be 

able to either bring in content to a guest 

that makes sense, or enable our staff to 

understand something about the guest 

and to deliver a service that they 

otherwise couldn’t have done. Obviously 

we have been very focused on capturing 

information about our customers and 

making that available across our 

company in terms of an xml profile of the 

guest, and a fairly rich and deep and 

accessible xml profile that you can ask 

questions of the system... “What does 

somebody like to eat?”... or “What 

temperature should the room be at?”, or 

“What kind of wine do they like?”... 

Things like that... and just to make that 

information accessible. 

Once you have that information you have 

to think about how to deliver it, and that’s 

all about networks, and how do you 

communicate it to the front line staff, and 

that’s really all about access devices that 

are hooked onto those networks, and 

many of those networks are wireless 

today... 

www.cleverdis.com

Of course one would have to avoid 

saying, “Good morning Mr Smith, you’re 

not with your usual girlfriend today ... Oh, 

it’s your wife?”... 

You know that’s a cliché ... I’ve heard that 

so many times. Are we in the business 

for? We’re in the business to satisfy 

99.9% of our guests or are we in the 

business of XXXXing of 0.1% of them? Just 

because something can happen doesn’t 

mean you should build your company or 

operation around the fact that it will. 

While I know you meant it as a joke, 

there are a whole lot of people going 

around saying, “we’re not going to do 

this because of that reason. We’re not 

going to build information in the systems 

about our customer just in case we are 

talking about the wife when we should be 

talking about the girlfriend, and that’s just 

stupid. It’s just an excuse for not doing 

things right if you ask me. 

One of your pet bugbears is that of 

business models for internet. How are you 

seeing business models evolving today? 

First of all, you have to look at it from both 

sides, from the hotel side and the 

suppliers’ side. There is no free lunch. 

There is no free product today, and from 


a hotel’s point of view you wouldn’t want 

to. If you go back five years ago, 

everyone was rushing for the revenue 

share “land grab” and the suppliers were 

very much looking at the long term, 

saying “we’ll lose money on 2% 

utilisation, but we’ll make it up on 20% 

utilisation”, and the hotels were saying “I 

don’t care, I just want something that 

satisfies today’s guest. Now those hotels 

are saying “At 20% look at the amount of 

money you’re making, Mr Supplier, and I 

still have three years to go on my revenue 

share contract!” So both sides have 

learnt. On the supplier side, they’re 

looking at it and saying “How do I renew 

my contract with the certainty that I’m not 

going to be able to roll-over a revenue 

share contract on the same percentages 

as I did before?”... Because the unique 

technology I had back then are now 

commodities... These can be used today 

in a much more accessible “Do It Yourself” 

fashion to the hoteliers. So hoteliers if they 

wish can assemble these HSIA networks 

themselves these days at a cost, but that 

cost is generally affordable based upon 

the revenues that are a fairly near 

certainty today and into the near future, 

so there’s a fairly strong ROI for DIY. 

Looking out a little bit further, the 

attractiveness of a DIY model becomes 

INTRODUCTION 

less attractive today if you consider the 

services you are going to have to bundle 

onto that network to make it attractive 

over the long term, because again that’s 

very much harder to do that it is just to put 

a simple HSIE service in place today... 

and also the fact that your costs are 

definitely going to increase as well, 

because the bandwidth is increasing, 

significantly so, and that has to be paid 

for. So really there are two sides of the 

thing. Revenue share was a model that is 

not necessarily the right model for the 

future, but it may become the right model 

again as you add more feature functions. 

In the past you have spoken of the 

importance of “bringing the technology 

islands together”... talking about the 

different technology groups within the 

hotel. How do you see this evolving? I 

guess this is indelibly linked to the HTNG? 

It is in a number of ways. Firstly, they are 

broadly together these days, or they 

certainly are at Mandarin. We have fully 

converged networks today in our hotels... 

fully converged IP networks. So from a 

functional view you have HSIA, Video On 

Demand and IP television on the same set 

of cables – the same network as the 

administrative network, back of house, 





8 / 

PMS and so on, just as CCTV and 

telephone which is now IP as well, and all 

of that is wired and wireless. So the main 

functional and discreet separate networks 

that a hotel typically did install on 

separate unique cable systems is, at least 

at the Mandarin, a fully converged 

network today. We’re just months away 

from opening our first hotels that have no 

Coax for TV and they have no Coax to 

drive CCTV. All of those things are on the 

IP network today. 

On Cat 5 or Cat 6? 

All Fibre! Fibre to the rooms is going to be 

a very useful technology. The same model 

that telcos are using to take fibre to the 

home... that same basic technology, when 

you translate it into a fibre to the room, 

has some basic advantages. It is subtly 

different from a Cat 6 Ethernet model. It’s 

more configurable and you can do more 

with it. You can reserve elements of the 

bandwidth over the fibre to do interesting 

things. So it’s definitely a technology that 

we’re actively investigating. 

How is the use of content changing in the 

field of in-room entertainment? 

One of the other things we should 

absolutely be aware of as hoteliers is that 

a vast amount of content walks into our 

rooms every day, brought in by the 

guests. Whether it’s a USB stick with a 

film on it or some form of audio or video 

content, or whether it be an i-Pod or i- 

Phone or whatever, a huge amount of 

content is walking into our rooms, and for 


us to be able to make use of that is a very 

important thing – providing easily 

accessible methods whereby a guest who 

has a small and portable device which is, 

by definition, very restricted in its picture 

and sound quality... to plug that into a 

room and make full use of the room to 

entertain them or inform them for the 

period of time they are there... I think it’s 

a really important thing, because one of 

the things I think have trained ourselves to 

believe is that a guest has an awful lot of 

time in our rooms to be entertained and 

that is simply not true. The whole notion of 

a feature film being a relevant piece of 

content in a hotel room is bogus! I don’t 

think it ever was correct, but it certainly is 

bogus today. People don’t have that time, 

and the viewing figures support that it is 

irrelevant. So today, really it’s 30 minutes, 

and it’s what you choose to do in those 

INTRODUCTION 

30 minutes. Increasingly what we’re 

seeing is that those 30 minutes are being 

filled by guests’ own content. It’s that “Let 

me be me for 30 minutes and make me 

feel human again. I think it’s a very 

important thing that we should focus on 

and try and satisfy. The ability to be able 

to tune into “u-tube” or the guest’s own 

DVR via Sling-box or other similar 

technology I think is also immense. Things 

that were considered teenage or geeky in 

the past are now very much mainstream. 

You have to be a little bit visionary, but 

you don’t have to be VERY visionary to 

figure out what people are doing today. 

You’ve just got to be open to it and 

understand that those expectations, if 

they’re met, contribute to your room rate 

and occupancy, and if they’re not met, 

contribute negatively to your room rate 

and occupancy. 


www.cleverdis.com

© photo: Peninsula Group Hotels 


Peninsula Group 

Fraser HICKOX 

General Manager 

Research and Technology 

Peninsula Group Hotels 

HTNG Director 

INTRODUCTION 


Mr. Hickox has spent 21 years with the Peninsula Group, and established the Technology Laboratory in 

Aberdeen, Hong Kong, where the Peninsula's guest-room technology is developed and refined for use 

exclusively in their properties. He is responsible for the refurbishment of the Peninsula Hotels World-wide. 

Twenty years ago he opened Asia's first technology hotel, the Kowloon Hotel, with a network system linking 

all rooms to a central database and a fax server enabling their guests the opportunity of performing business 

functions in their guest rooms. Prior to joining Peninsula, Mr. Hickox worked in television and radio 

broadcasting, at an airline in Papua New Guinea, for a Japanese bank, with the Nauruan Government 

during the design and installation of a new country-wide telephone system, and on a development line in 

Taiwan to gain production line experience. Mr. Hickox was awarded a Ph.D. for his efforts in radio physics. 

He holds a number of accreditations from various institutions and is a Director of the China Light & Power 

Research Institute. 

When Hotels Lead the Way 

The Peninsula Group – at the Forefront of Hotel Technology Development 

Peninsula Group's design laboratory does research and development for technology to improve 

services in guest rooms and elsewhere in nine worldwide Peninsula hotels... This is somewhat 

unique in the industry... We asked Fraser Hickox to tell us about the most recent findings... 

We are working on a number of projects, 

some to be introduced immediately, some 

that will be introduced in time and others 

that may or may not ever be used. The 

technology is, as a matter of principal, 

discreet. It should touch the guests but not 

know them out. The greatest compliment 

we can receive is when our guest travels 

to a non-Peninsula and then realises what 

was missed. 

HDTV has reached critical mass in the US 

– what about Europe and Asia? 

It is slowly evolving in Asia... very slowly. 

Our broadcasters are still undertaking test 

transmissions although I understand there 

is a push in China in time for the 

Olympics. There are now some HD 

broadcasts in the US, but I suggest the 

European community is making greater 

inroads. However the key is content and 

not enough is yet available to satisfy the 

demand of the major networks, hence the 

proliferation of sport and reality 

programming. 




What about flat panel TV’s? 

We’re pursuing a rapid programme to 

have flat panel televisions in all our guest 

rooms as quickly as possible. The trend is 

toward the use of IP rather than the 

modulated coaxial distribution still found 

in many hotels today. 

It's one thing to specify HD TV's, but what 

about getting them up on the walls... not 

all properties are suited to this... and 

what about cabling? 

I have heard of instances of flat panels 

falling off walls, but the real challenge is 

how to deal with these when not in use. 

One hotel in Vegas has a lift to the set 

emerges from a piece of furniture and 

when in operation sounds like a freight 

train, let alone what happens to anything 

left on top of the cabinet when the lift is 

activated. This is a problem for many 

hoteliers who have chosen in the past to 

use armoires and some attempts resemble 

British pub dart-boards, or are mounted 

directly on the wall, offering the incoming 

guest a view of a wad of cabling. The 

best example of a wall mounting that I 

have seen is the Mitsui Garden Hotel in 

the Ginza of Tokyo which was relatively 

simple but very clean. I look forward to 

the availability of OLED TV’s which will be 

considerably lighter, cooler and thinner. 

IPTV as part of triple play, along with 

internet radios... these are all part of your 

offering at a number of locations. You are 

cutting edge, but how quickly will these 

kinds of technologies totally take over 

from classic analogue delivery? 

Convergence is something we are all 

talking about in HTNG, the industry 

10 / Hotel SMARTreport • October 2007 – April 2008 

group of which we are part. Obviously if 

we can feed all-out telephony, Internet 

services, television, CCTV and guest room 

controls through one piece of fibre, this 

will give us greater flexibility in the future, 

not to mention realising considerable cost 

savings. Peninsula and Mandarin are 

early adopters of this technology, but we 

are taking measured steps. The use of this 

technology will become more prevalent in 

new builds, but it may take time in 

existing properties where its introduction 

INTRODUCTION 

would be associated with major 

refurbishments. 

What is the most important goal when it 

comes to in-room entertainment? 

At the soft opening of our Tokyo property, 

our interior designer spoke of the 

relevance of “touch and feel” in addition 

to the aesthetics and function. I believe 

whatever we do in the room should 

embrace this need, be it the music played 

in the bathroom when in the Spa mode, 

the lighting, and of course the 

entertainment. It’s interesting to hear that 

Sony are working on stimulating the 

brain’s cortex to deliver taste and smell 

and if successful will introduce a new 

dimension. 

You're working with Tangerine Global on 

CONTENT... tell us about that. 

Tangerine has given us an alternative to 

Hollywood. They are offering content 

covering a large range of subjects, be it 

the latest fast cars to yoga... all short 

segment, but a great alternative. While in 

“As a result of the HTNG meetings I went on 

to design the guest room phone that has a 

bluetooth capability. This allows for the 

phone to be paired with a guest's mobile so 

any incoming cell call can be picked up on 

any phone in the room (we have 6). The 

device is also equipped with a button so the 

guest can use Skype rather than PSTN to 

dial out… It is a great idea but needs more 

European hotel participation…” 


www.cleverdis.com


Tokyo recently I think I watched all the 

musical concerts under one of their 

segments. 

How important is it to tailor content to 

groups or local markets? 

Very important. Language is a major 

consideration but also there are cultural 

considerations. We are starting to see 

narrowcasting evolving in some parts of 

the world and we should provide access 

to this where possible. 

How do you expect TV and on-demand 

services to evolve in the next years? 

I believe the nature of on-demand and 

even local broadcasting will change in 

the next five years. We will want to watch 

programming from where we want when 

we want. Sling media and location-free 

technology already makes this possible 

and will challenge traditional thinking 

and distribution. I know of a hotel under 

construction in the Philippines that hopes 

to provide for their American clientele 

who stay for two or more weeks at a time 

to watch their home sling box which will 


offer better programming than they can 

offer from local cable TV systems. The 

limiting factor in many countries today is 

the cost of bandwidth, however the 

Philippine carrier is willing to consider 

bandwidth on demand. It’s only a matter 

of time before others will start to consider 

these options. 

What about telephony? This has been a 

bugbear in hotels for many years... 

In Tokyo, we installed our own IP 

telephone system as part of a converged 

network. Our IT people are now 

reviewing this to see how we can improve 

this further in the other properties. 

Certainly it can represent a considerable 

saving. The biggest challenge was that 

the pricing for these switches is based on 

the number of licences, and with six 

telephones in each room, we were 

particularly battered. However I believe 

there is a move afoot to modify the 

costing to a per room basis. This is 

potentially a very competitive business 

and I predict we will see the cost of 

hardware fall considerably to make it 

attractive to hoteliers who now consider 

INTRODUCTION 

the service as a loss leading “must have”. 

Furthermore in Tokyo, where GSM is not 

used, we have provided for a handheld 

that may be used in the hotel using the wifi 

network and around the city with 

charges being transferred to the guest’s 

folio immediately. 

A couple of years ago, you underlined 

that "we are a people business, and while 

technology offers great opportunity it is 

the outstretched hand of the hotelier that 

consummates the relationship." With the 

onset of "you are a number" 

technologies, do you feel this is even 

more important today? 

Absolutely. Hospitality is about being 

hospitable. We welcome our guests as we 

would to our own home. The technology 

certainly facilitates a stay, but does not 

replace the familiar face and the personal 

concern of our staff to serve our guests to 

the best of their ability. 

Our chairman takes a very close interest 

in all aspects of the guest experience and 

will pursue the finest detail to ensure it is 

the best. 


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Each one of these digital works is a 

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bringing art and emotion 

to your walls. 

www.artdisplay.fr

IN-ROOM 

ENTERTAINMENT 

In this section, we look at In-Room Entertainment . Here, the biggest challenge is finding a 

partner that really has the vision to deliver the next generation services that are required by 

today’s guests. Many hotels are still stuck in the “Hollywood and Adult” model, neither of which 

are entertaining in the context necessary for a hotel. What we need is a complete rethink. There 

are some new, smaller players out there today, and the future looks interesting. Whether they 

can get sufficient foothold to make really significant advances in a landscape dominated by a 

few large players who have vested interests in not moving as fast as the hotels would like, that’s 

another thing. In terms of the key movements we see, HDTV is one of those movements, but HD 

as part of a digital TV. It is part of a digital TV experience, and the move from analogue to 

digital is the fundamental shift. To go from an analogue world to a digital world and all that this 

means in terms of off-air television, is a huge jump, but it’s a jump that has already been made 

by the consumer. If you have a television in your home today, the odds are that you have a 

digital feed, whether it be over cable or satellite or terrestrial and you have a wide-screen LCD 

or plasma TV with HDMI inputs... The consumer at home has already made that jump and many 

of them have augmented their environment with a large number of channels and with a widescreen 

TV and DVR with time shift. There is a huge expectation that walks into our rooms every 

day and unfortunately in the majority of hotels it’s an expectation that simply isn’t met. The 

notion that “We’re an international hotel and we provide CNN, so if you speak English, you 

can watch CNN... that should be good enough for you...” It’s simply a notion that’s invalid 

today. 

Frankly, today when you’re coming from your home environment and you walk into a hotel, it’s 

often pretty sad. Among the hotels there are leaders. I think the Mandarin Oriental is one of 

those leaders and today we are opening a hotel after renovation in Munich that will have 800 

TV channels and they will all be digital. Ease of selection then becomes a huge issue... the 

channel up, channel down surfing model soon breaks down even if it ever was the right thing 

to do. But assuming you know something about the guest... either you know who they are very 

explicitly, or implicitly you know their language, their ethnicity and where they’ve come from 

and so on, you can make some fairly astute choices for them and present channels which you 

think they’re going to like. I may be just as simple as organising the channel-order so you put 

Japanese channels at the top for a Japanese guest. That may be sufficient... 

Nick Price



IN-ROOM ENTERTAINMENT 

Pacific Media Predicts Rapid 

Growth for Hospitality HDTV Sales 

Large flat panel models provide competitive advantage 

Rosemary Abowd 

Pacific Media Associates Vice President 

In a US-only survey, Pacific Media 

Associates have been tracking some 

important trends which are of course not 

specific to hotels on the other side of the 

pond. We thus felt it was very interesting 

for hoteliers in all parts of the world to get 

wind of this survey. In the study released 

in May 2007, PMA reported that flat 

panel televisions for the hospitality market 

in the Americas accounted for 29% of unit 

sales of all professional displays 30” or 

larger in 2006. This proportion is forecast 

to swell to 40% in 2007. 

“The hospitality segment is gaining 

importance in the professional flat panel 

market,” according to Rosemary Abowd, 

Pacific Media Associates Vice President. 

“For the moment, a plasma or LCD HDTV 

is still a competitive advantage for the 

premier properties, but guests will soon 

come to expect it as a standard amenity, 

much like broadband Internet access.” 

Unit sales of in-room hospitality HDTVs 

increased 17% from 2005 to 2006, and 

are forecast to grow another 23% this 

year. The forecast for 2008 calls for 

nearly a one-third increase over this 

year’s sales 

These figures only include models 30” or 

larger, equipped for in-room 

entertainment. In its coverage of the 

professional flat panel market, Pacific 

Media includes other hospitality 

applications such as digital signage or 

public video displays, which are 

increasingly popular in hotels and sports 

arenas. 

“Hotel and motel properties in the lower 

tiers are using smaller screen sizes in their 

rooms,“ according to Abowd. “These 

installations are more price sensitive, and 

often use standard consumer models 

without any of the extra in-room 

hospitality features such as pay-per-view. 

These applications will also result in 

significantly more sales in the coming 

years.” 

www.pacificmediaassociates.com 

www.cleverdis.com


The TV of the Future 

The Consumer TV Wish-list Helps Build the “wow factor” into your rooms 

Imagine the day when finding favourite 

TV programming is as easy as saying “TV, 

tune in the Super Bowl, please” or “TV, 

please find me a great action movie to 

watch!” Voice recognition is just one of 

the gee-wiz features that top consumer 

wish lists according to a new poll 

conducted by HDTV leader Westinghouse 

Digital Electronics, one of the top four 

LCD TV manufacturers in the U.S. 

Respondents came up with a wide variety 

of coveted features when asked, “If you 

could design a TV yourself, what would 

you add?” Top answers included: 


• Voice recognition 

• Touch Screen 

• 120hz Refresh Rate 

• Wireless 

• Energy Conservation 

• Built In DVR 

• Built In DVD 

• Bluetooth 

Rey Roque, Vice President of Marketing at 

Westinghouse Digital Electronics, states, 

”We are always fascinated and 

enlightened by the comments and 

suggestions we get from our users -- and 

we encourage the dialog on an ongoing 

basis. Tomorrow’s realities always start 

with today’s dreams and desires, and 

these insights will inform our product and 

feature planning over the years to come.” 

More than 1200 consumers responded to 

the Westinghouse Digital HDTV Insights 

poll, which tapped their input on a 

number of hot-button issues of interest to 

HDTV users. The results will be issued on 

a regular basis. 

* The NPD Group/Retail Tracking Service, 

based on unit sales, from January through July 

2007. 

Internet TV ‘Gold Rush’ 

Advertising revenues on track for $10bn worldwide 

Internet TV advertising could achieve 

revenues of up to $10bn worldwide by 

2011, according to a new industry report 

from Understanding & Solutions. This 

equates to 18% of the Internet advertising 

market for that year, forecast at $57bn. 

Delivery of television content over the 

Internet is nothing new, with a whole host 

of websites across the globe providing 

hundreds of free TV channels, many of 

which are pirated or re-transmitted without 

permission. However, there is an Internet 

TV ‘gold rush’ in progress, as mainstream 

broadcasters, cable networks and TV 

content producers move their content 

online alongside a new raft of legitimate 

‘Webcasters’ (Internet Video and TV 

aggregators) like Joost, Vudu and 

Babelgum. “The level of penetration 

already achieved by Internet video is mindblowing,” 

says John Bird, Principal 

Consultant with Understanding & Solutions. 

“Globally, we estimate there are more than 

20 billion videos being streamed across 

the web each and every month. In the US 

alone, active Internet video users are 

streaming an average of 55 videos per 

month – and this is just the beginning.” 

“Internet TV will challenge the traditional 

broadcast industry through rights 

distribution, on-demand content versus 

linear broadcast and the generation of 

advertising revenues,” says Alison Casey, 

Business Director: Content & Services, 

Understanding & Solutions. “The 

competitive structure of the market will be 

under threat as new ‘Webcasters’ compete 

with conventional broadcast channels for 

audiences and advertiser money. The 

national boundaries which govern 

broadcasting today will also be challenged 

by the global nature of the Internet, as has 

been the case with e-Commerce.” Going 

forward, Broadband Service Providers, 

who are on fixed revenue models, will 

need to invest in more infrastructure as and 

when high quality Internet TV and online 

film distribution becomes widespread, 

raising issues of higher consumer tariffs 

and possible revenue sharing with content 

owners. 




Markus HIEBELER 

CIO 


Tel.: +4316986442-1100 

E-mail: m.hiebeler@deuromedia.com 

www.deuromedia.de 

Deuromedia 


New Levels of Personal Service for Your Guests 

Deuromedia Interactive Platform 

In the classic media such as radio and TV, picture and sound 

quality have improved greatly in the past few years, but 

compared with the revolution every couple of months in the 

computer market, the end equipment has been the same for a long 

time. So now it's time to take the next step here too. We asked 

Markus Hiebeler, CIO of Deuromedia, how he sees the roadmap 

for the industry... 

Indeed, our media landscape is changing. 

Many new terms and buzzwords are 

becoming familiar: convergence, digital 

TV, multimedia, UMTS, Internet and lots 

more. All the familiar digital information 

channels are merging – the boundaries 

between the Internet and television are 

vanishing. The key to this is the rapid 

transfer of large quantities of data via 

broadband technology. Satellites already 

provide us with reliable broadcasters. 

Other methods of transfer will become 

established in the future, e.g. UMTS or 

cable networks such as xDSL. As a modern 

entertainment system it offers all 

possibilities of multimedia entertainment 

which guests are knowing from private and 

public service providers. Hoteliers combine 

these services into their performance 

spectrum to offer a high level of experience 

and personal service to their guests. The 

main benefit for the hotel market is the total 

integration of TV broadcast, radio, PayTV, 

hotel services, local information services, 

shopping, gaming, private and business 

communication, served over a modern 

system platform. International TV- and 

radio broadcasting via satellite are usable 

for guests by a comfortable and easy 

electronic program guide (EPG). High 

speed Internet access and voice over IP is 

integrated. 

Main features offered by the 

deuromedia system... 

TV and Radio server: All international 

Free To Air channels and Radio stations 

receivable via Satellite are presented in 

each guest room. 

Audio on demand jukebox: Usable for 

guests like music CD albums, selected in 

several genres, delivered from a digital 

server. Same functionality as video 

library. 

Internet for business guests: High speed 

internet access should be a standard 

service of each hotel. Surfing and e-mail 

by guests notebook computers (CAT5 

wired connection or WLAN) is available 

in each guest room, in each open area 

and all conference rooms. 

Internet for leisure guests: High speed 

Surfing and e-mail over TV screen by 

infrared remote control in the guest room 

is available. 

Communication VoIP: Voice over Internet 

Protocol (VoIP) technology allows to deal 

with international Telcos and offer 

attractive pricing to the guests. 

Other Services: 

• In-room shopping • In-room gaming 

• DVD player 

• Hotel services (An electronic concierge 

functionality with services like personal 

welcome, wake up call, Video 

checkout, messaging) 

• Regional information services (weather 

forecast, event calendar, traffic info, 

ticket services and cultural city program 

guide) 

• Interface to Property management 

system 

• Independent of TV manufacturers (All 

TV sets (analogue CRT, digital LCD or 

Plasma) are usable via serial interface 

RS232) 

• Independent of hotel infrastructure 

(Integrated in hotel network: CAT5/7, 

COAX star topology, combination 

CAT5 / COAX) 

For further information please visit 

www.deuromedia.de 

© photo: Deuromedia 


© photo: Deuromedia

Licence to Screen 

Interested in screening films? 

© photo: Filmbank 

Guests are more discerning about their 

entertainment choices than ever before, 

they value their leisure time and 

appreciate the highest standards of inroom 

hotel entertainment – whether 

staying for business or pleasure. 

To show a film outside the home 

however, you need permission from the 

owner of the copyright (the studio) and 

for most of the major Hollywood studios, 

as well as some of the leading 

independents. The non-theatrical market 

covers any area that falls between the 

cinema and home where films are 

screened, for example: schools, film 


societies, coaches, restaurants, 

town halls, and more. Permission 

must thus be obtained from a 

“middle man” company such as 

Filmbank. Filmbank Distributors, a 

joint venture between Warner Bros 

and Sony Pictures, is one of the 

leading non-theatrical film 

distributors outside North America, 

representing most of the major 

Hollywood and independent film 

studios in the area of film licensing 

outside the cinema and home. 

Filmbank offer two types of 

screening licences: 

1) The Public Video Screening 

Licence 

An annual licence entitling holders 

to screen unlimited films throughout 

the year to a non-paying audience. 

2 The Single Title Licence 

A licence issued on a title-by-title 

basis, allowing the licence holder 

to screen films in either commercial 

(paid audience) or non-commercial 

(free of charge) environments. The 

release dates for a film (in the 

cinema, then non-theatrical, then 

on video, then on TV services) 

change for each film and are called 

windows. Many films are available 

for a non-theatrical screening before 

they come out on video. These are 

Filmbank’s Box Office titles. 

The latest in-room 

entertainment technology 

As a leading international distributor of 

licensed films, Filmbank is able to supply 

films in formats for entertainment 

technologies such as Video on Demand 

in hotels, which offers guests a premium 

choice of films to watch when they want 

to watch them. Filmbank works closely 

with many licensees (suppliers of in-room 

entertainment systems) on the 


development of digital content to provide 

fully interactive Video on Demand. 

For detailed information on the titles 

Filmbank can offer your hotel please 

contact Sam Partner on 

Tel.: +44(0)207 984 5975 

e-mail: sam.partner@filmbank.co.uk 

or contact your existing technology 

provider. 

Hotel SMARTreport October 2007 – April 2008 / 17 

© photo: Filmbank 

© photo: Filmbank

© photo: Media Communications 

MCOM HOTstream represents the highest 

level of innovation and reliability in hotel 

in-room entertainment. HOTstream 

delivers Video On Demand, free & pay 

TV channels, games, access to internet 

and email and novel hotel and travel 

interactive TV services, designed to meet 

the growing needs of the demanding and 

exceptional traveller. Its main features 

include: 

• State-of-the-art High Definition IPTV 

technology platform 

• Innovative travel content and TV 

programming 

• First-run movies from Hollywood and 

independent studios 


Media Communications 

Costas SAKELLARIOU 

CEO 

Tel.: +302106839454 

E-mail: costas@mcoms.com 

www.mcoms.com • www.hotstream.eu 

• Industry-first Hotel VOD multilingual 

subtitling service 

• Customization and adaptation to the 

needs of each hotel 

MCOM HOTstream transforms the hotel 

rooms into advanced media & internet 

service centers. Moreover it links the room 

TVs to the hotel PMS, reservations, 

reception, restaurants, bars, spas, stores 

and other hotel facilities, increasing the 

revenues from the hotel infrastructure. 

What new initiatives do you have 

planned for your hotel's technology? 

MCOM is dedicated to offer state-of-theart 

technologies to the leading hotels of 

the world. MCOM was among the first to 

offer a VC-1/MPEG4 IPTV platform and 

the first to combine it with VOD 

multilingual subtitling service for the 

hospitality industry. Currently our R&D 

Department is finalizing our High 

Definition service that will allow the hotels 

to benefit at last from the new HD-ready 

LCD TVs they are currently installing. We 

are continuously focusing in bringing the 

changing home and office environment of 

the guest in the hotel room TV set or the 

guest’s mobile devices. Our new 3.7 

version includes an instant messaging 

application in the Internet on TV 

HOTstream portal, allowing guests to chat 

through their preferred service, without 

the need of their laptops. We are working 



MCOM – First to offer a VC-1/MPEG4 IPTV platform with a VOD 

multilingual subtitling service to the hospitality industry... 

The new version 3.7 of the MCOM HOTstream Interactive TV hospitality platform has just been 

released for all system packages, Basic, Standard and Seven Stars. We asked Costas Sakellariou, 

CEO of Media Communications (MCOM) to give us a behind-the-scenes look at the system... 

also on the popular social networking and 

VoIP services. A continuous initiative for 

new developments is the HOTstream 

Platinum support program, which allows 

the hotel to request the development of 

new Hotel Interactive TV services at no 

additional cost. All the new services, new 

features and updates are offered without 

charge to the members of the Platinum 

program, enabling the hotels and their 

guests to enjoy the latest system and 

services enhancements. 

How do you see the future in hotel 

technology progressing? 

As an in-room infotainment technology 

provider, MCOM focuses on IT and 

media technologies. In this area we will 

see very soon a quad play integration of 

video, internet, voice and hotel related 

services in the room TV set, allowing for 

unified messaging and billing, as well as 

for guest self-service online transactions 

with all hotel facilities (reservations, 

reception, restaurants, bars, spas, stores 

etc). These developments will increase the 

“infotainment” revenues from packages of 

movies, internet and voice calls, as well 

as the “other” hotel revenues from the 

restaurants, bars etc. 

Media Communications S.A. 

Tel.: +302106839454 

E-mail: info@mcoms.com 

www.hotstream.eu 



© photo: Otrum 



Convergence – In Room Centric 

Trends in Hotel Technologies - The vision of a market leader 

In their last annual report, Otrum, known throughout the business for their in-room technology 

solutions, gave their “point of view” as to the current state of affairs and the outlook for the 

industry. We are pleased to be able to reproduce this extract from Otrum’s annual report in this 

SMARTreport. 

Digital TV becomes the 

standard 

During 2007 we will see the first 

European country completely switch off 

analogue terrestrial TV transmissions. 

Finland may well be the first, but there is 

a long list of countries to follow soon after, 

with most of Europe completing the 

analogue switch off by 2010-2011. In 

place of the old analogue TV signals, we 

will see the broadcast of digital TV in the 

form of DVB-T. Digital TV offers the viewer 

a highly improved audiovisual 

experience, with crystal clear picture and 

sound quality, complimented by a range 

of additional services sent along with the 

program broadcast. 

For the hotel, some focus is required to be 

prepared for this digital revolution. Being 

prepared is not necessarily expensive, it 

just means that any new equipment 

should be chosen for its upgradeability 

when DVB standards become 

mainstream. In the consumer environment, 

it is an easy procedure to add a new set 

top box and remote control in the living 

room, but obviously this is not a cost 

effective solution for the hotel room. 

Many hotel TVs today include DVB 

receivers as standard, but for those hotels 

which do not install DVB ready TVs, 

Otrum can provide cost efficient retrofit 

solutions to enable digital TV to be shown 

on the existing TV in the room. Although 

the DVB protocol has become a standard 

for the transmission of digital TV over 

terrestrial, cable and satellite networks, it 

is also possible to exploit the benefits of 

an IP infrastructure inside the hotel. 

IPTV allows digital TV broadcasts to be 

transmitted across the hotel’s IP data 

networks. Some new hardware is needed 

in the room, and of course some new 

head-end infrastructure, however IPTV is 

certainly on the roadmap for most 

international hotel chains in 2007. IPTV 

offers a fully digital experience for the 

guest, while giving the hotel much better 

control of the service delivery to the 

rooms. 

HD - High Definition 

During 2006, the hotel market saw an 

explosive growth in the number of new 

LCD screens installed in hotel rooms, with 

most new hotel installations taking only 

LCD screens for the guest rooms. All LCD 

screens delivered today carry the HD- 

Ready ‘logo’, certifying that they are 

100% ready for the transition to High 

Definition signals. 

2007 is seeing the launch of interactive 

HD platforms for the hotel business, 

allowing the in-room display of high 

definition movies, HDTV, interactive 

menus and of course the ‘true’ Internet on 

TV experience. HD is built for widescreen 

LCD displays, and it only makes sense to 

use the right content on these new LCD 

screens. 

The industry is just waiting for the content 

and transmission costs to reduce to a 

more affordable level, however 

widespread uptake of HDTV in the 

consumer market will see these content 

and transmission costs dropping to an 

affordable level in the very near future. As 

with DVB, some focus is required to be 

prepared for HD content – meaning that 

any new equipment should be chosen for 

its upgradeability. 

www.cleverdis.com

© photo: Otrum 

Centralised marketing 

Centralised marketing offers many 

advantages to hotel chains and individual 

hotels, allowing authorized personnel to 

create marketing campaigns, special 

offers, as well as advertising hotel and 

third party services via the in-room TV. 

This can be achieved through 

personalised welcome messages, pop up 

messages and information channels. 

Ultimately, centralised marketing will 

positively impact the hotel brand. 

Centralised marketing tools allow staff to 

plan and execute chain-wide or region 

specific marketing campaigns. For a 

chain-wide promotion, the central 

marketing team can develop a 

standardised template according to brand 

standards and this template can then be 

released to the regional property base. 

The centralised marketing team retain all 

ownership and control of the promotion, 

such as timeframes and pricing, or can 

allow the regional marketing teams to 

have full control. 

Through the use of a centralised 

marketing campaign, hotels can schedule 

time-sensitive campaigns (e.g. Easter, 

Christmas, summer, etc.). Through the onscreen 

marketing function, a chain can 

ensure that all hotels offer the same 

promotions over the same period of time, 

and that the parameters of the campaign 

fall within the specifications set centrally. 

By putting the hotels online, this gives the 

central marketing team simultaneous 

access to control the distributed hotel 

screens. This enables full monitoring of ongoing 

campaigns and concise 

comparisons of marketing initiatives 

within individual hotels, ultimately 

resulting in the possibility to share 

competencies and best practices across 

the entire chain. 


Digital signage 

Information sharing is, and always will 

be, a critical factor in the successful 

operation of a hotel. By providing clear 

information in key areas of the hotel, such 

as the lobby, reception desk and 

conference areas, guests will have a 

sense of confidence in the hotel and there 

will be a reduction in the number of 

questions to the reception desk and hotel 

staff. 

Digital signage is an attractive and simple 

way to display information to guests, the 

total solution consists of highly visible 

screens placed in key areas and a PCbased 

update tool that is simple enough 

for all staff to use. Hotels can use digital 

signage in its simplest format, or enhance 

the total information experience with 

screens showing hotel details, current 

promotions, airline information and an 

infinite number of novel applications. At 

the same time, the hotel can promote their 

brand by using a customised template 

including corporate colour schemes and 

logos for on-screen use. 

Conference hotels can benefit further, with 

details of conferences taking place and 

the location, delegate information and 

special information from the conference 

organisers. Conference organisers can 

utilise dedicated screens to provide 

information to their delegates, such as the 


agenda, meal times and important 

messages. 

Hotels can enhance their security 

procedures by adding information that is 

displayed in any type of emergency; this 

could be information regarding the nature 

of the emergency, evacuation procedures 

or directional arrows to show the guest 

the nearest emergency exit. 

Customisation and Brand 

Awareness 

Without doubt, all guests will either turn 

on the in-room TV during their stay, or 

look at a public area TV while walking 

through the hotel. This contact with the 

guest should be used by the hotel or chain 

to maximise the brand awareness of the 

hotel. On-screen customisation is a huge 

opportunity for promotional brand 

building, direct marketing, and 

strengthening the hotel's image. Hotels 

and hotel chains should look to develop a 

user interface that suits their needs and is 

visually pleasing for the guest. 

The choice also comes down to corporate 

colours, infusing elements of your 

corporate websites and utilising common 

visual component to promote your brand, 

as well as providing a user-friendly 

interface for your interactive TV system. 


© photo: Otrum




Quadriga Worldwide Ltd 

Ian CRABB 

Chief Executive Officer, Quadriga Worldwide Ltd 

Tel.: +44 (0) 1189 306030 

E-mail: ian.crabb@quadriga.com 

www.quadriga.com 

Appointed as CEO in 2004 – Previously with Permira and formerly CEO of 

IKON Office Solutions Europe. 


Meeting New Guest Entertainment Demands 

The Trends – Tracked by Market Giant QUADRIGA 

In the increasingly demanding world of in-room entertainment, customers are seeking more depth 

and breadth of content, while at the same time hotels seek to differentiate through brand equity. 

As a long standing provider of both entertainment and Internet solutions to hotels, Quadriga are 

well placed to see how hoteliers’ requirements within these areas are changing. We asked Ian 

Crabb, CEO of Quadriga, to explain Quadriga’s strategy and how the company aims to meet guest 

demands for the future. 

Central to Quadriga’s strategy and 

product development is the ability to 

provide hotels with tangible benefits – 

enabling them to optimise guest 

satisfaction and generate additional 

revenue. We achieve this by anticipating 

and responding to: 

1) the evolving needs of our hotel 

customers 

2) the evolving expectations and 

requirements of the hotel guest 

3) rapid developments in technology, 

content and distribution channels 

In terms of entertainment, a key priority 

for hotels is to respond to guests’ growing 

demand for more depth and breadth of 

content – not only for more blockbuster 

content but also local content from 

national studios and shorter / “snacking” 

content for those guests who have a 

limited time in their room. Additionally as 

hotels increasingly segment their own 

products to appeal to different guest 

profiles we are being asked for content in 

specific genres and languages. Hoteliers’ 

demands for internet solutions are also 

changing. High Speed Internet Access is 

an essential requirement and now as a 

key driver of guest satisfaction, hotels are 

searching for ways to improve their 

offering. Security and reliability are 

important considerations and have to be 

considered with guests demand for more 

bandwidth as they access more 

bandwidth hungry websites. Increasingly 

hotels are also discussing the merits of 

“free” internet provision to their guests 

and all of this has to be delivered in such 

a way that the overall guest experience is 

the most positive. In addition to the trends 

within Quadriga’s traditional service 

areas, we are also seeing hoteliers 

harnessing digital technology to bring 

benefits to their guests in other public 

areas, for example through digital 

signage solutions. 

One of the most significant changes we’re 

experiencing is an intense demand across 

© photo: Quadriga Worldwide Ltd. 

www.cleverdis.com


all hotel segments, not just in the 5 star 

category, for brands to increasingly 

differentiate themselves and here the inroom 

TV is considered a powerful sales 

and marketing tool. Hoteliers are looking 

for every opportunity to reinforce their 

brand, their services, their loyalty 

programmes and their third party partners 

and suppliers like Quadriga, need to be 

positioned to enable their hotel customers 

to do this. 

Finally, to avoid dealing with multiple 

suppliers for a growing number of 

services, which can be both costly and 

time consuming, hotels will increasingly 

seek to work with just one supplier and as 

part of this they will request faster, on-line 

access to performance data and service 

information and statistics. 

So what exactly are guests now doing 

differently? 

Today’s guest is an accomplished internet 

user. A reliable and robust service in the 

hotel is a ‘must have’ for the business and 

leisure traveller as their usage of the 

internet is changing. The guest not only 

needs access to office applications or to 

surf local information but they now need 

access to the increasingly popular brands 

– You Tube, Facebook and Messenger 

where content sharing and video 


streaming is more commonplace and at 

the same time places more and more 

demand on hotel bandwidth. 

Also, with the introduction of devices 

which enable home TV to be watched 

from anywhere (e.g Slingbox), the hotel 

now provides an environment for “place 

shifting”. Guests can view their own 

content from home, using the hotel’s 

bandwidth – but this can cause 

bandwidth availability issues for the hotel. 

Additionally, both business and leisure 

guests alike are now carrying into hotels 

a range of personal devices, digital 

cameras, iPods, sophisticated mobiles 

and PDA’s or indeed devices which can 

perform all these functions in one. 

Consequently hotels want to enable 

guests to interface these devices as 

appropriate with the TV in the room. So 

all of this means that guests are 

demanding more choice of content and 

more control over how they watch or 

listen to it. 

Can you summarise the changes that you 

are seeing in other key areas of your 

business such as technology? 

Today, technology in hotels is evolving 

rapidly and bringing many new and 

additional benefits. Digitalisation is 

providing us with huge opportunities; 


superb quality, a greater choice of ondemand 

content and services, DVD type 

functionality and the ability to integrate 

services e.g. laptop internet access and 

entertainment. 

With the analogue switch-off in Europe 

already underway – Finland switched off 

on 31 st August 2007 – hotels need to be 

‘digital-ready’. Digital TV provides the 

ideal solution, also allowing hotels to offer 

guests a choice of hundreds of TV 

channels in superb digital quality. TV and 

screen technology is advancing at a fast 

pace – Hotels are rapidly replacing 

conventional analogue CRT screens with 

digital flat panel LCD screens and 

manufacturers are integrating more and 

more functionality into the TV. 

The next major technology trend is ‘High 

Definition’ and this will have a major 

impact on the TV – by 2010 it is forecast 

that 12 million European TV households 

will receive HDTV programmes and watch 

them on HD-ready television sets. This will 

provide hotels with even more 

opportunities in the next few years. 

Can you outline your strategy for the 

future? 

Our customers are at the very centre of 

our strategy, now and in the future and 

we are working with them to deliver the 

real benefits of digital entertainment and 

internet solutions. Whether it is migrating 

customers from an analogue platform to 

Genesis, adding new services and 

capabilities to Genesis or supporting our 

customers as they adopt increasingly 

global strategies, meeting our hotel 

customers needs is our number one 

priority. 

We will continue to invest extensively in 

technology and new product development 

in order to leverage our European market 

leading position and offer business 

benefits and service differentiation to our 

customers. We are looking at new 

services for outside of the hotel room and 

developing additional functionality for 

Genesis, to optimise guest satisfaction 

and reinforce the hotel’s brand, providing 

customers with a truly compelling sales 

and marketing tool and essentially 

generating additional revenues for the 

hotel. 





Our scale is absolutely a key 

differentiator. Our launch of Genesis on a 

coax network infrastructure in 2005 

effectively enabled us to deliver a cost 

effective solution to all hotels – whatever 

their network or budget. Customer data 

proves that Genesis revenue achieved is 

typically 3 times higher than that obtained 

with traditional analogue systems – in 

fact, most recent data proves it to 

contribute substantially higher than 3 

times. This demonstrates how Genesis is 

designed not only to enhance the guests’ 


Quadriga Worldwide Ltd 

Myron TATARYN 

Sales and Marketing Director, Quadriga Worldwide Ltd 

Tel. : +44 (0) 1189 306030 

E-mail: myron.tataryn@quadriga.com 


Appointed as Sales and Marketing Director in February 2005 – Previously 

Director and Head of Sales at Radianz bringing extensive experience providing 

IP connectivity, hosting services and new business solutions to multi-nationals. 

Involved in setting up global networks for the majority of the major international 

hotel chains. 

stay but at the same time, increase room 

revenues. A major differentiator is that 

Genesis is the only proven entertainment 

solution to offer a single, fully integrated 

internet and entertainment capability. This 

enables guests to benefit from ‘bundled’ 

special offer pricing where all Genesis 

services can be purchased for a single 

preferential price. 

Last, but not least – our customers know 

we are here to stay. We have 25 years 

experience in the industry – we are 


Massive Roll-out for Genesis System 

Full Integration of Internet and Entertainment Arrives! 

Quadriga’s Genesis system is today firmly established as an industry standard with over 130,000 

fully digital Genesis rooms across Europe and the Middle East – no other supplier is close to 

matching this scale in both high and mid market segments. We asked Myron Tataryn to explain 

the factors which differentiate Quadriga and the Genesis solution... 

proven and successful in over 50 

countries. We continue to invest 

extensively in our product, with our 

customers at the heart of everything we 

do. We enable hotels to keep pace with 

changes in their guest requirements and 

technology, and in effect, future-proof the 

Genesis solution for them. All of these 

factors mean our customers are confident 

in us as a long-term ‘business partner of 

choice’. This is what differentiates 

Quadriga. 

So what does Genesis offer a hotel 

today? 

In addition to the array of on-demand 

video and music entertainment, Genesis 

offers the hotel and its guests a choice of 

hundreds of superb quality digital TV and 

radio channels. Available on both coax 

and CAT5, HSIA (High Speed Internet 

Access) for laptop users is integrated into 

Genesis enabling guests to benefit from 

our “all services” bundle. HSIA is 

available using both wired and wireless 

connections and guests have the ability to 

roam seamlessly between the two 

environments so they don’t have to log in 

twice. The hotel is able to direct guests to 

a specific landing page to promote hotel 

www.cleverdis.com

services and credit card payment is also 

available. Guests not carrying a laptop 

are also able to access the internet via the 

TV. 

We’re also finding that Genesis is 

increasingly becoming a valuable sales 

and marketing tool for the hotel, helping 

them to reinforce their brand. Our Web 

Promotions service enables hotels to 

integrate web content directly into the 

Genesis menu promoting specific hotel 

services and special offers – thus 

communicating and interacting directly 

with their guests in the comfort of their 

room via the TV. Recognising the 

importance of the TV itself to the hotel we 

are extending our interactive range to 

incorporate models from top brands 

including Philips, B&O, LG and Samsung. 

Similarly, we recognise the significant 

potential of HD – we’re already installing 

HD ready TVs and are actively 

progressing a complete HD solution. 

Underpinning this and unique to 

Quadriga and Genesis, is the ‘NOC’ 

(Network Operating Centre), a 

sophisticated customer support tool 

enabling us to proactively identify and 

solve potential problems before the 

hotelier or guest even becomes aware of 

them. It remotely monitors and checks all 

Quadriga digital-IP based hotel 

installations across Europe and the 

Middle East every 6 minutes, and 

provides hotel customers with real peaceof-mind. 

How are you developing your 

entertainment and internet offering to 

respond to the key market trends? 

Recognising its strategic importance to 

our customers we are working with our 

partners to provide an unrivalled depth, 

breadth and quality of choice of content. 

Quadriga is able to offer a wide selection 

of movie titles sourced from all the ‘Big 7’ 

Hollywood studios, including Universal, 

Paramount, Dreamworks, Warner Bros., 

Sony Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox, and 

Buena Vista International – through an 

established agreement with United 

International Pictures (UIP) and a recently 

signed agreement with Filmbank 

Distributors. 

We enable hotels to offer the best and 

most appropriate content selection 

through providing a range of packages 


where the volume and mix of content can 

be matched to guest profiles. 

Additionally we are providing a greater 

variety of shorter programmes and local 

content. We have established 

relationships with more specialist studios 

– for example Canal Plus for local French 

content. With the expectation of a true 

‘home from home’ TV experience, 

hoteliers need to provide more TV choice 

from around the world. Genesis Digital TV 

provides exactly this, and is delivered in 

superb digital quality direct to the room 

with crystal clear digital sound. 

What about High Speed Internet Access? 

We provide over 65% of our customers 

with HSIA and as such it is a key area of 

development. It represents a major 

opportunity for our customers to drive 

additional revenues and is an important 

factor influencing customer satisfaction. 

When integrated with Genesis, we’ve 

found in city centre hotels for example, an 

uplift in guest room revenue of nearly 

80%. We are partnered with industry 

leading SolutionInc, and are working with 

them to provide new solutions for our 

hotel customers to optimise their guest 

experience. Our future offer is influenced 

by the growing demand of guests to 

access more bandwidth intensive 

applications as well as the growing 

recognition in Europe of hotels wanting to 

offer ‘Internet for free’. This could lead to 

hotels offering lower levels of bandwidth 


for free as well as a chargeable, more 

superior service with higher bandwidth 

levels.We also recognise the requirement 

for internet solutions tailored for the 

growing hotel conference business, with 

multi-user access codes and the ability to 

direct delegates to a specific portal for 

promotional purposes and conference 

information. 

Can you tell us about other areas of 

development? 

Building on the success of our Web 

Promotions tool it is our intention to further 

expand upon the many customisable 

components of Genesis; for example by 

providing further flexibility and branding 

capabilities within Genesis itself and 

utilising web based applications with Web 

Promotions. We know hoteliers require an 

array of multimedia components from 

music, video and internet links to be used to 

promote their brands and sell services and 

these are components that we would aim to 

accommodate in future development. 

For further information visit 




© photo: Quadriga Worldwide Ltd.


CASE STUDY 

A Taste of Genesis 

The S Group 

During July and August 2007 Quadriga 

installed its Genesis solution including 

Digital TV in to over 2100 rooms in 

Sokos, Holiday Club and Radisson SAS 

Hotels in Finland. In addition to the well 

established on-demand Genesis 

entertainment and internet services, Sokos 

guests are also benefiting from an 

unlimited choice of superb quality digital 

TV and radio channels, now an essential 

component of their offer as analogue 

transmissions were turned off in Finland at 

the end of August. These digital channels 

also enable guests to access both teletext 

and subtitle functionality. 


Marriot Rive Gauche 

The Paris Marriott Rive Gauche Hotel and 

Conference Centre officially opened its 

doors to the public in May 2007 

following a major refurbishment which 

included the adoption of a range of hotel 

and guest services provided by 

Quadriga’s Genesis solution. As part of 

this refurbishment the Paris Marriott Rive 


Roll-out of Quadriga’s Genesis Solution Hits Top Locations 

Quadriga solutions are today installed in 4000 hotels across Europe and the Middle East, with 

Genesis, the industry standard digital hotel entertainment and internet solution, live in over 

130,000 rooms – the largest installed base of true digital solutions in our industry. On this page, 

you can read about how Quadriga is working with some of its hotel customers, delivering 

entertainment and internet solutions to enable them to provide the best possible guest experience 

and achieve real competitive advantage. 

© photo: the S Group 

© photo: Marriot Rive Gauche 

Gauche chose to use sales and marketing 

tools available within Genesis including 

the recently introduced Web Promotions. 

This enabled it to integrate its own 

website content into the Genesis main 

menu on the TV in order to promote its 

hotel services and Marriott Reward 

loyalty scheme directly to each guest in 

the comfort of their room. 

Luiten Van der Valk Beheer 

Luiten Van der Valk Beheer B.V, a Van der 

Valk Hotels group recently decided to 

upgrade its analogue Pay TV system in 

some of its hotels to a fully digital Genesis 

entertainment and internet solution. This 

decision reflected their desire to 

modernise the in-room entertainment 

service and to offer the ultimate guest 

experience, with a wider and more 

flexible range of service options and 

stylish and contemporary flat-screen TVs. 

It also reflected their confidence in 

Quadriga as a reliable partner. Following 

a successful installation in 3 or 4 

properties, Genesis was installed in a 

total of 10 hotels and over 1500 rooms – 

providing Luiten Van der Valk Beheer with 

the ability to deliver an outstanding guest 

experience, offering a full range of 

services including a wide range of ‘ondemand’ 

entertainment as well as HSIA 

and Internet on TV. Consequently, 

revenues are up significantly in the 

installed hotels and Genesis virtually sells 

itself, making the investment a profit 

centre as well as a sales tool. 

www.cleverdis.com


Quadriga Worldwide Ltd KEY FIGURES 

Belonging to: Quadriga Holdings Limited 

Legal form: Limited Company 

Year of creation: 1964 

Headquarters : Theale, Berkshire, UK 

CONTACTS 

COMPANY PROFILE 

Quadriga is the market leader in Europe and the 

Middle East in the provision of state-of-the-art 

digital-IP based entertainment and internet 

services for business and leisure guests staying 

in hotels, with over 130,000 fully digital 

Genesis rooms, more than 415,000 total 

installed rooms and an annual audience of 

some 100 million guests. The company 

operates in over 50 countries throughout Europe 

and the Middle East and serves a substantial 

share of the room base of Europe’s leading hotel 

chains including InterContinental Hotels Group, 

Accor, Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Marriott 

International, Hyatt, Best Western International, 

Four Seasons, Hilton, Le Meridien, Rica Hotels 

and Sol Melia. 

KNOW HOW & MAIN 

PRODUCTS 

Provision of entertainment and internet services 

delivered to the hotel guest via the TV and 

computer laptop, enabled through digital-IP 

technology and satellite content delivery 

allowing hotels to generate revenue, reduce 

costs and encourage guest loyalty. 


Number of staff / offices Europe: 321 

Number of offices Worldwide: 50+ 

Ian CRABB 

Chief Executive Officer, Quadriga Worldwide Limited 

ian.crabb@quadriga.com 

Number of rooms under contract: More than 415,000 

Number hotels under contract: circa 4000 

Appointed as CEO in 2004 – Previously with Permira and formerly CEO 

of IKON Office Solutions Europe. 

Myron TATARYN 

Sales and Marketing Director, Quadriga Worldwide Limited 

myron.tataryn@quadriga.com 

Appointed as Sales and Marketing Director in February 2005 – Previously 

Director and Head of Sales at Radianz bringing extensive experience 

providing IP connectivity, hosting services and new business solutions to 

multi-nationals. Involved in setting up global networks for the majority of the 

major international hotel chains. 

Marc BUDIE 

Director of Technology, Quadriga Worldwide 

marc.budie@quadriga.com 

Joined in 1997 – extensive knowledge and experience of both the hotel 

sector and interactive digital technology. Previously, 20 years technical 

industry experience in a variety of technology, networking, software 

development and delivery roles. 

Genesis is the first fully digital-IP based 

entertainment and internet services solution 

developed specifically for the hotel industry. 

With content delivered via satellite, Genesis 

offers a unique and comprehensive array of 

guest services. These include the latest 

blockbuster movies and popular music 

selections, available ‘on-demand’, an unlimited 

choice of digital TV and radio channels and 

Internet on TV or high speed internet access for 

laptop users using either wired connection or 

WiFi, through a partnership with market leading 

HSIA provider, SolutionInc. To further enhance 

the guest experience, a comprehensive range of 

flat-panel LCD screens is offered and a unique 

Network Operating Centre provides proactive 

monitoring and support, ensuring peace of mind 

for every hotel customer. 

PARTNERS 

• SolutionInc - High speed internet access 

services 

• Philips and B&O - Suppliers of interactive 

screens 

• Globecast - Distributors of content by satellite 

• Cisco Systems - Network / switch specialists 

• IBM - Provision of processor units 

HOTEL ENTERTAINMENT & 

INTERNET SERVICES 


REFERENCES 

Forum 1 - Station Road, 

Theale, Berkshire 

RG7 4RA 

United Kingdom 

Tel. : +44 (0) 1189 306030 

Fax :+44 (0) 1189 033970 

Quadriga works with many of the leading 

hotel brands across Europe and the 

Middle East including: 

InterContinental Hotels Group, Accor, 

Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Marriott 

International, Hyatt, Best Western 

International, Four Seasons, Hilton, Le 

Meridien, Rica Hotels and Sol Melia. 


© photos: Quadriga Worldwide Ltd.


NxTV, Inc., who claim to be the “first and 

largest provider” of Internet Protocol 

Video on Demand (IP VOD) and 

interactive digital IP-based in-room 

entertainment and technology solutions in 

the hospitality industry, have announced 

they have earned HTNG certification for 

'single guest itinerary' display 

functionality. NxTV is the first and only inroom 

entertainment provider to comply 

with HTNG industry standards that 

enable NxTV to interface with other 

certified third-party systems to display 

guest reservation information including 

hotel check-in and check-out, spa 

appointments, golf tee times and 

restaurant reservations on hotel room 

televisions. One of HTNG's primary 

missions is to help the industry by creating 

new software standards enabling different 

hotel systems, which previously could not 

communicate with each other (or at most 

in a very limited manner), to connect and 

share guest-related data, opening up the 

flow of information between systems and 

enabling new and innovative services to 

hotel operators and guests. "HTNG's 

Property Web Services workgroup 

members invested hundreds of hours to 


create the 'single guest itinerary' standard 

and indeed, NxTV should be 

congratulated as the first company to 

certify against this new specification, 

other than companies directly involved in 

its creation," said Douglas Rice, Executive 

Vice President and CEO of HTNG. Barry 

Shuler, President of HTNG commented, 

"With standardized products, hotel 

operators are able to install new systems 

at their properties and be confident they 

will integrate with existing systems and 

technologies." NxTV's IP VOD system 

allows hotel owners to take full advantage 

of new technologies today and in the 

future. Designed specifically to carry 

digital information securely, an IP 

infrastructure is the only way to operate 

on a converged network. Without an IPbased 

solution, even the digital VOD 

systems on the market today are not 

scalable or capable of integration with 

other hotel applications on a converged 

network. NxTV's system runs over the 

hotel's existing converged IP network, 

which enables the property to 

communicate with a wide variety of inroom 

technologies without the cost and 

effort of installing and maintaining 

separate networks for each hotel 

technology. "The number one technology 

trend in hospitality today is the transition 

from analogue legacy systems to digital 

converged communications 

platforms," said 

Russell P. Reeder, 

President and 

COO of NxTV. 

"NxTV's versatile 

IP platform 

enabled us to 

easily adapt to 

HTNG's global 

industry standards 

that establish crosssystem 

communication 


NxTV First of Kind to Earn HTNG Certification 

for Guest Itinerary Display on Hotel Televisions 

Leading IP provider, NxTV is only in-room entertainment vendor to win certification 

Russell P. Reeder 

President and COO of NxTV 

© photo: NxTV 

to benefit operators and guests." Reeder 

noted that the FCC's mandate that all 

television broadcasters must transition to 

digital content delivery by February 2009 

necessitates that hotels must rethink their 

digital entertainment strategy. "IP is the 

future of technology delivery for the 

hospitality industry and many hotel 

operators and chains are already making 

the decision to upgrade to IP-network 

systems that provide the benefits of a 

converged network platform," Reeder 

said. NxTV has been delivering IP-based 

in-room services to its 

customers for almost a 

decade. 

With converged IP 

networks, HD VOD, 

IPTV Free to Guest 

content, high-speed 

Internet access and 

communication with minibar, 

Voice over IP, 

reservation and POS 

systems all utilize one 

multi-application IP 

network for greater cost 

savings, reliability, 

improved applications 

integration, scalability and 

increased operator 

revenue. 

www.cleverdis.com

NxTV, Inc., currently claiming to be the 

world’s biggest provider of Internet 

Protocol Video on Demand (IPVOD), IPTV 

and interactive digital IP-based in-room 

entertainment and technology solutions in 

the hospitality industry, will be supplying 

a wide range of in-room entertainment 

services featuring high-definition IPVOD, 

for the new Trump International Hotel & 

Tower Chicago. 


The property is scheduled to open in 

December 2007. 

“NxTV was selected for Trump 

International Hotel & Tower Chicago 

because they are the largest and most 

experienced provider of IP guest 

entertainment systems to the hospitality 

industry worldwide,” said Jerry Chang, 

Director of IT for Trump International 

Hotels Management. 

“Delivery of entertainment via a 

converged IP network is the 

future of guestroom 

technology and our 

research has shown that 

NxTV provides the clearest 

picture and widest range of 

content,” Chang added. 

NxTV is providing digital 

high definition IP VOD 

services for all 339 hotel 

rooms in the mixed-use 

development that includes 

hotel suites and residences. 

Russell P. Reeder, President and 

COO of NxTV, said, “Guests 

who stay at any Trump luxury 

hotel property expect the very 

best, and NxTV’s extensive suite of 

ultra-crisp HD IPVOD entertainment 

and other personalized video 

services consistently exceed 

expectations.” NxTV stores its content 

on the hospitality industry’s highest 

capacity digital entertainment servers and 

delivers VOD movies to guest rooms via a 

hotel’s converged IP network to best serve 

guest needs while maximizing revenuebuilding 

opportunities for its clients. 

NxTV’s lineup features more than 250 

movies on demand, the largest selection 

in the industry, including recent 

Hollywood blockbusters, episodes of 


Trump International Hotel & Tower Chicago Installs Next 

Generation HD IP Video on Demand Entertainment Services 

Guests to receive NxTV 100% digital HD VOD content delivery 

popular television shows, family content 

and smaller box-office independent films. 

The 92-story Trump International Hotel & 

Tower, designed and engineered by 

Skidmore Owings & Merrill, has a 

building area of 2.6 million gross square 

feet and is located on the site of the 

former Chicago Sun-Times building. The 

new $740 million complex features 486 

ultra-luxury residential condominiums, 

from studios to three-bedrooms, as well as 

up-to-five-bedroom penthouses. In 

addition, the Trump International Hotel 

features 339 luxury hotel one- and twobedroom 

suites. 

CONTACTS: 

estern@nxtv.com 

http://www.nxtv.com 

CASE STUDY 


© photo: Trump International Hotel & Tower


© photo: Premiere Hoel Entertainment 

Today it is essential… and creating this 

added value is precisely the challenge 

that we as a service provider have set 

ourselves. It is no longer enough to offer 

mere pay TV or TV systems - our role in 

the future will be that of a professional 

media partner offering intelligent, 

networked entertainment and marketing 

solutions from a single source. And 

Premiere Hotel Entertainment GmbH 

(PHE) is positioned excellently to do just 

that. As a subsidiary of Germany’s 

leading pay-TV group Premiere, we are, 

of course, in a very good position: we 

are able to profit from the competence, 

experience and support of our parent 

company. PHE is actually among the first 

to reflect the altered market conditions in 

its business model, and we are one of the 

few companies to offer hotels an 

integrated portfolio which goes far 

beyond classic pay TV. Another 

emerging development is the increasing 

significance of new technologies such as 

IP. In combination with classic TV 

entertainment, a new dimension of 

Internet infotainment is opening up which 

can be adapted to the individual needs 

of the specific hotel and which facilitates 

innovative sales and marketing activities 

within the hospitality industry. However, 

Premiere Hotel 

Entertainment 

Tonio FRUEHAUF 

Vice President Hotel & Gastronomy 

let me point out that we don’t only cater 

for high-end customer needs, we actually 

offer a wide range of hotel solutions to 

suit very individual requirements. This 

includes attractive, affordable 

entertainment packages in the low-end 

and middle-class sectors. In terms of 

future trends, we also see exclusive 

content such as live sports and HDTV 

become an increasingly important factor 

with which hotels can differentiate 

themselves from the competition. 

What about convergence? 

Convergence is a crucial topic. Whether 

we’re talking about in-room 

entertainment, telephone services, billing 

or Internet applications in hotel rooms, 

the future clearly belongs to a mix of 

web-based and classic hotel 

entertainment. In other words, our vision 

for the future is to offer hotels an effective 

combination of web-based entertainment, 

classic TV solutions with first-class content 

and value-added services. 

Please tell us about your offer. 

As already mentioned, PHE offers much 

more than just pay TV. Exclusive program 



The Shift from Pay TV Provider to 

Veritable “Media Partner” 

The hospitality industry is on the verge of a paradigmatic shift. The close cooperation of Premiere 

Hotel Entertainment with hoteliers gives them an insight into the pace the hotel market is taking on: 

faster than ever before… and the fact that the competition is getting ever harder. We asked Tonio 

Fruehauf how important it is today for hotels to stand out from their competitors and attract guests 

through real added value. 

content, complete TV and IP-based system 

solutions, covering the whole spectrum 

from high-end to basic, and a broad 

selection of various TV equipment are 

things which we regard as standard. And 

this allows us to respond to the increasing 

multi-media expectations of hotel guests. 

But we aren’t just focused on the latest 

technology; we are also committed to 

multi-media value-added services. These 

services all focus on making in-room 

entertainment a profitable business – and 

a real asset for guests. 

Innovative online platform: 

www.premiere-hotel.de 

© photo: Premiere Hoel Entertainment 



CASE STUDY 

Surprising Guests with Simplicity, 



Quality and Quantity (of channels) 

Le Byblos – St Tropez 

Stéphane Personeni 

Hotel Director – Le Byblos, St Tropez 

Le Byblos sets itself apart by not only 

being a fabulously luxurious hotel on the 

French Riviera, but also through major 

annual refits, whereby sections are 

completely torn down, with everything 

rebuilt, from the wiring right up to the final 

finishing touches, with every room totally 

individual in character. This year, an allnew 

in-room entertainment system was 

installed that is leaving many a guest 

“gobsmacked”! We asked hotel director 

Stéphane Personeni to explain... 

We wanted to personalise the technology 

with the rooms, so we installed a new 

system designed and installed by Intens 

France. We chose 40 and 46 inch LCD 

Loewe TVs fed by IP distribution from a 

satellite system. This means we have more 

than 1,500 TV channels and on the TV 

you can also connect your i-Pod and use 

the TV as a sound system. If guests don’t 

have an i-Pod, we lend them one, with 

music from the “Cave du Roi”. The system 

is really excellent and very easy to use for 

the guest. In many hotels, the TVs are 

great, but they’re difficult to use. With the 

Loewe it is very easy and we can 

personalise the TV for the guest, meaning 

for example if you are Indian, when you 

press one you get the first Indian channel 

and so on. In this system you just have 

one menu, and if you want, for example, 

CNN, you just press “CN” and all TV 

stations starting with CN come up on the 

list. We also now have VOD via Internet 

which is a unique system designed by 

Intens. A number of channels are in HD, 

and the picture is fantastic! We are one of 

the first hotels to have such a 

sophisticated system. 

Does this surprise people? 

For the moment people are surprised 

because we are one of the only hotels to 

propose this, but I think it will become 

something normal. When you stay in a 

luxury hotel, you need to feel you’re at 

© photo: Le Byblos 

home, and I think with the music and the 

picture this helps. This year we will also 

add a new feature whereby you can 

leave your own picture (family, pets etc.) 

on the TV or use it as a computer. So we 

personalise the room with our ambience, 

but in the future it will be important to give 

the opportunity to the guest to customise 

the room with his own ambiance... either 

photos or music. 

How do you see the future? 

While the design of TV is excellent, the TV 

should become an artwork... like a 

painting, when not being used to transmit 

TV and video. The TV will also be used as 

a computer and we will be testing a new 

remote control which will give guests 

access to e-mail on an individual screen 

on the unit from anywhere in the hotel. 

For more information on the Intens system: 

Patrick Corchia 

pc@intensfrance.com 

Tel.: +33 4 72 17 04 09 

© photo: Le Byblos 

www.cleverdis.com

© photo: ArtDisplay 

The deluxe hotel trade has always been 

avant-garde when it comes to adding 

culture and ingenuity to their offering. The 

arrival of dynamic digital art onto the 

scene is no exception. 

Many establishments have created an 

audio/visual “ambience”. Thus has been 

spawned the role of “Sound Designer”, 

incarnated by Béatrice Ardisson in France 

with her work on an “audio identity” for 

such places as the Indian “Jaipur” lounge 

in the Vernet Hotel, the Fouquet’s 

Brasserie on the Champs Elysées, the 


ArtDisplay 

Kong, the Bristol, le Crillon and the Louis 

Vuitton boutique. 

But today, sound is only one component 

of a digitally enhanced ambience. Going 

one step beyond this is a new art form 

which is beginning to appear in top-of-theline 

hotels. A pioneer in the field, the 

Mandarin Oriental is reported to be 

including dynamic digital art in its 48 

spacious rooms and 25 suites at the 

newly refurbished Mandarin Oriental in 

Munich. Nick Price, the charismatic CTO 

of the group, has been one of the first in 

the trade to recognise the attraction of 

including art on TV screens that would 

otherwise be somewhat unsightly when 

turned off, or which otherwise have to be 

hidden behind two-way mirrors or in 

motorised cabinets. 

In Paris, it was Raymond Visan (George V 

Group) who led the way, installing 4 

dynamic artworks in the Bound Bar in 

avenue Georges V. According to Visan, “I 

was looking for somebody who could 

create something that was fixed but that 

would change... but not like a video. I am 

against video in a restaurant. I think it’s 

better to have something like a painting or 

a photo ... to have something that 

changes but that you don’t see straight 

away. Everybody really loves it. People 

are curious and they look, and they really 

love it.” 

Patrick GOUBET 

Founder ArtDisplay 

patrickgoubet@artdisplay.fr 



One Step Beyond!!... 

DYNAMIC Digital Art in Hotels 

The “Creator” behind these works is 

Patrick Goubet, who has formed 

“ArtDisplay”, combining the talents of a 

number of artists with the advantage of 

digital technology – by “bringing the 

works to life”. Indeed, the works of 

ArtDisplay, virtual paintings or 3D 

sculptures, are unique in the way in which 

they “evolve” with time in such a way as 

to intrigue and fascinate the viewer, while 

not creating a distraction through the use 

of moving images such as video. Dynamic 

Digital Art may source existing traditional 

works, such as paintings, sketches, 

photos, engravings or texts, but may also 

be entirely conceived and made from 

digital sources (pictures and sounds made 

by computer)… 

Extra Dimension 

A new marriage has just been 

announced... that of dynamic digital art 

with an aural dimension. Idylle Production 

(see also interview in this section) has 

formed a partnership with ArtDisplay in 

order to add an extra dimension to these 

extraordinary works, imagining musical 

atmospheres to be included in the 

package! 

For further information, please visit: 

www.artdisplay.fr 



© photo: Chief Manufacturing 

Having flat screens on the wall is one 

thing, but their correct mounting is 

another matter. To this end, the mounting 

solutions should not be an afterthought, 

but should be an important part of your 

project. Innovative sleek designs, quick 

installations and integrated security are 

now within reach of all categories of 

hotels. So what are some of the main 

things to consider? 

Safety: The robustness and build quality 

of a screen mount must be such that under 

no circumstances could it come adrift and 

fall on someone... children are prone to 

pulling on anything they can reach, so on 

the one hand keep the screen out of the 

reach of children, but also be sure that the 

mounting solution is strong enough to 

withstand abuse. 

Security: Anti-theft mounts are essential. 

Aesthetics: This goes without saying... But 

why install highly aesthetic LCD or Plasma 

TVs with an ugly mount? 

Ease of Installation: If you have a large 

number of rooms, this will be a key factor 

in calculating real costs, as mounts that 

are “good value for money” but which 

take hours to install will cost more in the 

long run. 


Chief – Number one in 

Mounting Solutions – brings a 

broad range of solutions for 

hotel operators 

Rock-solid and flexible solutions for digital 

displays, hotel conference room projects 

and touch-screen applications where a tilt 

adjustment is needed are currently 

available from Chief. 

Chief's full line of wall-mounts for small, 

medium and large flat panels provide 

flexible mounting solutions using unique 

features such as 

• Rapid Level system for quick levelling of 

the screen 

• Open wall plate for quick cable access 

• Integrated lateral shift provides perfect 

position of the screen post-installation 

• Integrated security 

Flat panel mounting solutions include: 

• Fixed and tilt mounting solutions 

• Swing arm mounting solutions 

• Ceiling mount solutions 

• Projector mounting solutions 

Mounts provide maximum extension while 

remaining low profile when latched in the 

home position. Included features are: 


Strength, Security and Aesthetics 

Important Factors to Consider when Choosing 

Display Mounts for Hotel Interiors 

• G-Force gravity-centered tilt system 

• CableTrac system for 'in-arm' cable 

management 

• Unmatched extension, remains low 

profile in home position 

The Q-Latch mounting system provides: 

• Integrated lateral shift, allows the 

screen positioning to be adjusted after 

installation 

• Integrated security 

Now You See It, Now You 

Don’t! 

Designer, decorative frames by Chief 

Manufacturing help flat panel technology 

blend seamlessly into any décor, while 

preserving viewing clarity. These designer 

frames are perfect for residential or highend 

commercial applications, including 

boardrooms, lobbies and bar/restaurant 

applications. Frames are available for 

32”, 42” and 50” flat panels. Chief’s 

Decorative Frames are constructed of high 

quality, real wood, and are offered in four 

different colour options: Black, Dark 

Pecan, Gold or Silver. An optional optical 

mirror kit can be ordered, giving the flat 

panel a reflective mirrored appearance 

when the flat panel is powered off. 


www.cleverdis.com


All frames include an easy-to-install 

Infrared Kit, allowing you to continue 

using your current television remote. The 

frames are quick to install with a 

convenient spacer to perfectly align the 

frame on the flat panel, while specially 

designed V-straps help secure the frame 

for a snug fit. 

Product Feature - Dual Arm TV 

Mount for Hotel Applications 

Chief’s “ultimate” mid-size wall mount – 

Chief JWD dual-arm wall mount for 26in- 

40in flat panel TVs, part of Chief's 

Cynergy Series, supports up to 34kg and 

installs in three easy steps. It has a simple, 

design with hidden hardware and broad 

range of motion for maximum flexibility. 

The JWD is part of Chief's new and 

innovative medium flat panel mounting 

solutions for 26in-40in TVs. Chief's 

exclusive Centris technology self-adjusts 

to support different TV weights and 

provides effortless, fingertip adjustments 

so you can position your screen to the 

perfect viewing angle. The JWD offers 

ultimate flexibility with a low-profile 

design that extends over 50cm for 

maximum range of motion. 

The JWD's teardrop hole pattern makes 

mounting the flat panel quick and easy. 

Plus, the wall mount hardware is 

completely hidden and cables are routed 

through a channel in the swing arm for a 

clean installation. 


New Architect/Consultant 

Centric Website 

Chief has launched a newly designed 

website focused on the architect, 

consultant and interior designer. Chief 

works with you to integrate technology 

into your projects, respecting the integrity 

of the structure and overall design. One 

can find up-to-date information, 

specifications and drawings on the 

largest line of mounting solutions 

worldwide for flat panels and projectors. 

The site features a 'product specs' tab 

with downloads for CAD drawings and 

technical manuals. The FAQ section 

makes it easy to choose the right custom 


or universal mount for your application. 

You can also register on the site to receive 

the latest news and product updates from 

Chief. 

Conference Rooms, Front and 

Back Office Applications 

Here again it is important to complement 

and increase functionality of LCD desktop 

screens, projectors etc., and it is vital that 

the mounts are compatible with all 

equipment used. For full information, 

please consult: 

http://www.hotelmanagementnetwork.com/contractors/interiordesign/chief3 

CONTACT 

Melinda von Horvath 

Tel.: +31 (0) 40 2668 620 

E-mail:melinda.von.horvath@csavinc.com 

www.chiefmfg.com 



© photo: Chief Manufacturing

COMMUNICATION 

TECHNOLOGIES 

The hotel industry needs a wake-up call! If, ten years ago, hotels were receiving as much profit 

from their telephones as they do today, then telephones would not exist in a guestroom. They 

would never have been put in. You have all these companies today trying to sell a new version 

of what they did in the past, but they’ve completely missed the point that these telephones are 

there for one purpose only. On the cost side, we need to lower the costs of telephony to match 

the income stream we have. One of the ways you can do that in an IP environment is by 

reducing the number of handsets, because much of the costs is expressed in the handsets, while 

in the old analogue world, many of the costs were in the basement in a huge machine. How 

many handsets do we really need? Do we really need handsets in the bathroom? If there is just 

one, what should it be? It’s something worth considering. Customers simply no longer trust hotels 

to provide a telephone service at a known cost. One of the main uses of the little LCD screen 

on the phone should do that... to explain what the cost of the call will be, how much it is costing 

and how much it did cost. If you can do this, people will start using the phone again. If you 

pass on your cost reductions to the guest and show them you are doing that, you’ll do a lot to 

increasing trust. What we as hoteliers have failed to understand is that if someone mistrusts you 

sufficiently to avoid making a phone call on your in-room phone, then what do they think of your 

mini-bar, or your bar downstairs or your restaurant or spa? Surely they will have the same level 

of distrust! 

In terms of networks, the hotel industry has missed what’s been happening over the last ten 

years! If you just take a look at a PBX telephone system, there have really been three generations 

of modern telephone systems. You a wholly analogue product; you had a proprietary digital 

product and then now you have the IP product, and there has been transition between each one 

of those that has happened over the last 20 years. The proprietary digital product has really 

been available since the mid 90’s. But that product in the most part has been completely ignored 

by hotels which stayed with the analogue product because it was cheaper and because they 

were making a lot of money out of that expensive dial-tone, thank you very much! They didn’t 

really need to spend any more. The fact is today, if you were sensible and you were going out 

to buy a new PBX for a hotel, you really can’t buy an analogue PBX... they just don’t exist. 

They’re that old. So your choice is really one of buying a proprietary digital PBX or buying one 

of the open IP PBX’s. Frankly speaking I think it would be far more intelligent decision to buy an 

IP PBX today than it would be to take a proprietary digital model. 

Nick Price



COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES 

IP PABX: Stepping into the Future 

A White Paper by Percipia, Inc. 

For the past 30 years, the communication needs of the hospitality industry have been served by 

traditional telephone systems, referred to as PABXs (private branch exchanges, for language 

historians). These systems provide basic voice communication services to guests and staff. 

However, in the past few years, a new technology has appeared: IP telephony. It has the potential 

to dramatically change the role of telephony in hotels, and to reverse the decline of hotel telephony 

as a critical strategic component in a hotel’s revenue picture. 

In this paper we’ll take a look at both traditional and IP PABXs, focusing not so much on the 

technology as on the different impact that each can have on the success of a hotel business. 

© photo: Percipia 

www.cleverdis.com

In the interests of full disclosure, we want 

to make sure you realize that we have an 

axe to grind here: Percipia develops and 

sells hotel communication software for IPbased 

phone systems. We were the first 

company to introduce this technology into 

a hotel environment. We’re both the 

principal leader and cheerleader for IP 

telephony in the hotel industry, with 

18,000 rooms installed. Our customers 

include global luxury hotels and resorts, 

smaller boutiques, traditional properties, 

casinos and many more. Naturally, we 

think that IP telephony is the wave of the 

future. However, we also maintain 

traditional hotel phone systems, a 

business which continues to be important 

to us and our customers. 

Traditional PABXs in the Hotel 

Industry 

PABXs have played an extremely 

important role in the history of the hotel 

industry. Simply put, they gave hoteliers 

freedom from the phone company and 

hence control over their own destinies. 

This led to a long, glorious period in 

which phone revenues rose to become the 

2nd or 3rd line item on hotel income 

statements, just behind room revenues. 

The systems themselves were expensive, 

but they worked well and they paid for 

themselves in a few short years. It’s true 

that maintaining and repairing them 

required specialized and expensive skills 

but that was OK because the systems 

were money makers. 

In the late 80s, though, travellers began 

using alternatives to the in-room phone for 

their long distance calls. In the 90s this 

trend accelerated. Calling cards gave 

way to credit cards which have now 

given way to cell phones. The resulting 

decline in phone revenues has worked its 

way into the consciousness of every 

hotelier. Today it isn’t unusual to hear 

people in and around the industry 

speculating on the possibility of phoneless 

hotels, in which a guest arriving 

without a cell phone is simply handed one 

for the night. 

Today, PABXs look quite different from the 

way they looked even a decade ago. We 

still need them to open a new property: 

How would guests reach 911? How 

would they get their wake up calls? 

However, PABXs make no financial or 


strategic contribution to the property. In 

addition, the cost of buying the system 

lengthens the breakeven period for a new 

property and the cost of supporting and 

maintaining it impacts operating profits. 

The best that can be said is that it’s a 

burden which everyone has to deal with 

equally, so at least there’s no competitive 

disadvantage in owning a PABX. Or is 

there? 

The IP Revolution 

Data communications based on internet 

protocol (IP) has emerged over the past 

decade to completely change the way 

information of all kinds is used, managed 

and communicated. Information in the 

form of voice, previously the domain of 

PABXs and the phone network, is no 

exception. 

The predecessor of today’s IP telephony 

technology first appeared as ‘voice over 

IP’ in the early 90s. At the time it was 

principally promoted as way of making 

cheap phone calls over the internet. 

Unfortunately, though, the internet wasn’t 

designed to carry voice traffic, so the 

quality of the connection was usually very 

bad. Many people still associate IP 

telephony with the experience of these 

early days. The fact is, though, that 

today’s IP-based phone systems (IP PABXs) 

provide a calling experience which at its 

best is far superior to that offered by 

traditional phone systems. The interest of 

most customers is no longer on how to 

beat long distance charges, but rather on 

reducing operating and support costs and 

on taking advantage of IP telephony’s 

tremendous potential for creating new 

customized services. 


IP-based systems have exploded onto the 

general market for business phone 

systems. Although they’re rather reluctant 

to say so in public, many manufacturers of 

PABXs have stopped development of their 

traditional models and directed all new 

R&D activities at mastering IP telephony 

technology. 

The IP Telephony Advantage 

This growth is being driven by a number 

of factors which distinguish IP PABXs from 

traditional systems. 

Single cable plant. A traditional PABX 

requires its own dedicated cable network. 

Since every property also requires a data 

communication network, hotels need to 

buy, install and maintain two completely 

separate cabling infrastructures. Each 

cable network is sophisticated, complex 

and requires extensive documentation. 

With an IP PABX, only one wiring 

infrastructure is needed. This single cable 

plant supports both voice and data 

communications. There are significant 

economic benefits related both to capital 

expense and ongoing maintenance, and 

these benefits are becoming even more 

compelling as in-room entertainment 

migrates to IP technology, allowing the 

elimination of the cable network for TV as 

well. 

Availability of maintenance expertise. 

Traditional PABXs are unique beasts 

technologically. Every manufacturer has 

its own proprietary software with its own 

unique administrative interface. What this 

means is that a technician trained on 

Mitel systems, for example, cannot 

support Avaya, and technicians trained 

on Avaya cannot support Nortel. As a 




© photo: Cisco 

result, people who support PABXs have 

become a very specialized breed. This 

can translate into higher costs and a 

limited talent pool. IP PABXs, in contrast, 

are designed to work as an integral part 

of a data network. It’s relatively easy for 

an individual with data network expertise 

to learn the incremental skills needed to 

manage and maintain an IP PABX. The 

reverse cannot be said of a phone system 

technician because the domains are quite 

different. The need for data networking 

expertise is widespread and very 

obvious, so many individuals possess 

these skills. 

Technology competitiveness. PABXs are 

designed to last for 10 to 15 years. This 

sounds very appealing, because data 

networks certainly are not. The flip side, 

though, is that a property which buys a 

traditional PABX is locked into PABX 

technology for that same 10 to 15 years. 

As we’ve mentioned above, 

manufacturers aren’t putting any more 

development resources into these 

products, so buyers will find themselves 

falling farther and farther behind their 

competitors who invest in IP-based 

systems, where the pace of innovation is 

feverish. 

Interchangeability of components. With 

traditional PABXs, components can’t be 

interchanged from one manufacturer to 

another. Mitel cards won’t work on Nortel 

systems; Avaya digital phones can’t be 

used with NEC. Once a customer chooses 

a manufacturer, he’s locked in for the 

useful life of the equipment. With IP PABXs 

the picture is different. The IP PABX is 


actually a controller which works with 

routers, data switches, gateways and IP 

telephones to provide voice 

communication services. All of these 

devices communicate with each other 

using internet protocol. This means that 

the controller can be one manufacturer’s 

product while the routers and gateways 

are another’s, with data switches and 

phones coming from yet a third or a 

fourth. The customer is not locked in to a 

single vendor, and as better products 

become available, possibly from 

companies which may not even exist 

today, they can be put into service with 

little or no disruption. 

Application possibilities. The openness 

described above, and the fact that the 

underlying data communication 

technology is based on internet protocol, 

means that innovative software 

companies like ours can create new 

services that run on or with IP PABXs. 

With an IP PABX, we and our customers 

can dream up and actually implement 

new guest and staff services which can 

bring the phone system back into the 

strategic and financial mainstream of the 

hotel. 

The New World of Services 

Our expectations of telephony in hotels 

have been lowered to the extent that all 

we demand of it is dial tone, wake up 

calls and similar services. But why 

shouldn’t we have higher expectations? 

Shouldn’t we expect it to help us sell 

rooms? To personalize our guest services? 


To bring in incremental revenues? 

Shouldn’t it give us a competitive 

advantage on RFPs? Communication is a 

central need of every human being. 

Instead of being a marginal service, 

almost an afterthought, shouldn’t our 

communication system help us build better 

bridges with our guests around their 

communication needs? 

IP telephony brings the toolset which 

makes this possible, and companies like 

ours use these tools to create the 

innovative services which are the promise 

of the technology. These are the basic 

building blocks of the new services, as 

provided by IP telephony. 

1. IP telephones. 

Many models come with screens capable 

of displaying visual content. Some offer 

colour, some touch screen capabilities. 

There are also programming tools which 

allow input to be collected from the user. 

What results is the possibility of creating 

interactive applications which can 

provide information to guests and provide 

many convenient self-service 

opportunities. 

2. Telephony interface software. 

This is a set of programming tools which 

allows an outside application to control 

what the IP PABX does and how it does it. 

For example, conference calling is a need 

which many hotel guests have. However, 

on most phones, people actually need to 

be trained the procedures for initiating a 

conference call, so it’s impractical to offer 

this as a service on guest room phones. 

With the interface software mentioned 

above, however, a programmer can 

create a conference calling application 

which guests will be able to use without 

any training, much as they can use hotel 

voice mail without any training. 

3. Superior data communication 

capabilities. 

IP technology excels at moving data 

transparently between systems which may 

be based on completely different 

operating systems and programming 

languages. In the hotel industry, systems 

have always had difficulty communicating 

due to proprietary interfaces, 

technologies and methods of 

communication. The result has been that 

hotel data and communication systems 

www.cleverdis.com


have been isolated and unable to share 

data with the richness and flexibility 

needed to offer dramatic new services. IP 

changes that through the use of XMLbased 

communication protocols. The 

group Hotel Technology Next Generation 

(HTNG – www.htng.org), of which we’re 

a charter member, is actively promoting 

inter-vendor cooperation using XML and 

other IP-based tools, and for the first time 

in the industry’s history it looks as though 

active and flexible data sharing are about 

to become the norm. These building 

blocks allow the creation of applications 

and services which address critical 

strategic and revenue-generating 

objectives. 

Attracting group business. Make your 

property more attractive to meeting 

planners by offering communication 

services that their clients can’t get from 

others in your competitive set. 

• Group directory 

As they check in, group members’ names 

appear in a list on the screens of IP 

phones. Only the members of the group 

see the list, and individuals can opt out if 

they don’t want their names to appear. 

Room numbers are not shown. By 

selecting a member’s name and pressing 

the ‘dial’ button, the guest can 

automatically dial the room of the 

colleague. 

• Group events 

Events scheduled for group members are 

listed on the screens of their phones. 

Each event is described and its location 

indicated, providing a convenient way for 

delegates to plan their time and navigate 

through the sessions. 

• Group text broadcasts 

Group leaders can send text messages 

automatically to the phones of all group 

members. 


Recognize guests and up sell products 

and services. Use your special knowledge 

of the guest, as captured in the PMS user 

profile or other CRM type of system, to 

enhance your relationship and sell 

services, every time he or she picks up the 

phone. 

• Guest language 

All buttons, menus and displays 

automatically reset to the language of the 

incoming guest. Guests can also set the 

language of the phone independently, 

whenever they want. 

• Profile-enhanced call delivery 

When the guest calls room service, food 

and beverage preferences and food 

allergy information show up on the room 

service phone as the call is ringing in. 

The staff member can offer the guest a 

favourite wine or dish, or steer him/her 

away from a food which contains (for 

example) nut products. A call to the spa is 

delivered with information about spa 

preferences or spending patterns, a call to 

the pro shop is delivered with handicap 

information and so forth. 

Capture direct and indirect revenues by 

directing guests to internal amenities or 

outside businesses. Using the phone 

screen, promote your own services or 

those of merchant partners. A single press 

of the ‘dial’ button on the phone connects 

the guest with the service of interest. Bill 

your merchant partners for their listings. 

• Dining directory 

Let guests find the type of cuisine they 

want, then display descriptions from a list 

of establishments which you know to be 

worthy of referral. 

• Area attractions 

Provide a listing of attractions, along with 

descriptive information. 

• Rotating promotional display 

Use the display of the IP phone to rotate 

colour messages about services, catching 

the eye of the guest and drawing him or 

her to respond with a press of the ‘dial’ 

button. 

Enhance your guest’s productivity and 

convenience with ‘always-on’ access to 

information. Using the IP phone screen, 

display useful information retrieved in real 

time from the internet or from other 


external sources. Unlike a TV or a laptop, 

the phone is always on and the 

information is always available. 

• Flight information 

Current flight times; delays. 

• Traffic delays 

Let guests verify the travel time to the 

airport so that they can decide how early 

to leave to catch a flight. 

• Stock prices 

Guests can determine current prices by 

entering a ticker symbol. 

• Current weather 

Guests can identify cities by name or 

postal code and get information about 

weather conditions and forecasts. 

Find out about guests’ concerns while 

there’s still time to fix problems. Guests 

can use an interactive ‘Guest satisfaction 

alert’ application on the IP phone to 

indicate their level of satisfaction or 

dissatisfaction with services offered by the 

property. If they indicate dissatisfaction, 

an immediate alert to management can 

be sent by email or pager. These are 

examples of the kinds of services which 

can be offered using IP telephony and the 

marriage it allows between information 

and action in very different kinds of 

systems. Most of these services, though 

not all, are actually installed and running 

in our current customer base. 

In addition to these services, which are 

applicable in most higher-end hotels, 

applications can be created to address 

the needs of specific types of hospitality 

establishment. These might include casino 

hotels, condo hotels, fractional ownership 

properties, resorts and more. Each of 

these has a distinct business model which 

demands different guest and staff 

services, or different implementations of 

common services. 

IP telephony technology offers the 

possibility of creating a diversity of 

services to meet the needs of these 

various segments of the industry. 

Traditional telephony, which can only 

deliver dial tone, cannot offer 

comparable strategic and financial 

benefits. 


© photo: iBAHN 

Proprietary data is recognised as one of a 

company’s most valuable assets. More 

and more corporations are deploying 

Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) as a way 

of giving their employees a direct and 

secure tunnel to the corporate network via 

the internet whilst they are "on the road". 

VPN issues are a significant source of 

complaints among business travellers 

when using hotel networks that are not set 

up for VPN usage. Providers thus need to 

address VPN connectivity issues at hotels 

through private end-to-end network and 

corporate VPN certification services, 

meeting guests’ expectations more fully 

and noticeably improving results in guest 

satisfaction surveys. 

What is a VPN and why 

should I care? 

VPN is an acronym for Virtual Private 

Network. Although VPNs use public 

networks, they inherit the characteristics of 

a private network, thus the "Virtual" 

Private Network. A VPN provides a secure 

way to access network resources over the 

internet or other networks by allowing a 

person to connect to a remote network and 

become a node on that network and is 

usually used to give employees access to 

corporate resources while they are located 

in remote locations. VPN functionality is of 


vital importance to some HSIA providers. 

At iBAHN installed hotels over 70% of a 

hotel’s business guests depend on VPN 

connections to their private networks while 

they are “on the road.” However, the very 

VPNs they depend upon to connect to their 

companies' networks can also cause 

serious connectivity issues with many hotel 

internet services. When guests cannot 

launch their corporate VPNs and connect, 

they are unable to complete their work. 

What is changing with VPN 

technology and how does it 

affect me? 

The way corporations conduct business 

continues to change. As more business 

travellers become mobile, the traditional 

lines of “inside the corporate network” vs. 

“outside the corporate network” have 

blurred. VPNs have provided mobile 

travellers with the means to connect 

securely to the corporate enterprise 

network remotely - mainly via their laptop 

computers. Today, the use of VPN 

technologies is expanding - and becoming 

more complex. VPNs are now used with 

new mobile communication technologies 

such as Smartphones. “Mobile VPNs are 

the future of remote access,” says Robert 

Whiteley, senior analyst for enterprise 

networking at Forrester Research. VPNs 


Virtual Private Networks 

Is YOUR Hotel Set-up for VPN Usage? 

“When guests cannot launch 

their corporate VPNs and 

connect, they are unable to 

complete their work.” 

are being tailored for these other mobile 

environments. With the introduction of 

new technologies and applications, 

companies will look for new tools to allow 

users to access a VPN solution with more 

devices and in more ways. 

So what does all this mean to 

hoteliers? 

Many hoteliers are unaware of the fact 

that for a VPN to function, it requires an 

individual Internet Protocol (IP) address for 

each VPN connection. Many HSIA 

providers have a limited pool of IP 

addresses to give hotels. Once the IP pool 

runs out, additional guests can no longer 

access their VPN – leaving them “locked 

out” of their corporate network. This 

shortage of individual IP addresses is 

made more critical by expanded use of 

Wi-Fi demand imposed by these new 

technologies. The “lock out” nightmare 

grows for both the guest and the hotelier. 

To summarize, all of the speed and 

security in the world doesn’t matter if a 

guest is unable to connect in the first 

place. From an hotelier’s perspective, it 

should be absolutely critical to provide 

guests with a network that is not only 

secure, but is capable of handling these 

emerging technologies. 

iBAHN offer free corporate VPN 

certifications. Find out more at 

http://www.ibahneurope.com/vpn.html 

Contact: 

E-mail: eurovpn@ibahn.com 

Tel.: +44 (0)870 1500 111 





Wireless Phones for Staff 

A Key to Improved Service 

The Royal Hideaway Playacar use Polycom’s SpectraLink Wireless Telephones 

for In-house Communications 

Overview 

The Royal Hideaway Playacar is a fivestar, 

all-inclusive luxury resort in Playa del 

Carmen, Mexico. The property covers 

5.5 acres and is host to 200 guestrooms. 

This member of Leading Hotels of the 

World was awarded the coveted AAA 

Five Diamond Award in 2007, thereby 

establishing the Royal Hideaway as the 

first adult-only, all-inclusive resort in the 

world to achieve this prestigious 

accolade. Its parent company, Occidental 

Hotels & Resorts, is the first Spanish 

hotelier to be recognized with such an 

honor. 

The Challenge 

Maintaining the highest standards in 

guest services requires that staff always 

be available to tend to guest requests and 

always be in touch with one another no 

matter where they are throughout the 

property. In early 2006, the resort’s 

management team sought a new 

communications system to equip staff with 

the tools they need to perform their jobs 

as efficiently and effectively as possible. 

The hotel was using two-way radios to 

keep staff in contact, however the radios 

were noisy and there was no integration 

with other information systems or the 

property’s telephone system. In its search 

for a communications solution that met its 

needs, management identified several 

criteria they were hoping to meet. They 

wanted to have a device that offered all 

the features of a business telephone along 

with two-way radio functionally, but also 

capable of integrating with the hotels 

CRM system, Triton by Knowcross. Lastly, 

they wanted to be sure that staff would 

have coverage anywhere on property. 

Wireless Telephony Keeps Resort Staff 

Connected with Guests and One Another 

Royal Hideaway evaluated several 

different wireless telephone systems and 

decided to deploy Wi-Fi handsets from 

Polycom. They chose 30 SpectraLink i640 

Wireless Telephones to be used by the 

concierge, management, and 

housekeeping teams. Management liked 

that the handsets interfaced directly into 

the existing Nortel PBX and leveraged the 

existing property-wide Wi-Fi network 

consisting of access points from Cisco, 

Proxim and 3Com. The system offered 

integration with the Triton CRM system, 

allowing for automated two-way text 

messaging so that guest requests could be 

addressed in real time. The SpectraLink 

handsets allow users to make and receive 

phone calls and make internal calls by 

dialing an extension. Management also 

like that the handset offers a unique pushto-talk 

(PTT) feature so that staff can either 

use the telephone or broadcast 

information depending upon the 

circumstances. In addition, the design 

allows staff to maintain quiet, discreet 

conversations whereas the noise 

generated from the two-way radios often 

disrupted the guest experience. The 

response time to guest requests has 

improved through the use of wireless 

telephones. For example, there is often a 

staff member assigned to a guest at checkin 

to ensure each guest receives a VIP 

level of service. In the past when a person 

checked in, tracking down the assigned 

staff member was done manually, and 

often took several steps to accomplish. 

Now through the integration with the 

Triton system, a message is automatically 

sent to the appropriate staff’s handset to 

let them know the guest has checked in. 

Staff can then greet the guest right away. 

The same is true when a guest checks out. 

The staff member receives a message on 

the handset and can then check the room 

to make sure that the guest has left 

nothing behind. In addition, a message is 

sent to the housekeeping team so that they 

know the room is ready to be cleaned. 

The text messaging capability allows staff 

to address issues that are urgent or gives 

them the option to put less urgent requests 

on hold so they can refer back to them 

later in the day. Liliana Martinez, the 

property’s director of rooms said, “Once 

you have a handset, you don’t want to 

lose it. It is so handy and easy-to-use. We 

are able to complete tasks more quickly 

than ever before.” She added, “We 

picked Polycom’s SpectraLink Wireless 

Telephones and Knowcross so that we 

could continue to provide our guests the 

highest level of service. We can address 

guest requests more quickly than ever, it’s 

easier access our staff, and we like the 

ability to receive information in textmessage 

format.” Hotel management has 

seen consistently high guest satisfaction 

scores of 95 percent and higher, and they 

are confident that the wireless telephone 

system has played a role in this. They are 

delighted with the telephone system and 

plan to add additional handsets so that, 

eventually, all team members will be 

equipped with their own wireless 

telephones. 

© photo: Netlink 

www.cleverdis.com

© photo: Telkonet 

No New Wires! 

Guests today expect High Speed Internet 

Access (HSIA) as a given and it has 

become a must-have service for every 

type and size of venue. Until relatively 

recently, the choices were either to install 

a totally wireless system or cabling a 

building with a CAT 5 network – costly, 

and potentially very disruptive, with 

limitations regarding coverage and 

installation flexibility. The third way takes 

a very different path – US company 

Telkonet’s solution enables a building’s 

existing electrical wiring to be 

transformed into a broadband Internet 

and data networking backbone. For the 

Best Western (BW) Midland Hotel in 

Derby, UK, this was the optimum fast track 

path to broadband Internet within its 

historic 100-bedroom building. 

At the 4-star BW Midland, every guest 

has the freedom to choose either hardwired 

or wireless broadband access. 

Built in 1841, the Grade II listed hotel is 

the oldest operating railway hotel in the 

world and any Internet access system 

installation had to be accomplished 

without damaging the fabric of the 


building, or any disruption to the hotel’s 

business or guests. Telkonet’s system, a 

preferred solution for Best Western GB 

hotels, met all the hotel’s requirements, 

including the critical need to offer hardwired 

access to any guests concerned 

about security – an important 

consideration for many of the hotel’s 

customers, which include government 

departments. 

The Telkonet iWire System transformed 

the hotel’s electrical wiring into an IP 

network backbone, allowing every 

electrical outlet to be used as a 


The BW Midland Hotel Fast Tracks its Broadband Internet 

Installation 

CASE STUDY 

broadband access data port, via Telkonet 

iBridge interface units installed in every 

guest room. The IP backbone also drives 

wireless access points, which are 

strategically located around the hotel’s 

corridors to provide site-wide WiFi 

coverage. Further Telkonet iBridge units 

are kept at reception, for use by delegates 

in the hotel’s conference and training 

suites. 

Roger Coe, Chief Executive of Midland 

Hotels Limited, commented: “Broadband 

is absolutely essential to our guests, as it 

is to our own operation – it’s the lifeblood 

of our on-line booking system. The choice 

of Telkonet’s solution was simple and 

logical. It was really the only option that 

satisfied all our requirements – in terms of 

the flexibility to offer wired and wireless 

from the same system, the speed and 

unobtrusiveness of the installation, and 

the high reliability of its day-to-day 

operation. As it harnesses a building’s 

existing electrical wiring, it elegantly 

avoids the time, expense, and inevitable 

damage and disruption caused by 

running new cabling. It has also 

successfully added to our venue’s unique 

benefits – a city centre hotel, close to the 

station, with free onsite parking and a 

large garden. Now we can offer the dual 

benefit of wired and wireless broadband, 

fully supporting our ethos of a traditional, 

quality-focused hotelier.” 

© photo: Telkonet 





Communication (and other) Technologies that 

will impact hotel operations in the future 

Intertouch Looks into the Crystal Ball... 

Charles Reed 

Chief Executive Officer of interTouch 

The travel industry is always seeking new 

ways to improve guests experience and 

operational efficiency and it is becoming 

increasingly clear that technology has the 

potential to deliver tangible benefits. 

Rather than a barrier, technology is now 

being harnessed for its potential to lower 

cost, improve yield and retain guests. 

InterTouch, a global provider of 

broadband wired and wireless services, 

predicts that developments in the 

following three areas, will have the 

greatest impact in the way a hotel will 

operate in the future. 

Trend 1: Rise of the IP networks – More 

hotels are investing to building their own 

IP networks, which once in place will 

enable hotels to easily enhance many of 

their current applications. These networks 

which are installed to carry phones calls, 

video and internet connects, can also 

support the hotels’ security systems as well 

as connect lights, air conditioners and 

other room devices to a central system. 

Trend 2: Customisation brings more 

options – It will be a matter of time when 

the same technologies enabling 

passengers to select their seat on an 

airplane will become widely available for 

hotels. With these technologies, guests 

will be able to choose the type and 

location of rooms, and going a step 

further, they will even be able to dictate 

amenities they want in them. 

Trend 3: Unlocking doors with just a look 

– Finally, retina scans and fingerprints, 

more common in high security 

organisations, may eventually make their 

way to more daily applications. We 

already have phones with fingerprint 

scanners, so it is highly possible in 

tomorrow’s high tech hotels for biometrics 

to replace card access to enter a room, 

and fingerprint scans to be combined with 

code access as added security to open 

the in-room safe. 

“Hotels are beginning to realise how 

important technologies are in the running 

of their business and how they could reap 

benefits in terms of improving guest 

satisfaction as well as their overall 

efficiency,” said Charles Reed, Chief 

Executive Officer of interTouch. 

“In the past, hotels have always focused 

on the soft features, but now, more are 

investing in making sure that on the 

technology front, they are able to deliver 

the same if not better level of attention 

and efficiency as their other services and 

thereby enhance their most important 

hotel brands,” he added. 

© photo: Intertouch 

www.cleverdis.com

IN HOUSE 

AUTOMATION 

When it comes to such things at lighting controls, it’s not so much a question of how you control 

light, but it’s why you would want to control lighting. Many of those things in the past were not 

networked, or were networked in a proprietary way. Clearly, if you don’t have a mini-bar 

network, you are going to have to send people up several times a day to figure out whether it’s 

empty or it needs re-stocking. That’s a very expensive thing to do. If you look at lighting for 

example, the two primary drivers behind lighting are: 1) if lighting is left on it is extremely 

expensive, and 2) it is very, very difficult, technically, to deliver a high quality lighting product 

using high voltage circuits. It’s particularly difficult in a luxury world where we’re trying to create 

a good sense of ambiance and simply so people don’t have to go around and turn off every 

single light individually. It’s a heroic task trying to do this using traditional high-voltage circuits. 

So you are, by definition, saying we are going to have to control these in a soft way, in a way 

that is slightly more intelligent. That then gives you the opportunity to look at the same time into 

how you link up that soft control with other things so that it can be more effective. It’s the same 

control that turns the light out when nobody is in the room, and it’s exactly the same control that 

turns the heating down or the air conditioning off. All of these are very valid and appropriate 

“green” things to do! They also happen to be exactly the same technology that can transform 

the ambiance of a room simply by doing lighting in a controlled and high quality way, and that 

the lighting you need in a room to get dressed with is a very different set of lighting that that 

you need when you watch a film at ten o’clock at night. 

Nick Price


© photo: Lutron 


IN HOUSE AUTOMATION 

Enlightening ideas 

Intelligent Hotel Guestroom Lighting Controls – Making Life 

Simple for Guests and Saving Money for Hotels 

At a recent IHOF meeting in Prague, 

bringing together a number of hotel 

professionals together with manufacturers 

and service providers, a “brainstorming” 

session came up with a number of “pet 

gripes” of those present as to problems 

still existing in hotels... and one of the 

main ones was that of LIGHTING controls. 

Virtually everyone present agreed that in 

most cases, lighting controls are difficult 

to understand, to the point occasionally 

that one has to call reception to ask how 

to switch off all the lights. As rooms 

become more complex and featurepacked, 

this problem will become more 

and more prevalent. 

Finding specific simplified 

solutions: 

Designed to meet the needs of hotel 

guests, the Stanza lighting control system 

by Lutron provides stand-alone lighting 

control in each room. It can also be 

upgraded to integrate with other 

guestroom systems, including automated 

window treatments, key cards, occupancy 

and property management systems. 

Guests can control lights individually with 

a local control, or all together with a 

master keypad. Guest security and safety 

are enhanced thanks to Master on/off 

capability and Night Light functions. By 

the same token, a master off button by 

entrance meets today’s energy standards, 

supports sustainable designs, and allows 

guests to save energy easily at the touch 

of a button. 

Energy Savings – We Can Do 

Our Bit! 

EcoSystem is a revolutionary lighting 

control system comprised of digital 

electronic dimming ballasts, controls, and 

environmental sensors. EcoSystem can 

generate energy savings of 50% to 70%, 

increase occupant comfort, and increase 

space flexibility. 

In Meeting Rooms 

EcoSystem offers meeting and conference 

rooms flexibility, preset light levels, and 

energy savings. This translates into 

financial savings that quickly pay for 

EcoSystem. EcoSystem offers wall controls 

with four preset light levels to provide the 

right light at all times, and allow energy 

conscious individuals to reduce lighting 

levels whenever possible. 

• Provide general lights at an 80% level, 

• Dim the lights for PC presentations, 

• Highlight a white board area for formal 

meetings, 

• Provide full intensity for cleaning and 

team projects. 

As preferences change or meeting room 

walls are moved, it’s possible to re- 

programme the EcoSystem without 

rewiring. As needs and preferences shift, 

one can adjust a space with a handheld 

PDA, simply and economically. The 

combined effect of EcoSystem sensors 

and controls, operating together, brings 

major energy savings in the real world. 

© photo: Lutron © photo: Lutron 

www.cleverdis.com

CUSTOM TV AND 

DIGITAL SIGNAGE 

These two fields are quite separate, but also can be grouped together from the point of view 

that they both require specific individual input from the hotel. Nick Price gave us some insight 

into his experience in the field of Custom TV: 

“In our group, we were quick to realise that the television offered to our guests was of poor 

source quality. It didn’t matter how good we made the content look on the television, the fact 

was that someone who had taken a private jet to New York didn’t want to watch Mrs Long 

making noodles on the TV. There had to be something more. We work with a company called 

Tangerine Global who have developed about ten channels of customised hotel TV which are 

very channelled and targeted towards the upper-end guest. That doesn’t mean you couldn’t 

apply the same model, just using different content, at a 3 or 4-star level. The fact is that one 

thing we don’t see is the regional or national barriers, fundamentally breaking down, and 

ceasing to be barriers, to enable us to receive the same content from the same supplier across 

a wide geography, and that will enable us to do one very interesting thing. It will enable us to 

target a global niche market. Imagine having exactly the same channel line-up from the same 

supplier in Japan as you do in New York!” – 

Nick Price 

...Digital signage is also becoming a major field of interest for hotel operators, and here, 

specific “easy to use” software packages are emerging for the management of such systems. 

Highly specific vertical market specialists are also emerging. To learn more about this 

fascinating field, please refer to the Cleverdis SMARTreport – “Out of Home Digital Media”...



© photo: Idylle Production 

Betty CASTALDI 

President, Idylle Production 


Tel.: +33 (0)4 92 60 60 20 

E-mail: info@idylleproduction.com 

www.idylleproduction.com 

Idylle Production 

DIGITAL SIGNAGE AND CUSTOM TV 

"…It's pure marketing, but with 

an emotional dimension…" 

With major references such as 

the Lucien Barrière Casino 

group, Idylle Production has 

moved to the forefront of the 

exploding market for custom 

TV solutions. 

While it all started with audio, around 4 

years ago, flat screens began appearing 

in various locations. The Casino groups 

were the first to trust us in this area. In was 

in a sense the beginning of “custom TV”. 

This concept is now mature and we have 

evolved greatly. Our first aim was to 

develop a programme that would work 

like a TV channel, in other words with 

different programmes from one hour to 

the next... accompanied with 

advertising... and all this of course 

accompanied by audio. A system with 

only the visual aspect can only 

communicate 50% of a message. 

Are your clients sensitive to the 

advantages you bring with this 

combination of sound and images? 

That’s for sure. This is why we have 

references such as a major retail group 

selling articles for the home as well as DIY 

and garden supplies. We initially 

equipped their stores with audio systems, 

and progressively they are moving over to 

the use of a visual support together with 

the sound. This group, Leroy Merlin, has 

bought its own TV channel on the national 

www.cleverdis.com

network, which is called "A Côté de Chez 

Vous" and is available on satellite and 

cable TV, broadcasting reports and 

programmes throughout the day (see our 

case study in this SPECIALreport)… and 

they now also broadcast this channel in 

their stores. We have created a system for 

them that allows for having commercial 

breaks every 10 minutes. 

What differentiates your visual offer? 

We have developed a very flexible system 

which allows the client to have 

programming that completely fits with their 

frequentation according to the days of the 

week. Take the example of a casino. The 

number of people is not the same on a 

Monday and on a Saturday, but what also 

changes is the type of clientele: different 

people go to play at the casino on a 

Monday than over the weekend. The fact 

that the advertisements change every day 

and are adapted to the type of clientele 

shows the real possibilities of this media. 

Does this idea come from your experience 

in radio with the "day-parting"? 

Of course. Thanks to this experience, we 

don't develop our products in the same 

way as our competitors, and we don't sell 

in the same way. I personally involve 

myself in every project, and above all, we 

share with the clients what they experience 

every day. They talk about their customers 


and their habits… In the morning at Leroy 

Merlin, you will find single women or DIY 

amateurs in a hurry, while on the weekend 

there will be a lot more couples who will 

make big purchases like a change of 

kitchen or bathroom. You have to put 

yourself in their position and understand 

what the customers want to hear on a 

Saturday morning in a Leroy Merlin store, 

when they are at the point of making a 

major and very personal decision, 

implying an investment, choice and 

financing... You really have to take into 

account the emotional dimension because 

the clients are waiting for us to give them 

this advice. When I sell my product, 

whether it is sound or image, I say to the 

client "If you only buy to broadcast, it is 

not worth it…" Today, the two products, 

audio and visual, developed the way they 

are, it’s 99% marketing. We’re talking 

about pure sales but with an emotional 

dimension. We are able to create a 

unique sound ambience. The human brain 

has an extraordinary capacity... for 

example it records the "gaps". When you 

listen to a radio programme, music is 

cross-faded without any "gaps" between 

the tunes. Why? Because the brain 

registers the gap as meaning something 

has finished, provoking a lapse of 

attention. In the Idylle Production system 

each song is mixed in such a way that the 

ear does not register any aural 

interruptions. This a one of the plusses we 

bring. 

DIGITAL SIGNAGE AND CUSTOM TV 

Is there an international vocation for the 

future? 

Absolutely! We have a nice business in 

Canada that runs very smoothly, with 

approximately 50 stores in Toronto and in 

Québec, and now starting to move in the 

US. I think that Idylle's destiny will be 

decided between 2007 and 2008. In 

Europe, we are present in Belgium and in 

Switzerland. 

In terms of market expansion where do 

you plan to develop? 

The hotel sector is one of our main 

priorities. We have already made 

demonstrations for Accor and Novotel. I 

think that we have a place in this business 

and that we can bring a lot to it, but that 

the problem is we are not well known 

enough yet. We can create and 

programme just as they want, and provide 

content (video, clip, report, emotional)... 

Our “top of the line” aspect is an 

advantage for this market. Through its own 

channel, a hotel can also communicate via 

the screens in the bedrooms on all the 

services and derived products it has to 

offer, it can inform the client about the 

casino or the lounge bar downstairs for 

example… Hotels are not aware of the 

fact that today we can provide them with 

this service at a truly affordable price. It’s 

now important that we communicate in 

order to be known in this sector. 

© photo: Idylle Production 


CONFERENCE 

TECHNOLOGIES 

Conference facilities have always been a major part of hotels. In some way they have always 

been THE product, as there are a large number of hotels that drive a substantial proportion of 

their rooms business through meetings and conferences. The fact is that technologically, I think 

that conference facilities in most hotels have lagged behind sadly a long way. Evidence of that 

is the amount of sticky tape running across floors to locate on the floor cables, simply because 

the points at which they’re located were not thought through properly. Or the other one of 

somebody trying to connect up a laptop to a projector and... Guess what? It doesn’t work! 

We’ve all seen it a hundred times. It shouldn’t be that difficult, so I think modern hotels have to 

re-think about the kind of facilities they’re putting in place. For example, the notion that you 

could have a conference room for maybe 150 people and maybe 120 of them want to have 

an active internet session and you might want to switch between many different sources, not just 

a PowerPoint presentation, and you have a large number of presenters and some may be 

remote in other parts of the world – doing a joint presentation. That’s the future but it’s already 

here today, and it’s not very well met. The same could be said for the audio at most conference 

facilities which I think in many cases is shocking. We have put a huge amount of effort into 

making sure the audio works... so that wherever you’re sitting, in a meeting room or a large 

conference area, you can have a very high quality of sound, without running cables all over the 

place, or hiring in vast amounts of equipment to do what should already be part of the 

infrastructure! You have to understand the reason people are there in the first place and you 

have to help them with that, and to a very, very large extent it comes down to making the 

technology work, getting the right bandwidth in, getting the right power in, and getting the A/V 

systems working. Some hotels do it a lot better than others! 

Nick Price


© photo: Amx 


CONFERENCE TECHNOLOGIES 

Conference Room Technologies 

New Products on Market – Touch Panel Technologies 

Reach New Levels of Sophistication 

The recent CEDIA Expo in the US was the launching point for a number of new products in the field 

of room automation, in particular by two popular companies in the conference automation field: 

AMX and Crestron. On these pages, we highlight a few of the latest products... 

AMX provided a sneak peak at its nextgeneration 

Modero Touch Panel line as it 

unveiled its 5.2” Modero ViewPoint 

Widescreen Touch Panel (MVP-5200i). 

The MVP-5200i combines a stylish design 

with high-resolution graphics, wireless 

mobility, digital intercom functionality and 

extended battery life. 

"Beyond its exterior aesthetics, it (the 

MVP-5200i) packs a whole lot of 

technology innovation into an ultra-thin, 

compact design," said Robert Noble, 

AMX chief technology officer. "With the 

MVP-5200i, AMX has redefined the style, 

form, and function of our flagship Modero 

Touch Panel line, and in the process, 

we've raised the bar for all touch panels - 

industry wide." 

According to AMX, the MVP-5200i 

provides fast, power-efficient processing – 

supporting up to eight hours of continuous 

use and four days of standby time – while 

its 5.2" widescreen delivers the highest 

resolution of any AMX MVP Touch Panel – 

800 x 480 WVGA (Wide Video Graphic 

Array) at 180 DPI (Dots Per Inch). It 

supports JPEG and PNG images, as well 

as streaming motion-JPEG video, and can 

play MP3 and WAV audio files. 

The ultra-compact MVP-5200i weighs 1.2 

pounds and is only 0.8" thick. It features 

an integrated kickstand; wireless mobility 

(802.11b/g); digital, full-duplex intercom 

for panel-to-panel communication 

throughout a home, business or campus; 

and a navigation wheel for levels and 

functions. It also incorporates the highest 

wireless network security standards, 

including WEP, WPA, WPA2, EAP-TLS, 

EAP-TTLS and PEAP. 

Options and Availability 

The MVP-5200i, along with its optional 

Table Charging Station and Wall 

Charging Station, will be available in 

gloss white and gloss black. 

AMX expects the products to ship in 

January 2008. 

Wall Integration of Keypads 

Rises to a New Level 

AMX has announced the launch of a new 

line of Metreau Keypads. The keypads fit 

in any Decora-style wallplate and provide 

a convenient, flexible and cost-effective 

way to communicate with any AMX 

Control or Distributed Audio System. 

Metreau Keypads are available in two 

distinct varieties – one can be used with 

any AMX Control System, while the other 

© photo: Amx 

www.cleverdis.com

© photo: Amx 

is designed for the company's growing 

line of distributed audio products. In 

addition to music, the keypads can 

control lighting, video, projection, HVAC 

and window treatments. They are an 

ideal solution for homes, offices, small 

meeting rooms, hotel rooms and many 

other environments. 

The Metreau Keypad line features a 

navigation wheel – an innovative, new 

interface feature that is designed to 

simplify the way people 

interact with, and use, the 

keypad. The wheel 

provides a natural and 

intuitive way to expand the 

keypad's functionality. 

Simply turn the wheel to the 

left or right to quickly and 

easily adjust audio volume, 

lighting levels and more, or 

press the top, bottom, left, 

right or center of the wheel 

to activate, set or select any 

level or function. This new 

interface feature is also 

incorporated into AMX’s 

new 5.2" Widescreen 

Modero ViewPoint Touch 

Panel (MVP-5200i). 

New Wall Mount 

Touch-panel from 

Crestron 

TPS-6L 5.7-inch touchpanel 

offers CAT5 audio/video 


and Ethernet connectivity. Crestron 

introduced its latest Isys touch panel at 

Cedia 2007. Featuring a bright, highcontrast 

5.7" colour touch screen with 16bit 

Isys graphics, 640 x 480 resolution, 

video window display, the TPS-6L panel 

delivers a world of control capability yet 

leaves a very small footprint. High-speed 

Ethernet communication provides easy 

network integration and seamless 

communications with Crestron home 

automation solutions. 

CONFERENCE TECHNOLOGIES 

Crestron touch panels offer a userinterface 

for controlling audio, video, 

lighting and HVAC. Both Cresnet and 

high-speed Ethernet are standard in the 

TPS-6L, providing easy network 

integration and seamless communications 

with Crestron control systems. 

The TPS-6L can display full-motion video 

from an external source such as security 

cameras, video servers and cable TV on 

the touchscreen display. The video image 

is fully scalable for viewing in any sized 

window or full screen. The choice of 

balanced or unbalanced composite inputs 

allows compatibility with both 

conventional coaxial and CAT5 AV 

distribution systems. 

Each TPS-6L is furnished with two front 

bezels - with or without 12 programmable 

softkey pushbuttons. The optional 

pushbuttons are positioned to align with 

dynamically changing text and graphics 

onscreen, supporting context-sensitive 

menu functions such as digital media 

titles, channels, or lighting presets. 

Custom engraving of the bezel is also 

available, with a choice of solid or backlit 

text. A light sensor is built into the TPS-6L 

to automatically adjust the display 

brightness for optimal visibility under 

varying light conditions. 

© photo: Crestron 


RESERVATION SYSTEMS 

• GDS AND PMS 

This is one of main missions of HTNG... Joining-up the islands. This has largely meant joining 

up PMS with the outside world. One of the elements we want to join up to is the various flavours 

of incoming reservations, whether they be GDS or a web-based intermediary. There has been 

huge work done to date to transition a lot of reservation activity away from the hotel out to web 

based services. I still think however there is a lot more to be done, particularly in the world of 

GDS, where it’s so information poor, that it is very difficult to receive at the hotel level any 

quality of information about the customer you are going to receive, even if that customer has 

stayed with you many, many times before. The reliability and the ease with which a reservation 

arrives has definitely been improved, and this is very automatic and joined-up today, where 

even a few years ago a lot of manual processes, a lot of faxes, a lot of telephone calls, a lot of 

manual transcribing of reservation information... That to a large extent has been solved today. 

Nick Price




Micros-Fidelio 

EAME (Europe, 

Africa, Middle East) 

Kaweh NIROOMAND 

President Micros-Fidelio 

EAME (Europe, Africa, Middle East) 

RESERVATION SYSTEMS / GDS AND PMS 

In the past, Micros-Fidelio provided hotels and restaurants with a complete suite of products, 

including PMS, catering systems, and everything around those products. But the central hotel 

systems, where their customers sold their own products (their rooms) were not covered. We asked 

Kaweh Niroomand to give us the background as to how Micros-Fidelio developed its new 

“converged” system... 

© photo: Micros-Fidelio 

Hotels sell rooms through different 

channels... through their own web-sites, 

through Alternate Distribution Systems 

(ADS) and through Global Distribution 

Systems (GDS). Another way is of course 

via their own call centres. Until a certain 

point these were all completely split. 

Fidelio was providing the PMS system 

and we had interfaces to products which 

could sell the room for our customers 

through these different channels. The 

question for us was “Why should we not 

develop a suite of products which is an 

integrated solution for PMS and central 

system solutions which can immediately 

go to the different channels, directly 

connecting the sales from the end user to 

the hotel, and no longer through third 

party products?” This is the big change in 

what we have developed with our product 

suite. In developing Opera as a complete 

suite of products – as an enterprise 

solution – we are able to give to the enduser 

direct access to the last available 

room of a chain so that they can book 

directly into that room, whereas before 

this was not possible. 

Tell us about some of the successful 

projects... 

After initial testing of several systems, 

Micros’s solution has been chosen by the 

Louvre Group* because of what they saw 

as the centralised benefits it offered over 

a competing provider. At a comparable 

cost, Micros was able to provide Louvre 

Hotels a scalable contract supported by a 

single data centre located in Frankfurt, 

Germany. The Micros-Fidelio Data Centre 

could house all of the Micros applications 

in a multi-property and integrated 

environment, allowing Louvre Hotels to 

use a secure, private network connection 

to access Opera. Since Opera’s 

reservation and property management 

systems would be integrated on one 

database, all reservations could be 

distributed down to each hotel in real-time 

providing single image inventory. With 

an integrated Central Reservation System 

interfacing to the global travel agency 

community, all data could be 

accommodated in one single database 

securing single image guest records and 

hotel inventory. In other words, traditional 

interfacing between central and hotel 

systems would become obsolete. 

Furthermore, direct sales via Louvre 

Hotels’ corporate hotel websites using the 

Opera Web Suite, would dramatically 

increase web presence and direct 

bookings. 

The deployment of the Centrally Hosted 

Opera Property Management Systems 

with installations at over 500 Louvre 

Hotels took only eight months. This seems 

to be very fast... How was this achieved? 

Micros worked closely with Louvre Hotels 

to speed the deployment pace and meet 

important milestones prior to sending the 

www.cleverdis.com

installer on site. A key practice involved 

complete staging of hardware before it 

was sent to the hotel to minimize the level 

of effort on-site. The length of each 

deployment averaged two and a half 

days. Several weeks before the 

installation, end-users were able to utilise 

a customised e-learning tool developed 

by Micros and Louvre Hotels to streamline 

the training process. Following a week to 

10-day specific Louvre Hotels solution 

training period, a Micros representative 

was available onsite for an additional two 

days to help supervise the launch. Due to 

effective communication and a positive 

approach, Micros was able to tailor the 

deployment speed for Louvre Hotels and 

successfully deploy over 30 hotels 

simultaneously per week, which provided 

valuable time and costs savings. 

Has the group been able to measure 

Return on Investment? 

Absolutely. By consolidating all Opera 

applications to the Micros-Fidelio Data 

Centre and including both support and 

hardware on a “1 contract, 1 contact” 

centralised solution, Micros has helped 

Louvre Hotels to reduce its maintenance 

support costs by 70%, which in-turn has 

improved financial controls. IT 

Management especially values its cost 

savings from the simultaneous upgrade 

process. Reservations in direct Internet 

bookings have also increased by 300% 

for the 500 hotels deployed. Interfacing 

work with global portal partners is easier 

to manage due to the direct link between 

the portal partner and Louvre Hotels’ 

database and application. Productivity is 

higher, now that the IT team is able to 

redirect its focus to other IT projects. 

You also recently announced the results (to 

date) of Global Hotel Alliance’s state of 

the art central reservations system, 

GHA.net, launched in February 2007, 

Kempinski Hotels, Leela Hotels and Pan 

Pacific Hotels have been the first to 

deploy your system... Tell us about this. 

The GHA team has been working closely 

with Micros-Fidelio to address the special 

needs and requirements of the world’s 

largest hotel alliance, and we are on 

track to switch three of the four remaining 

GHA members to this new distribution 

technology throughout the remainder of 


2007. There has been an immediate and 

positive impact for each of the brands, 

with enhanced productivity and customer 

service giving measurable results in 

inventory and rate integrity across all 

distribution channels in a real-time 

environment combined with reduced 

operating expenses. Since the switch in 

February, all three brands have seen their 

combined voice, GDS and internet 

revenues increase. Pan Pacific has 

witnessed a staggering 50% increase, 

with Kempinski growing 39% and Leela 

26%. 

So finally, how would you best describe 

the key advantages of the Opera system? 


Firstly, and importantly, there are two 

purchase models – full out-and-out 

purchase, or transaction based. Secondly, 

we offer complete administration with 

everything based in our data centre in 

Frankfurt, and engineers on hand 24 

hours a day ensuring smooth operation... 

and thirdly, we are able to roll-out systems 

very rapidly. It’s possible to get a system 

up and running in 500 hotels in just 6 

months, whereas before, something like 

this would have taken up to 3 years. 

* Societé du Louvre is now owned by 

Starwood Capital and covers brands like 

Concorde, Campanile, Kyriad 

© photo: Micros-Fidelio 





HTNG Certification for IDeaS 

Revenue Optimisation 

Linda HATFIELD 

Vice President, Product Management 

IDeaS 

IDeaS, the leading provider of hospitality 

revenue optimisation solutions and one of 

America’s fastest growing technology 

companies, has announced that IDeaS V5i 

Revenue Management solution has been 

certified under the Hotel Technology Next 

Generation (HTNG) Certification Program. 

"We are pleased to have successfully 

completed the HTNG certification 

process,” said Linda Hatfield, Vice 

President Product Management, IDeaS. 

“As a founding member of HTNG, we are 

strong supporters of their initiatives and will 

continue to work on behalf of our clients 

with other vendors to move forward the 

Intelligence: - in·tel·li·gence ( n-t l -j ns) n. 

a) The capacity to acquire and apply knowledge. 

b) The faculty of thought and reason. 

c) Superior powers of mind. 

Whichever way you look at it, intelligence is a good 

thing to have. At Cleverdis, our mission is to give the 

necessary intelligence to make the right decisions in 

business. Our vertical market SMARTreports are part of 

that mission. But complementary to these publications, 

we have developed an extremely powerful tool… even 

more finely honed… in the form of our SPECIALreports. 

acceptance and use of the HTNG 

standards.” 

News: IDeaS Revenue 

Optimisation and Agilysys 

Bring Their Systems Integration 

to the Next Level 

IDeaS has announced the availability of a 

full two-way integration between IDeaS 

Revenue Optimisation Solution and Visual 

One Property Management System (PMS) 

by Agilysys. The solution offers joint clients 

and future prospects the ability to fully 

leverage the strengths of both products in 

addition to the assurance of compatibility 

into the future. “This is a major 

advancement in our existing partnership 

with Agilysys. The joint work we have done 

to seamlessly update IDeaS revenue 

management controls into Visual One PMS 

by Agilysys is highly valuable for our 

clients,” said Linda Hatfield, IDeaS Vice 

President, Product Management. “Our 

development teams have been able to 

quickly bring to market this functionality 

due to our shared vision of serving the 

needs of our respective client bases. The 

clear product focus and ongoing 

innovation demonstrated by IDeaS 

Revenue Optimisation Solutions has made 

their product essential for hoteliers looking 

to maximize their revenues in an ever 

changing marketplace. This two-way 

integration allows us to deliver maximum 

Cleverdis SPECIALreports are aimed at educating 

highly specific groups of people to gain intelligence 

through targeted information. Sponsored individually 

by companies with a mission to educate and inform, 

such as Panasonic, Sharp, Sony, Alcatel Lucent, Canon, 

Samsung, Microsoft, HP, NEC Electronics, and 

LG.Philips LCD, each Special Report is dedicated to a 

highly specific market, with highly specific information 

gathered and edited by Cleverdis. 

You can download PDF samples of our SPECIALreports 

on www.cleverdis.com. 

Cleverdis SPECIALreports – a CLEVER way of bringing 

Intelligence to the market. 

benefit to our customers,” said Tina Stehle, 

Senior Vice President at Agilysys. 

Major rollout by Millennium 

Meantime, in recent news, IDeaS has also 

announced that its on-demand Revenue 

Optimisation system V5i is being deployed 

by Millennium and Copthorne across its 

portfolio of hotels throughout Asia Pacific, 

EAME and the Americas. Millennium 

Hotels and Resorts completed an extensive 

due diligence of the Revenue Management 

Systems available and selected the IDeaS 

on-demand solution V5i. “Having multiproperty 

imple-mentation and working 

experience of several other RMS, I 

particularly value the very strong and 

dedicated service and account support that 

IDeaS provides across the globe. It 

contributes significantly in the global rollout 

of our RMS program, both pre and post 

implementation. It is great to see how this 

intensive co-operation has helped us 

achieve more accurate forecasts, ultimately 

resulting in optimal results.” said Hannes 

Bos, Global Director of Revenue 

Management. “We are proud of our long 

standing relationship with Millennium 

Hotels and Resorts. Their Revenue 

Management initiative has been innovative 

and decisive and we are pleased to be 

playing a vital part in its successful 

deployment.” said Grahame Tate 

Managing Director IDeaS Asia Pacific 

www.cleverdis.com



CASE STUDY 

Optimising hotel and conference center 

operations on one database… 

For greater staff productivity, stronger financial management 

and better guest tracking 

Lodge of the Ozarks Drives 

Higher Profitability with 

Maestro System at the Largest 

Convention Center in Branson, 

Missouri – USA. 

Branson, Missouri is a booming vacation 

destination that attracts hundreds of 

thousands of families annually to its 

award-winning headliner entertainment, 

theme parks, and golf courses. It is a 

favorite location for conferences and 

military and family reunions, and one of 

the largest spaces for conventions in 

Branson is operated by the Lodge of the 

Ozarks. Branson works to keep its 

“country” roots, and The Lodge of the 

Ozarks is a beautifully decorated 

property providing rustic elegance to the 

guests. But there is nothing rustic about 

the new, single-image database 

technology from Northwind-Maestro PMS 

that the property installed to automate its 

resort, convention center, club, spa and 

food services operations. 

“Lodge of the Ozarks is among the busiest 

conference center hotels in Branson,” said 

Randy Park, business agent for Morrell 

Hospitality, the property’s owner. “Our 

property operates its own Club, similar to 

a Las Vegas supper club, and Timber 

Creek restaurant. Today we are in the 

midst of upgrading the entire property to 

attract a new, higher-rated guest segment. 

To make our operation as efficient as 

possible, we installed the Maestro 

Enterprise Suite of hotel software to 

automate and integrate our entire 

operation on one database for greater 

staff productivity, stronger financial 

management and better guest tracking.” 

Maestro automates the entire 

conference resort 

In June 2007 the property implemented 

Maestro PMS to automate hotel 

management operations and Maestro 

Sales and Catering to computerize its 

conference sales management and 

catering business. The hotel also installed 

Maestro POS on the same database for 

guest charge posting and uses Maestro 

Work Order Scheduling to oversee its 

upgrade projects. When the property’s 

new Spa is completed, Lodge of the 

Ozarks will install Maestro’s Spa system 

to automate client scheduling, billing and 

reservations. “The Maestro single-image 

database technology is ideal for any 

complex conference center property 

because every module is integrated to 

give a 360-degree picture of each guest,” 

said Park. The system tracks guest’s 

activities, whether in the hotel, convention 

center or dining to capture charges at 

every touch point. The property will use 

Maestro Analytics business intelligence 

solution to mine guest information to 

create effective marketing campaigns 

based on each guest’s historical 

preferences. According to Park, “The 

system is so intuitive that our staff and 

management learned to use it quickly. 

NORTHWIND understands the hotel 

business and its team took time to see 

how we do business, then applied their 

system to optimize our property’s 

operation.” Park is also impressed with 

Maestro’s financial and operations 

reporting. “As business manager for 

Morrell Hospitality, I appreciate solid 

reporting. We never looked for a report 

that the system did not already provide.” 

Park noted that when the property’s 

renovation is completed he expects the 

Lodge of the Ozarks will attract a more 

highly rated guest segment. “The Maestro 

system has an integrated Yield 

Management program that will enable us 

to optimize our rates when we finish 

upgrading all areas of the hotel, 

conference center, dining outlets and 

club.” 

“Branson is a family destination that 

understands the importance of caring for 

every guest during their stay,” said Park. 

“Northwind-Maestro is a client-focused 

technology partner that delivered on 

every part of our agreement.” 

Contact: 

info@maestropms.com 

www.maestropms.com/HOL 

© photo: Ozarks 


SECURITY 

All forms of security are becoming much more important than they were. Today, we are living 

in what we perceive as a more insecure world than we were living in ten years ago. There is a 

physical notion of security, whether that means security guards, number of staff or locked doors 

or lifts that only go to certain floors. Obviously there is also CCTV and the sheer explosion in 

the number of cameras everywhere... not just in hotels. We need to provide that level of security 

to our customers... but the flip side of it is that you are increasingly the guardians of a large 

amount of very sensitive, personal information - that is information about the customers. And you 

need to keep that information safe. Overlay that the fact that you have a converging of networks 

today and it makes the job of the IT security specialists hundreds of times more important and 

difficult than it was ten years ago in a hotel. In my company I have someone who does nothing 

else but security and many companies would be wise to follow the same practice. We regularly, 

every quarter, physically – on site – send an outside hired specialist to try to penetrate and 

break our networks... every hotel... every quarter... and we act upon the results very quickly. 

Nick Price


CASE STUDY 


SECURITY 

Security Evaluation and Verification by 

HP Strengthens interTouch Service 

Offering 

For 9 years, interTouch has been the 

provider of wired and wireless 

Broadband and Internet access services 

to international hotel chains such as Hilton 

Hotels, Hyatt Hotels and Resorts, Four 

Seasons Hotels and Resorts, 

InterContinental Hotels Group, Le 

Meridien, Pan Pacific Hotels and Resorts, 

Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts, and 

Sheraton Hotels and Resorts. While 

interTouch services enable travellers to 

stay connected no matter where they are, 

the company is responsible for the 

prevention of spam and virus attacks on 

users logged on to their network. 

Essentially, security, reliability and 

trustworthiness of their services are crucial 

elements influencing the reputation of the 

company. Thus, interTouch recently took 

steps to ensure that the latest security 

features were adopted into their new 

version of iBIS. In order to ensure that 

these features conform to industry 

standards, interTouch engaged the 

services of HP to conduct evaluation and 

verification specifically on the security 

functions of iBIS 7.0. Ultimately, 

interTouch’s decision to work with HP was 

influenced by a previous assessment in 

which HP delivered excellent results. This 

experience resulted in interTouch turning 

to HP again for this evaluation. 

The Security Vulnerability Assessment 

consisted of 2 modules: 

• Module 1: Black Box Penetration Testing 

(External) 

An external assessment was performed to 

mimic the behaviour of a malicious 

hacker attempting to penetrate the system 

from the Internet. In this instance, a 

security evaluation method was utilized to 

stimulate an attack. This also incorporated 

an active analysis of the system to 

uncover weaknesses, technical flaws or 

vulnerabilities. 

• Module 2: Vulnerability Scanning 

(Internal) 

An internal assessment analyzes possible 

threats and weaknesses that can be 

exploited within WAN and LAN 

environments. This exercise was 

performed on-site, from within interTouch’s 

internal network. Specifically, the 

objective of this exercise was to uncover 

possible system vulnerabilities, and 

subsequently recommend mitigation 

measures as well as to identify areas for 

improvement. 

HP’s comparison study indicated that 

interTouch had successfully enforced 

strong measures of security protection. 

There were no vulnerabilities found during 

the external assessment, and the year-toyear 

comparison on the number of 

vulnerabilities has significantly 

decreased. This represents a positive 

system improvement, providing users with 

improved security while surfing the 

Internet via the interTouch network. 

Some of the main findings of the 

assessment: 

• Denial of Service (DoS) attacks: The 

VBN disables the connection from the 

source IP when TCP connections exceed 

80,000 TCPs/second. 

• Unauthorized access to file and 

database servers: Not possible without 

valid access credentials as TCP ports 

are filtered and protected by the 

firewall. 

• Visibility between users logged on to 

the network: As connectivity between 

ports (rooms) is prevented, traffic 

sniffing or virus infections between 

users on the same network are virtually 

impossible. 

• Guests attempting to gain free internet 

access: Attempts to alter URLs to bypass 

access failed, and thus free Internet 

access cannot occur. 

However, HP’s assessment also revealed 

areas where the system could be 

improved upon. The following were 

proposed recommendations from HP: 

• Display authorization usage banners on 

Administration pages. A statement 

communicating a requirement for 

compliance before accessing system 

resources need to be displayed on the 

login page, before granting access into 

the system. 

• Deploy Intrusion Detection/Prevention 

systems to detect malicious activities on 

hosts and network. 

These recommendations will be 

addressed in upcoming versions of iBIS as 

part of interTouch’s continuous product 

improvement initiatives. 

© photo: Intertouch 

www.cleverdis.com

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