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SMARTreport
CASE STUDY
Surprising Guests with Simplicity,
32 / Hotel SMARTreport • October 2007 – April 2008
IN-ROOM ENTERTAINMENT
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