The 3 Audiovisual Challenges Facing the Hospitality Industry
As digital habits become increasingly ingrained in our daily lives, the hospitality industry must rise to new challenges in designing guest rooms that cater to a hyperconnected clientele.
There is indeed one fundamental principle that the hospitality industry has never strayed from over the years. When a guest stays at a property—regardless of its category—they should feel right at home. That “home,” however, has changed considerably in recent years and continues to evolve at a breakneck pace. Hoteliers must therefore stay constantly on the lookout so as not to fall behind. Video streaming, and in particular video on demand (VOD, sVOD, TVOD), is a good example: More and more guests are subscribing to these types of services and want to be able to continue watching their favorite shows when they arrive at the hotel. For the guest, the experience must be simple, seamless, and completely transparent.
For hoteliers, this means setting up the appropriate infrastructure. Bandwidth must be scaled to support these high-definition video streams; the Wi-Fi network must be high-performance and secure; and in-room screens must be compatible with guests’ devices to allow them to mirror the display of their smartphones, tablets, or PCs—the devices they use to access their content. And what’s true for video is also true for audio. Yesterday’s clock radio has become a smart speaker. Guests want to be able to stream their music or podcasts in their rooms by connecting to a high-quality audio system. The smart room is an ongoing challenge.
Anticipating Technological Developments
A hotel stay should feel like a seamless experience, not a disruption. For Videlio, an expert in audiovisual solutions that must design audiovisual systems for its hotel clients—sometimes as far as 36 months in advance—the challenge is significant. In the digital world, three years is an eternity. By the time the hotel opens, there’s no doubt that trends will have shifted and technology will have become obsolete. The key, therefore, is to design a sustainable infrastructure—that is, properly sized cabling, accessible equipment, and available space—so as not to hinder the installation of future equipment. In short: meet guest expectations as closely as possible on opening day, while leaving the door open for evolution when the need arises. At Fouquet’s Barrière, for example, Videlio took advantage of expansion work carried out this year to deploy highly modular and scalable Anevia IPTV network heads, allowing new VIP video services to be added at any time based on the end customer’s needs. New Cisco switches were installed in anticipation of the renovation of the network infrastructure across the group’s eight locations, which is scheduled for 2019.
Combining Architecture and Engineering
Modern audiovisual systems must also contend with architectural and aesthetic constraints. While the architect sees the beauty of a room, the technician thinks about its functionality. The former would prefer to see as few devices as possible. The latter wants to install televisions, speakers, and tablets. These are two worlds with sometimes conflicting goals, yet they must find common ground, always keeping the customer’s best interests in mind. The good news is that manufacturers have fully grasped this challenge and are offering devices with increasingly refined designs. At the Fauchon Hotel, a 5-star establishment located on Place de la Madeleine in Paris’s 8th arrondissement, the Videlio and Anevia teams have installed Samsung “The Frame” screens—televisions that look so much like paintings they could easily be mistaken for them. Simply displaying a work of art on the screen makes the technology completely disappear. The major innovation at this hotel lies in the EONA–BOWO–SAMSUNG The Frame trio, which delivers a completely new user experience.
“Our job,” emphasizes Grégory Louf, Sales Director at EONA, “is to provide guests with a user-friendly interface on a Smart TV and/or tablet in their room so they can access a variety of media, use hotel services, and enjoy the convenience of on-demand entertainment. Not to mention, of course, the ability to stream their own content from their mobile device to the TV in a simple and secure way. ”
Watch the video by BOWO, who interviewed Jacques Olivier Chauvin, President of Fauchon Hospitality, to find out why there’s a tablet in a hotel.
In Croix Valmer, this same three-part solution will be implemented by the Videlio teams as part of the Lily of the Valley (LOV) project, a future 5-star hotel designed by Starck. A new technological feature has been added: the use of a Chromecast will enable Netflix streaming. Software integration paired with cutting-edge audiovisual solutions will deliver the final result in mid-June 2019!
Avoiding the Pitfalls of Consumer Electronics
As mentioned in the introduction, customers want to experience the same environment during their stay that they are used to at home. The problem is that consumer-grade products are not always suitable for professional use. Devices designed specifically for hospitality businesses feature specialized capabilities that provide greater control over the equipment and additional services. A consumer-grade TV, for example, allows the user full access to all settings. This can result in a large number of service calls for hotel staff to reconfigure the devices after each guest’s stay.
Furthermore, consumer products do not always come with the long-term support guarantee that manufacturers offer for professional solutions. In a mass market, if a product fails to find its audience, it can be quickly pulled from store shelves, making it more difficult to maintain. This is why the hospitality industry tends to turn to dedicated product lines that can provide both a high level of service to guests and tools designed for managers. Three Club Med resorts, for example (Grand Massif Samoëns, Les Arcs Panorama, and Cefalù in Sicily), have been equipped with Samsung “Hospitality” screens, which, in addition to their management capabilities, allow for the display of personalized welcome messages, promotional offers, and information about local attractions in the guest rooms.
“Choosing unified Triple Play solutions allows us to perfectly meet all the digital needs of Club Med customers,” says Philippe Lemaire of IP-Partner. “By combining IPTV and VOD in guest rooms, digital signage in common areas, and live streaming at event venues throughout these resorts, Club Med offers its guests a digital experience across the entire customer journey—all through a single platform.”
Technology is now an integral part of the hospitality industry and presents new challenges for professionals in the sector. But it is also a powerful differentiator. With guests now able to compare hundreds of properties with just a few clicks online, access to modern digital services is a selection criterion that is growing in importance. Those who know how to leverage it effectively will come out on top.
In the hospitality sector, the Videlio teams recently helped implement a Cisco-based IPTV network for the Barrière Group, which has embarked on a standardization initiative.
In early 2019, our teams delivered the INNSIDE by MELIA ROISSY, where Anevia, EONA, LG, and Crestron work together to equip the reception areas.
For the first time, the Virtual Fitness solution from Wexer has been integrated into Melia Infit.
