Friday 8 March 2013

Advantages and Challenges of Delivering a Networked Hospitality Experience Part 2: In-room Entertainment


There seems to be a consensus that aside from mobility, Cloud computing is the technology trend at the forefront of transforming the way businesses operate. It can help making operations more efficient, enables faster time to market, delivers higher quality and lowers cost – items that are on top of the of every hotelier’s concern list. Some hotel technologies and operations are more suitable than others to be placed in the Cloud, such as PMS systems. But is the Cloud ready for in-room entertainment?

The answer is yes - and no, if digital TV comes into play. Delivering digital TV through the Cloud requires at least 1Mbps per room, making it prohibitively expensive in the majority of countries today. On top of that, most countries require providers to acquire a broadcast licence to deliver TV services through the Cloud, which particularly in Asia can be fraught with red tape.

So for hotels who want to provide a high quality, digital TV viewing experience, a walled garden IPTV solution remains the only option for the foreseeable future.

Ready for the Cloud: Hotels with
bigger emphasis on
 individualised guest services
TV aside though, delivering other features and guest entertainment services through the Cloud (including VOD), is a viable alternative for hotels, provided certain criteria are met. 

The beauty about Cloud-delivered entertainment services is of course is that hotels can do away with the expenses of having server equipment on their premises. And if hotels have invested in the latest SmartTVs, they also don’t need an STB in the room, provided the in-room entertainment provider integrates with the major SmartTV providers like Samsung and LG. In this scenario, the service could even be provided on a monthly subscription basis, which reduces hotels’ upfront CAPEX and allows more flexibility in terms of service updates. In this scenario TV remains analog but even then, delivery at an acceptable quality requires reasonable and reliable bandwidth to the hotel.

However, in some locations and for some hotel brands which are content with analog TV and have a bigger emphasis on individualised guest services, using the Cloud or a hybrid, minimum equipment solution may well suffice. The question is: why aren’t more hotels taking advantage of delivering their services through the Cloud?

The main reason is that it is always hard to change established ecosystems and the people that have been trained within it. And Cloud technology is particularly disruptive, which goes against the grain of the established IT ecosystems in hotels and elsewhere.

An analogy is the Windows monopoly that took years for Apple to crack with ground shifting business models and technologies. Similarly, the Cloud has been around for a while in some shape or form, mainly known simply as the Internet. But the mobile/connectivity world we live in today has created one of those inflection points where the simple Internet has transformed itself into the Cloud, with the business models and technology advances to match. This hopefully will also result in the next generation of IT managers embracing Cloud technology at a much quicker pace.

It won’t happen overnight as hotel IT managers have to deal with legacy systems and architectural constraints, among other things. But they should certainly be ready and look for ways to take advantage of the Cloud in every which way possible – including in-room entertainment.
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