- Hotels Push For A More Intuitive Guest Experience By Incorporating High-Tech AV
- For hotels, the implementation of digital signage technologies has answered the critical need for more efficient updating, management, and delivery of information to their guests. As these systems have advanced, so too have the way in which these facilities use them: no longer are they simply hightech posters, but dispensers of key data that visitors may call up and manipulate to meet their needs.
- Such is the case for the Hyatt Regency O’Hare Hotel in Rosemont, IL. Boasting approximately 110,000 square feet of meeting space, the facility recognized that its large scrolling video screen—which was capable of listing only 15 events at a time, forcing guests to wait for the name of their event and the meeting room listing to appear without giving directions on how to get there—was no longer effective. PSAV, the property’s on-site technology partner, designed an interactive system pasted on X2O’s Xpresenter platform, which offers content authoring, scheduling, distribution, and remote management capabilities.
- Today, the hotel is equipped with 13 46-inch touch screens that are integrated into the content management system, enabling guests to access information on events, amenities, concierge services, and airline arrival
When a guest turns on the in-mirror television in the high-roller suites at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, NV, with the Xantech touchpanel, the system automatically displays the hotel’s hospitality network. and departure listings. A three-dimensional map, designed by X2O’s Creative Services department, illustrates way-finding.
Denis Lesak, corporate director of digital signage services at PSAV in Los Angeles, CA, acknowledges that in offering this level of interactivity, it was necessary for the system designers to encourage visitors unaccustomed to the technology to walk up and manipulate the screens. “We realized that we needed to give the guest more indication on the fact that it is a touch screen, and that they can touch it,” he said. The solution: a hand animation with a water ripple effect that appears every three seconds. The signs at the Hyatt are equipped to handle motion sensor technology as well, and PSAV is currently exploring ways to make them behave differently when a visitor approaches.
David Wilkins, president and CEO of X2O Media, said that digital signage systems also present hotels with an outlet for additional revenue generation through the sale of ads to surrounding businesses, restaurants, and boutiques. “All of a sudden, the hotel is taking the whole broadcast television revenue model and applying it to their business,” he said. Because everything a person does while interacting with the screen is recorded, hotels can use metrics to measure how effective the system is, and alter their content delivery accordingly. “Applying technology to satisfy business needs is the bigger picture, and that’s what’s exciting for us—the idea of taking content and business goals, putting them together, and presenting a compelling application to the user to fulfill that business need.”
Hotel rooms themselves are also evolving, and Rick Seegull, director of business development at Xantech, observed that high-tech features are no longer reserved for expensive suites. Flat screen televisions and high definition TV are making their way into standard rooms as is, to a degree, surround sound.
