In our last
article, "Are you wasting money and losing guests
with your HDTV?", I described the minimum requirements
needed for today and the future for your in-room TV sets. Today, we examine
some new technologies that could potentially save you and your property (ies) a lot of money in infrastructure and legal video
content fees, both "real time", "VOD", and "streaming internet content". Many
TV sets today, including LG, Samsung, Panasonic, Vizio,
Sony and several others, but not Westinghouse, offer a large variety of "apps"
built directly into their higher end HDTV models whether they be LED, LCD, or
Plasma. These TV sets are now equipped with WiFi
capabilities, and also LAN (RJ45 inputs). This added functionality, allows you
to save huge amounts of money, and in many cases increase your pay per view
revenue.
HOW DOES THIS WORK? If
you can currently receive OTA (over the air) TV programming via a regular TV
antenna, you will find that in over 90% of the U.S., and many other countries,
you can supply your guest with local TV stations on a FTG (Free to Guest)
basis. Free, with no fees to any company or individual. In most areas you with
find the type of signal that the local TV stations are being broadcast in is
1080i format. Your cost for that content is $0.00 [local license fees may
apply].
Now
for the most interesting part, the built in "apps" in the HDTV with WiFi, and/or LAN enabled, are all VOD content. An interesting
free "app" is AP NewsTicker.
It is a screen crawl positioned on the bottom
of the screen, about 1 - 2 inches high, which feeds the latest breaking news in
the areas that you are interested in (sports, politics, stock market,
weather alerts, world news etc.) The following is only a partial listing of
available "apps". Some are free, some are PPV, where
you, the hotelier, can make extra commissions: NetFlix,
Vudu, Yahoo, Accu Weather,
Cinemania, Explore 3D, FaceBook, YouTube, Blockbuster,
Google maps, Hulu Plus, Napster, Pandora, SPS TV, and
Texas Holdem. Plus you can go to the TV set's main "app" menu and drill down to exactly what you want to watch, i.e., sports,
kids, games, news, etc. More and more content is being added as this article is
being written. There are several accounting systems that can charge the guest
for extra bandwidth, or PPV content [This is still in Beta as of this writing].
However, the choice is yours. WHAT ARE THE PITFALLS? By now
you are probably wondering what are the pitfalls.
First and foremost, you will need a WiFi enabled TV
set. With this you also require additional Internet bandwidth but there is a
huge bright spot here. If you are building a new property you don't need to
install a wired TV network. You can simply deploy a WiFi
network. In the case of a retrofit, there is no need to start breaking walls
for HSIA cables. There is no need for cable. We have previously seen costs of
over $500,000 for this. However, you will need more WiFi
Access Points. IS THERE MORE TO COME? You
bet there is. Just keep on reading this series right here, or contact the
writer,
Les Spielman is president of Hospitality Automation Consultants Ltd., an independent consulting firm. With more than 32 years of experience in the lodging business, he provides assistance with automation tasks on a personalized basis. Hospitality Automation Consultants Ltd. has successfully completed over 3,200 consulting projects throughout the world. He was just reelected to his third consecutive term to the Board of Directors of the Society of Telecommunications Consultants. His practice is global. Spielman welcomes inquiries at: Hospitality Automation Consultants Ltd
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