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Chapter 1: Trends and Innovation
The Forward March of Technology in the Hotel Trade – Interview with Douglas C. Rice, Hotel Technology Next Generation – The European Hotel TV Market – Calculating ROI for Technology in the Hospitality Trade – Interviews with Omer ACAR (Ritz Paris), Jan van der Putten (Hilton Amsterdam Airport Schiphol), Mr Zurab (Grand Hotel Europe St Petersburg) – Case Study: Hotel Principe di Savoia, Italy
Chapter 2: AV in the Hotel – From the Interactive TV to Digital Signage and Projection Systems
Hotel TV Buyers’ Guide – Interviews with Edwin Duijnisveld & Bert Verschuren (Philips Consumer Electronics), Darko Antic (LG Electronics), Yuichiro Kasahara (Panasonic), Paul Feenstra (Chief Manufacturing), Alistair Forbes (Acentic), Alexis Delb (Locatel), Nigel Bateson (Otrum ASA), Dietmar Eberl (Premiere Hotel Entertainment), Myron Tataryn (Quadriga)
Chapter 3: Important Industry Contacts - Events
Acentic – Chief – LG Electronics – Otrum – Panasonic – Philips – Premiere Hotel Entertainment – Technetix – Quadriga
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© photo: Philips
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BERT VERSCHUREN
General Manager
Hospitality TV Worldwide
PHILIPS CONSUMER ELECTRONICS
Bert Verschuren joined the Philips hospitality TV group begin 2006, after having worked within various other business and project management roles in Philips CE, Siemens Telecom and Barco. He holds a master degree in Telecom Engineering and an MBA in General Management from the Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School.
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EDWIN DUIJNISVELD
Business Manager
Hospitality TV Region Europe
PHILIPS CONSUMER ELECTRONICS
Edwin Duijnisveld is Business Manager responsible for the marketing and sales in Europe. He joined Philips in 1999 and held various positions within Philips. He holds a master degree in Industrial Design Engineering at Technical University in Delft.
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The business group Business Display Solutions is part of the Business Group Connected Displays within the division Consumer Electronics with main focus on professional display applications (B2B). BL Hospitality TV is a business focusing on marketing of TV's designed for hotel (networked) applications including content on demand (pay-TV). Philips Hospitality TV is the global leader in hospitality market.
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Cleverdis: We hear a lot of people talking about Hotel Mode TV. What exactly is “Hotel Mode”, and how was it developed by Philips?…
Bert Verschuren: Philips has been working in the hotel market for more than 15 years now, and to date we have installed around 6-million TVs in hotel rooms. This has given us an unequalled insight into what exactly is required in a Hotel Mode TV. It all starts with a basic consumer TV adapted to the needs of the hotel market and its specific features. Basic characteristics like fixed channel programming and volume control prevent disturbance to other guests. From there, we can go right up to high-end features like integration with video on demand systems. These need to have a flexible open architecture allowing each hotel’s individual system to be integrated into a total AV environment. To achieve this goal with a minimum of disturbance to the hotel guest installation should be made easy for the System Integrators. After installation the use and manage of the total AV environment should also be simple. For example, one remote control to clone an original set of TV settings to all other TVs installed.
The “Simplicity” side of it has been our philosophy and concept for many years. Of course the “Sense” part of it is a lower cost of ownership for the hotel operators.
Cl.: Tell us more about what is important in a “hotel mode” remote control…
B.V.: First of all you have several possibilities, depending on whether a central system is installed in the hotel. If it is a simple hotel environment using 100 TVs with no central video on demand, you will choose that remote control with standardized buttons for alarm clocks and so on. If it is an extensive installation with video on demand, the System Integrators may choose to deliver their own remote control, if they believe this fits their own video on demand system better. Based upon the TV facilities, it can be customised by the System Integrator.
Edwin Duijnisveld: In addition, our own remote control has several extra features like a low battery indicator and a battery trap. The first feature means that the remote actually sends a signal to the TV screen informing Hotel Management that the battery is low.
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The second feature prevents hotel guests to steal the batteries. It may seem simple but on the total cost of ownership regarding maintenance this is a considerable difference.
Cl.: So TCO, or Total Cost of Ownership, is an important factor to consider…not just ease of use.
E.D.: Yes. Look at it this way. Basically, everything we do in this market can be divided in two categories. The first one represents the guest really having the easiest experience in the hotel room, i.e. having a satisfied guest. The other one is the total cost of ownership, i.e. how much will it cost the hotel to keep everything running. We always work very closely with all System Integrators, giving them control over our TVs and have a clear dialogue about it so we know what the impact for the hotel itself will be. We do a great number of integration tests before we launch a new product. Most of the System Integrators will have tested and approved a new product so we can be sure it will work with all the main hotel VOD and interactive systems.
Cl.: What is your vision for the Hotel TV market for the next few years?
B.V.: The move to flat will be an important one. Throughout 2006 it has been progressing much faster than we all expected. Hotels, whether they have 1 star or 6 stars, are all re-thinking their brand standards and concepts. Flat TV is being considered a big part of that. When it comes to connectivity, besides the normal co-axial connections, IP will certainly be playing a major role in the future. By going more and more digital, you will see an increasing number of services offered in the hotel room, by either the TV itself or by System Integrators building-in additional services. It will be our challenge to make sure we keep track of all the extra features and functionalities continuing to enable them in our hotel mode sets. On all levels, the hotel market is considerably different from the consumer TV market. Our understanding of this is crucial when it comes to serving the hotel TV market correctly. One basic element remains obviously the product features themselves. Regarding this, we plan to launch the IP-TV with IP integration fully incorporated inside the TV in the next couple of months.
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