Hotel Internet Services and Princess Cruises are among hospitality providers adding more IPTV features to television and other content delivery mechanisms in guest rooms, to give travelers more of a home-away-from-home experience.
On the land side, Hotel Internet Services launched an updated version of its hospitality entertainment system so hotel guests can now pause live TV, fast-forward and rewind as well as preview a channel while watching another via picture-in-picture.
It is, said Peter Broughton, director of IT at the 1720-room Silver Legacy Resort Casino in Reno, just what his guests want.
"Our guests can do so much more now such as watch HDTV, check out via the TV, order room service, browse the Web, check local entertainment and special offers," he said in a press release, adding that the new IPTV system is even an environmental improvement because it "contributes to our Green Initiative by digitizing our previous print-based portfolio."
It's not just an entertainment system, either, Hotel Internet Services emphasized, noting that it offers on-screen interactive services like housekeeping, in-rom dining, valet and taxi service, hotel staff-to-guest messaging and advertising all customizable and controlled by the hotel staff.
Travelers hitting the high seas aboard Princess Cruises' latest vessel, the Royal Princess, will be able to experience a new TV Everywhere interactive system thanks to the collaboration of the cruise line with ViewSonic and UIEvolution.
The Royal Princess is the first cruise ship in the Princess line to be outfitted with the UIE Hospitality TV Platform that features a browser-based smart TV application that can be extended to support screen shifting live TV, movies and music to the passenger's smartphone or tablet; on-board mapping and routing; information about ship activities; and restaurant and wine menus.
The system leans on collaboration between ViewSonic, which provides the video screens, and UIEvolution, which offers an HTML5-based TV Everywhere platform for passengers and crew TVs, as well as digital signage throughout the ship.
Princess Cruises could potentially expand the system, called the UIE Hospitality TV Platform, aboard all 18 of its ships.
For more:
- see this press release
- and this press release
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