Held every two years, the Ryder Cup is the only place to be for those with a passion for golf.  This year, the event will be held at the Celtic Manor Resort on the outskirts of Newport in South Wales.  With 2008’s Ryder Cup drawing just over 243,000 people, 2010 is set to be a huge event with hundreds of thousands of people from over 100 countries around the world.  To make the most of the event and fully enjoy the Ryder Cup 2010 at the Celtic Manor Resort, guests and attendees are going to need clear and practical information on the different aspects of the event, the venue and the festivities. 

Sure most people will be watching the greatest players from Europe and the US battle it out on the course, but during the downtime they’ll want to relax in their room with the television programming they are used to.  The Celtic Manor’s owner, Sir Terence Hedley Matthews, wants only the best in guest room technology for all the Ryder Cup attendees and believe me, Terry knows his technology, having blazed the high tech trail by founding some of the biggest name tech companies in the UK. That’s why we’re helping the Celtic Manor take the next step to provide over 500 TV and radio channels so that there is something for everyone and local programming for all the international guests. We’ll be showing all the greatest golf flicks such as, Caddy Shack, Tin Cup, Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius, The Greatest Game Ever Played, etc. Also families and children can have plenty to watch if they aren’t interested in what’s happening on the green.
But we’ll also be giving them an entertainment experience that they’ve never seen before when they turn on the TV and see the Panorama and Philips Ultimate HD system. And what goes better with sporting events than HD television?  Guests can watch multiple HDTV channels and movies in their downtime, which the Celtic Manor could only offer with the help of Acentic.
Now all the Ryder Cup attendees can just sit back, relax and look forward to witnessing the greatest players from Europe and USA do battle and absorbing the atmosphere of this thrilling biennial tournament! I’m looking forward to see who makes the putts!

We, at Acentic, have been busy monitoring major corporation IT security movements around WiFi acceptance.

As recently as 2005, only 25% of business travellers used WiFi in your hotel rooms. This was due to cultural and cost barriers as well as security concerns. Four years later and practically every laptop built is equipped with a built-in WiFi card enabled to access corporate LANs. Today, corporate IT managers don’t only allow WiFi usage, they insist upon it. We’ve seen growth in the hotel industry adopting WiFi. This is reflected in an increasing number of request for proposals being received by Acentic, all of which insist upon conformance to WiFi standards.

Although WiFi offers so many benefits for your guest, your IT managers have to deal with a myriad of protocol standards, with different levels of security. A New York Times¹ article quoted: “Business travel is dependent on fragile technological networks that have already shown the stresses of a sudden strain.” With this it becomes all the more important to partner with technology vendors that have experience with WiFi, security and the logistics that come with WiFi networking. With Acentic’s expertise and hotel heritage you have a partner that is fully equipped and focused to consult on their needs and fulfill not only today’s but also tomorrow’s requirements.

To underline Acentic’s dedication, we have created a new Business Development team solely dedicated to WiFi and other HSIA applications. Want to know more? Email them at john.waters@acentic.com

¹ Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/04/business/04road.html?_r=2&scp=30&sq=internet&st=nyt

I sat down the other day in one of my favorite hotel lobbies and as I opened up my laptop the General Manager arrived and proudly started explaining how his hotel technician had installed and set up a free WiFi service with some simple off-the-shelf equipment.

He was right. I was able to easily connect to the Internet and download all my emails that had piled up over the day. Looking around, I wasn't the only one that was using the WiFi while the waiter was keeping fit traveling back and forth from the bar with drinks and snacks. The lobby had been transformed into a hive of activity.

Whilst I applaud the innovative service-minded hotelier who actually is one of our industry friends, I still have two tips for him and all General Managers out there.

The first tip is, don't deprive the hotel of an obvious revenue stream. Even though it is possibly supplemented by additional traffic at the bar as people take a coffee as they work. However the provision of HSIA is a business essential and as a result guests are ready to pay (sensible amounts) for quality connectivity and security. The term quality is of course open to discussion but one thing is certain, quality must include sufficient bandwidth, VPN support, security for guests, regular software updates and a helpdesk. All of these require an investment by the hotel, which goes beyond the implementation of a few hotspots and free access. New investment will be needed every year as the needs in bandwidth and security constantly evolve and guests become more demanding with their Internet access.

My second tip involves the responsibility of the hotel. Throughout Europe newly implemented laws insist on the tracking of connectivity to ensure that guests that might have partaken in illicit online activities can be identified. The tracking also usually requires the storing of data for a period of 12 months. An EU Directive was published in 2006 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2006:105:0054:0063:EN:PDF and is coming into effect across most European countries.

 Whatever Internet strategy is adopted by hotels, free or pay, it is important to think ahead to maintain quality service and remain in line with the data retention acts of each country.

This was an advice given to me when we first started this. But sometimes your people do some neat things and we let it pass by.

The ArabellaSheraton Grand Hotel in Munich has begun a room by room refurbishment which began on 19th January and will be completed on the 30th May. The hotel has an old analogue Pay-TV system with CRT TVs. I just picked up last week that we installed a DVB-C headend straight away and as each room is completed, a new Philips 32” screen is installed with our Panorama digital TV platform. As of today, over 50% of rooms are refurbished and have digital tv whilst the non-refurbished but still in action have analogue TV with CRT’s.

So no old rooms with new technology, and no new rooms with old technology. Simple but very very neat. These are the kind of things we do but are not very good at telling our customers.

Way to go Waldemar!

"The current economic crisis is creating unprecedented challenges and opportunities for hoteliers, resulting in the greatest repositioning of wealth since the 1930s," said Jim Butler, author of www.HotelLawBlog.com and chairman of the Global Hospitality Group. Acentic has learned valuable lessons from its years of experience in the hotel technology industry that help us do well in this economy.  We know that hotels have to define differences and create unique experiences for guests, but how do you do that unless your hotel has the biggest fish tank in the world (Radisson Berlin) or your hotel is made of ice (Hotel De Glace, Quebec).  If you’re not one of the world’s most unique “gimmick” hotels, you have to differentiate by knowing what the guest wants in their room before the guest even knows it.  This is done with technology advancements such as on-demand, interactive TV with perfect picture quality, user-friendly interface and innovative content.  This is what Acentic is helping hotels achieve with our Panorama iTV system – we have the content research and technology to provide the channels and on-demand content that guests want in order to keep the hotel one step ahead of the guest expectations, in a sense we’re helping hotels shape the guests’ expectations by providing the in-room technology that they didn’t even know they needed until they checked-in. By differentiating the hotel with enhanced in-room technology, hoteliers that have chosen Acentic Panorama have seen increased revenue up to 30%.  According to Cable and Satellite International, in Western Europe over 60% of homes have digital TV, so of course these people would expect at least that in their hotel room. Acentic Panorama aims to give them the very best of what they have at home but also going beyond what is in their living room to put the hotel room entertainment system ahead of the consumer world.  This is the way to ensure high take up rates, guest satisfaction, ROI, and differentiation among a sea of hotels all struggling in this economy.

The new Sofitel London Heathrow at Terminal 5 is not an airport hotel, says Arora International Hotels chairman Surinder Arora. “It’s a five-star luxury hotel which just happens to be at an airport.” And the hotel’s new digital interactive entertainment system from Acentic is not just TV. It is five-star entertainment, information and enrichment of the guest experience at the Sofitel London Heathrow.

Sofitel’s guests are enjoying a supreme viewing experience on brilliant LCD screens, easy access to all programming with an enhanced graphical user interface, cutting edge content from digital channels to satellite to live news and weather, the ability to keep in touch with high-speed Internet and international channels to make global travellers feel right at home no matter where they hail from.

With a refreshing focus on guests’ needs, Acentic Panorama’s digital broadcast, on-demand and interactive TV services go beyond TV to bring the hotel closer to its guests.