As additional content sources, viewing devices and delivery methods are introduced and quickly adopted by consumers, the various players along the chain must come up with flexible and creative solutions to answer market demands. Content is no longer consumed within the defined borders of the PayTV ecosystem, but via a wide variety of platforms and systems. Soon enough, these new trends will infiltrate and spread from the household to the hotel entertainment industry.

For 2011, we at Acentic have chosen to reflect upon a few New Year resolutions for the in-room entertainment industry, aiming to enhance service offering and entertainment experience for hotel guests.

Reviewing the numerous means by which content is delivered and retrieved by consumers, we find a few common factors that would leverage this experience regardless of content source, or viewing device:

• Ensure service continuity – deliver a consistent high quality of content, no matter which device or content source is utilized. One of the most important factors of user satisfaction from the in-room entertainment provided is the variety and quality of content served.   
• Provide rich and relevant functionality – enable guests to do as much as possible through the in-room system, and enrich this offering with relevant targeted local content. This can be achieved via integrating Digital TV services with targeted banners and promotions for local businesses, restaurants and cultural events.
• Offer intuitive interface – As families, business travelers and other guests frequent your hotel, they do not need to be burdened with learning how to operate the entertainment system from scratch each time. Middleware/UI providers need to ensure that the graphic and textual language used is intuitive and fun. Most guests arriving to their hotel room are either on vacation, or right after their work day has ended. Offer them the luxury to relax and enjoy entertainment.

As a leading supplier of digital interactive TV (iTV) and broadband systems for the hotel industry, we constantly seek and explore entertainment trends, to provide the most functional and engaging experience for hotel guests, while at the same time enable lucrative opportunities for hotel owners. Market trends are not necessarily specific to the hotel industry, and we therefore continuously look at the Digital TV and new media markets to learn and identify consumer trends and introduce them to our industry.