LRG and IHG Managed Estate UK has announced that in partnership with Acentic, it is going to roll out high definition to over 11,000 rooms across 59 UK Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza Hotels. This roll out is going to considerably increase the number of European hotel properties that actually deliver HD TV in their guest rooms. This is the first major hotel brand to rollout HD to such a large number of rooms. The shift to upgrade to end to end digital has been slow to come for the hotel sector and the shift to HD has been even slower. Hoteliers have had multiple barriers ranging from installed TV screens and networks to confusion over standards. All has been accompanied by an economic downturn. The opportunity to overcome these barriers and increase the quality of entertainment systems in hotels has been core to Acentic’s strategy over the recent years- most notably with the development of the Panorama platform, which enables digital and now HD over both existing coaxial networks and IP networks. However, the majority of European properties still suffer from the lack of in-room LCD televisions and analogue picture quality. Hoteliers seem to forget that most of their guests switch on the television during their stay! Whilst we agree that the bed is far more important than the TV, it is time for hoteliers to start thinking about getting into the present. In years to come when my daughter is old enough to ask me what is a CRT and an analogue signal (I know it’s highly unlikely), the easiest solution may be to take her to a hotel. At Acentic we are aiming to change all of that. The partnership with LRG and IHG Managed Estate UK is allowing us to push forth the vision that hotels should have the latest in sophisticated in-room technology.