Almost a year ago I attempted through this article to look into the future in relation to guest side technologies that we will see deployed into Hotels - especially for those that understand the 6th-star concept. I am pleased to see many have already started to be applied such as PDA's, wireless networks and PWTs (portable wireless telephones). Here now is my latest attempt at this not-so-precise-science.

So what's here, and more importantly - what's coming - where should we be focusing our attention and budget$ - what will be the needs of the guest and business?

Well for sure, security is of growing concern, and bio-metrics will definitely play an increasing role. For example, the Hong Kong Government as of August 18th 2003, through its Immigration Department commenced implementation of the territory-wide Identity (ID) Card

Replacement Exercise. Existing ID card holders will be called up through public announcements to attend the Smart ID Card Centres in groups, in accordance with their year of birth, to have their ID cards replaced within specified periods in the coming four years. Designed to be multifunctional, almost immediately it can become a library card, and a free one year e-certificate (e-Cert) is being offered by the post office. Next year it's hoped it can be used for traveling purposes, going through boundary crossing points and later on it will become a driving license. To process a smart ID card (e.g. use the e-Cert embedded to conduct electronic transactions see URL list), a computer needs to be equipped with a smart card reader (see URL list for reference).

Unlike many other countries (such as the UK and US), the carrying of a government issued ID card in Hong Kong is mandatory. I was first issued a card in 1976 when I commenced employment with Hilton. During my 18 year absence from the territory, somehow I misplaced it, and upon returning in 1995, the Immigration Department was able to reproduce a facsimile of the original in under two hours - is that scary or what?

Sure, we can get some form of Government issued ID from Guests, especially passports, but what do we do for our full and part time staff and contractors? What do we give them to make them 100% identifiable as and when they enter and leave the premises, or need access to certain restricted areas?

Mac McGolpin - CEO & Marketing Director of AsiaWeb Co., recently me told that Biometrics have been around since ancient Egypt whereby distinguishing marks of travelers and merchants were noted and could be verified on next meeting. Today we have an even greater need especially after 9/11, Bali, Jakarta, Baghdad, Mumbai etc and a whole host of unfortunate terrorist activities. According to a recent BBC report, the FBI apparently has 13 million people on their watch list.

Authentication of ID (who is entering and leaving a building or sitting next to you on a plane) and the proving of presence at a specific location (such as in the case of time and attendance) is opening up a vast market for such devices. Iris recognition though, is considered to be the most accurate of all biometrics and claims exist of no false acceptance in over 2 billion attempts.

Very recently, the UK Home Secretary David Blunkett reportedly won the backing of his G8 counterparts to rapidly develop an iris-based biometric system as an extra check on the identity of international travelers.

But technical reports in the UK and US have expressed doubts whether biometrics will be able to do what ministers hope they can. The reason being that large scale use iris scanning has yet to be tested on significant numbers of people.

But never mind the fly in your soup, think about the worm that may get into your computer!

I'm sorry to say this, but many of us place far too much trust in our computer hardware and don't perform enough backups of often irreplaceable data. For just a few hundred (US) dollars you can for example, equip yourself with a portable hard drive less than 2 cigarette packets in size that effortlessly connects into the USB or Fire wire port of your PC, allowing almost limitless and affordable offline data storage. There are several variations of these on the market which contain a notebook hard drive +/- 60Gb in capacity which should be sufficient for most of us, so you can worry less about a hardware failure (or the machine being stolen) or how to back up those extra big files. It's extremely useful as temporary storage of pictures, music, power point presentations, video etc., especially if you are going on a trip and don't want to lug round paper files and CD's.

For those of us that like (or have no alternative than) to bring work home, it may even be easier to use a key chain based Thumb Drive or Flash USB Memory, although that of course has to be allowed under the company's data security policy. You can also look at a software package called WINRAR that takes large files and cuts them into manageable size pieces for burning onto removable media like CDs and floppies (remember those?). Don't forget to also equip yourself with reputable anti-virus software, especially one that offers regular updates! Handhelds (according to Symantec), particularly those with wireless connectivity and especially those that are used to access business data, are an open invitation to attack. Although there haven't been any malicious assaults on PocketPC devices--and thus far, relatively few aimed at Palm-based PDAs--it's only a matter of time before virus writers turn their attention to handhelds. "Virus writers are looking to make an impact, and there's a critical mass of handheld devices that don't have any anti-virus protection."

And, to stop those annoying pop-up windows that regularly appear on some websites, I encourage you to take a look at where amongst other things, they have a free download - pop-up stopper.

On the communications front, I'm sure many of you (who have the time) have seen the Cisco IP Phone through its many cameo appearances such as those with Sandra Bullock in "Miss Congeniality", and Mel Gibson in "What Women Want." On the television side, "West Wing," "Just Shoot Me," "JAG," and "24", among others. I'm told by reputable sources that over 2 million Cisco IP handsets have been shipped to-date, making them the #1 in handsets, yet AVAYA claim to be #1 in installed ports, (meaning familiarity already exists with these type of devices), and a few of these are starting to see the light of day in Hotels. I myself recently visited two such installations at the Sheraton Petaluma, Ca. and Hotel Commonwealth in Boston

WHY on earth would you want to install an IP phone system into a Hotel I hear you say? Well, very detailed research exists on this subject, and I will not use these valuable column inches to describe the pros and cons. However, what I will mention is that these and their competitors (yes they do have some like AVAYA, Pingtel (rather funky in design), Alcatel, NEC, Nortel etc) are not just phones in the traditional meaning of the word - they are communicators (no, not like in Star Trek). Being 'soft' in architecture, applying a Hotel application layer software and XML services, makes them function and feature rich in this very specific environment. Getting weather, airline or stock info can be achieved at the press of a few buttons, as well as ordering room service, entering a wake up call, or looking at details on local attractions. Group and Personal directories in addition to staff alerts can also be accessed by the system; detailed interaction with the PMS is possible for guest profiling and changes of language prompts.

Certain models operate over what is termed PoE (the phone being Powered over the Ethernet network) with the handset requiring only a single LAN cable and not an unsightly power supply plus transformer. This makes it ergonomically friendly, and easier to position if you don't have a spare power socket by the bed. Many models are equipped with a data-thru-port at the rear (much like we used to see on-the-side for modems on analogue phones) that allows broadband connectivity (if present on the network). These devices run on structured cabling systems, and operate under converged network services architecture, whereby data, video and voice all run on the same cable i.e. CAT5, 5e or 6. Remember though, that if you replace your traditional PABX for IPT (internet protocol telephony), you may still need to provide analogue lines for guests to use modems and fax machines etc., - so an analogue gateway could be required. I hope the need for this will soon disappear (by all of us using broadband when its either more available or better priced) - since providing this functionality is a rather expensive add-on, and most likely underutilized to justify the additional cost - that is unless your service levels really dictate the need to have this in every guestroom.

In addition to these hard phones, (in the commercial world) we are seeing the emergence of soft phones which are software emulators of hard phones (as discussed above) that can run on PCs and/or wireless PDAs (so far I have only seen Pocket PCs do this). The PDA version for example, is fully functional allowing the holder to roam the in-house (802.11b Wi-Fi -this is not DECT) network whilst conducting a voice call, and simultaneously interacting with various other functions of the device and quite possibly, inter-connected systems such as security/cctv, building management (BMS), PoS, CRM, and PMS etc. Adding a simple headset like the type used on a cell phone, can make them somewhat more ergonomically friendly than walkie-talkies.

A piece of tech that is quite possibly the last item in a guestroom for overhaul, is the TV. Aiding this metamorphosis through the lowering of costs and numerous benefits they bring, wall mounted LCD and Plasma TVs are rapidly finding themselves entering Hotel rooms and serviced apartments. The question then begs itself, what shall they be used for apart from TV and pay-per-view movies? Hotels may not like to publicly admit this fact, but (where allowed) sales of Porn account for the majority of in-room revenue from these systems, with an approximate running time of 10-minutes. This being in direct contradiction to the marketing emphasis placed upon having box office hits and up-to-date movies.

A somewhat useful fact is that the expected life of a plasma TV is 20,000 hours, versus LCD with 60,000 hours. Expect a 30-40% premium for LCD over plasma TVs, but also a much higher picture resolution.

Seeing this as an opportunity especially as HDTV slowly becomes a reality, Microsoft are linking up with hardware manufacturers and content providers to deliver tomorrow's experience based around the (love it or hate it) omnipresent Windows platform.

In Microsoft's words - Powered by Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition, Media Center PCs are complete Windows XP PCs enhanced for home entertainment. These computers represent the evolution of home PCs into digital media hubs that bring together your entertainment choices and allow you to access them with one remote control (complete with a big green windows-style start button). Media Center PCs come equipped with all the necessary hardware to deliver powerful computing and an enjoyable home entertainment experience.

And as Media centers such as the one shown here slowly creep into Hotels, they will include Hi-Fi Audio, PC, Home Theater style sound with AM/FM Radio Tuner, Audio CD Player, MP3 Music CD Player, TV-Tuner Function (option), 6-in-one card reader function (SD, SM, MMC, Memory Stick, etc). For +/- US$1k, these units can be placed into Hotel rooms and the guest has the ultimate freedom and flexibility to view their own content, maybe rent a movie from BlockBuster via Room service, borrow movies (without cost) from the Hotel's own library, view pictures taken during sightseeing trips with digital cameras, watch terrestrial and cable TV, listen to music - either their own of via the in-built internet radio functionality of Windows Media 9, surf the web with an IR (infra-red) keyboard, or do all these while using the panel as a display for their notebook computer.

As time goes by, we'll see extensive integration of these devices into the PMS whereby welcome messages will be multi-lingual as will screen prompts and special screensavers (digital art) and soothing tunes playing in the background. Preferred settings will be stored for your next visit and/or passed to a sister property adding to the group's CRM functionality. On screen programming guides will aide the busy guest in knowing what's on, and a one-button record feature, will activate the TiVo like functionality the solution encompasses.

I suspect that when independent sales of Microsoft's X-Box start to wane, we'll see the emergence of a suitably sized card to fit into-the-box, thereby transforming it into a so-called killer app.

On the subject of Windows Media 9 (WMV 9), two DVDs have so far been re-mastered and issued in this format. Buying one of these like T2 (Terminator 2) will see two disks in the pack, one is a standard DVD and the other one is a WMV High definition DVD. It has a 3.4 times higher resolution than a normal DVD, however, you can only play this back on a 3.06Ghz machine with XP installed and 5.1 sound card . My source tells me that Microsoft are in the discussion phase to launch up to 20 (in the US) by year end.

So, watch out for Hotels bearing new marketing slogans: BYODM (Bring Your Own Digital Media) and offering surround sound headphones for rent or delivered free with the TV-dinner pizza.

URL reference List

e-cert:

www.hongkongpost.gov.hk/product/ecert/type/smartid/index.html

Smart card reader

www.smartid.gov.hk/en/reader/index.html

LG Iris reader


Portable drives


Hotel Application Software


Softphone


Mega PC

Microsoft Media Center

Miscellaneous



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First appeared in Hotel Asia Pacific

Terence Ronson
Managing Director
Pertlink Limited