Guest Room Entertainment Going Live!
I'm actually going to start this blog with an apology. To Darren at ROOMNET, I'm sorry. I'm sorry because I read this post, all about Guest Room Entertainment and the idea inspired me so much, that I had to write about it to share it with my audience!
If you're British and a similar age to me your Saturday mornings were filled with 'Going Live". In this case, Going Live! was a Saturday morning TV show aimed at younger audiences. It launched the careers of household names such as Philip Schofield and provided entertainment in a pre World Wide Web era. The premise of the show was the live magazine format. Bringing together live performances and shows. However, that's not the Going Live I want to talk about today though.
Focusing on my passion of guest room entertainment, I wanted to bring to you the great info shared through this post, From Broadway To Bedroom.
Live From Your Hotel Room It's Guest Room Entertainment!
Many of you will know that Guest Room Entertainment is my passion. From interactive TV systems, content casting to Hollywood movies, I love it. The introduction of content aggregators, which I've discussed before, has changed things somewhat, however, Darren seems to have stumbled on an untapped resource. One driven by the current COVID19 pandemic.
In a world of social distancing, attendance at theatres and concert venues will be greatly reduced. Yet after months of lockdown around the world, no doubt, the demand for viewing live entertainment will never have been greater. This leaves a dilemma for producers of shows, increase ticket prices to make up for a reduction in revenue, or just lose money!
It seems though, there might be a 3rd way. Before we discuss that 3rd way though, we'll take a quick history lesson.
From Hollywood To Hotel
There was once a time, perhaps remembered fondly by many of you where content really was king, before people were actually saying "content is king". That time I speak of was the era of dominance of video on demand in hotel guest room entertainment.
Yes, myself, like many others were constantly impressed by the choice of on demand content available in the hotel guest room entertainment solution. Direct from Hollywood movies, multiple genres and content you couldn't see elsewhere. In fact, there are still some people doing this, and doing it well. Check out my thoughts on that here.
Then, suddenly, Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Video, Disney+, you get the picture. Recorded Hollywood content was dead. Or was it? People still consumed content, they just took different content from a different service. Guest room entertainment solutions moved from providing content, to providing access. The viewers however, they remained.
So, could our guest room entertainment solutions be just the inspiration we need to rescue our theatres?
A Private Premiere
Your own private premiere, as Darren describes it, could not be as far fetched as it may sound. Along with others it seems the idea is that our hotel guest rooms could pick up the slack.
A hotel guest room, by its very nature is socially distanced. In fact, it can be your own safe little bubble. The idea is to broadcast the live events, direct to hotel guest rooms. This means people can see the hotly anticipated concerts or Broadway shows in their own safe, secure environment!
Another amazing thing about our hotels, is they contain hospitality people. We know our amazing hospitality staff are some of the hardest working, most personable people in the world. These teams are ready to take your experience to the next level. Beers, snacks and my personal favourite, extra pillows!
So, the technology exists, the people are in place, but do people want it? I think so, in fact I'm totally convinced! Let me know your thoughts in the comments below! Would you book a hotel room with your own showing of Hamilton, or West Side Story? Maybe The Book of Mormon is more your thing? Either way you could have your own viewing sooner than you think!
James Harrison
Principal Consultant
HotelTCS
