Gaming & Leisure’s Voice podcast host John Cash Filippe welcomed Kara Heermans, SONIFI’s senior vice president of product management and user experience, to discuss how the role of the in-room TV—and the content on it—has evolved over the years, and why it’s more important than ever for hotels to pay attention to.

Watch & listen to the discussion:

 

By Kara Heermans, SONIFI’s Senior Vice President of Product Management and User Experience

 

 

The event space is a competitive business. And your interactive TVs and Wi-Fi services could help you stand out from the crowd—while boosting revenue for your property.

Here are some ways you can use your technology for unforgettable group services that will make you the go-to hotel for weddings, conferences, and events.

Create a special stay for the special day

Let’s say you’re working with a wedding planner to host a couple’s ceremony and reception in your event space, and have a large room block for their guests.

As part of your event offerings, you could promote an add-on custom TV package. With it, the TVs in their room block could power on to a menu in the wedding colors with a background image of the happy couple.

The interactive TV’s main menu then features a photo, favorite song, and video message from the couple thanking guests for traveling in—it makes a perfect backdrop for an influencer to post how excited she is to celebrate with her friends for the weekend.

The wedding planner tells you the couple and their friends are huge sports fans, so you adjust the channel lineup to put all the sports channels at the top of the guide. It’s another special touch to make their stay even better.

You also schedule a message to appear the morning after the wedding that congratulates the couple, and another that tells attendees where to go downstairs for the send-off brunch.

Bring the conference to every room

And what could this custom TV experience look like for a conference you’re hosting?

At turn-on, the TV features a personal greeting along with the conference’s logo and brand colors, making it a great way to welcome attendees in the rooms associated with the event.

Generate buzz and help everything feel connected by carrying that idea to a promotional video on the main menu that goes over the can’t-miss conference sessions and spotlights the event’s main sponsors.

In this case, not only can you charge additional for the custom TV package, conference organizers can also lobby for more sponsorship dollars given the added exposure.

You work with the event coordinator to complement the promo videos with personalized messages scheduled to automatically send throughout the conference.

Upon check-in, attendees get an invitation on the interactive TV to head to the lobby bar for the conference’s kick-off social hour.

Each morning, a simple message shares how attendees can find the schedule and locations of that day’s events, and a message each evening highlights a sponsor with a QR code to learn more about their services.

In the channel lineup, you designate a conference channel that livestreams the main stage sessions, so attendees who are under the weather or have to return to their room for a quick meeting won’t miss any of the action.

And when the event coordinator tells you a majority of the group speaks another language, you set the TV menus to display in their preferred language, and also add channels in that language to the lineup for the duration of the event.

On the last day of the conference, one last message lets attendees know where they can store their luggage until departure, and how to purchase a late checkout if needed.

Amp up event Wi-Fi experiences

When selling your group services, a stellar Wi-Fi package that includes a private network for the event elevates you above what your competitors can offer.

With the right internet partner, self-service tools allow you to easily set up event Wi-Fi that includes things like custom splash pages and branding, unique access codes and SSIDs, dedicated bandwidth, and 24/7 technical support.

Just like on the TV, you can include conference sponsors on the event’s splash screen, again increasing that exposure and revenue opportunity.

Implementing a conference services component to your network appeals to event planners and large groups—which increases your revenue potential and makes the event even more memorable for attendees.

Be sure to talk to your HSIA provider about it if you haven’t yet.

Partner up to level up your group services

To make things even easier for your staff, find a vendor who can provide both interactive TV and network solutions for your property.

Having just one place to ask questions and consult with on the best options simplifies the process for you both before implementation and after go-live.

It’s time to think about your TV and Wi-Fi as more than basic amenities. With a good technology partner, they can be just the thing to dazzle event organizers toward your property. And make you the venue that groups can’t miss and won’t forget.

 

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Editor’s note: This article first appeared in Hospitality Upgrade.

But only if you choose the right televisions for your needs.

If you don’t, it can cause headaches for your staff, cost you more money, and become a guest dissatisfier.

Having guided thousands of hotels on TV decisions, SONIFI’s Senior Director of Sales Engineering Todd Frankenhoff has 6 tips for helping you choose the right TVs for your guest rooms.

1. Figure out your goals before buying.

What do you want guests to experience when they turn on the TV in their rooms?

“This is more than looking for the best picture quality,” Frankenhoff says. “You want the best content behind the picture, and the most user-friendly experience for guests.”

What features will be needed to provide that?

Are there digital touchpoints you want to incorporate onto TVs for guests, like promoting your amenities, offering contactless communication, enabling mobile transactions, or highlighting on-prem specials and services?

How long do you want the equipment to last?

Are you planning on adding services or integrations in that time that your TVs would need to accommodate?

Are there brand standards you have to meet? Make sure you’ll be able to be in brand compliance when it comes to things like the size of the TV, the customizations required, and the types of entertainment available.

“When it comes to both short-term and long-term goals, these factors will affect the type of TV you need to purchase,” says Frankenhoff. “If you don’t know what you’re trying to accomplish, you’re going to buy the wrong thing.”

2. Go commercial—and don’t choose based solely on price.

No matter what brand, size, or capabilities you need, “commercial-grade TVs are the way to go,” Frankenhoff says, “because consumer-grade TVs just won’t work the way you need them to in hospitality. Especially when it comes to this, the cheaper you go, the more you’ll find that you’re getting what you pay for.”

Consumer sets require a channel scan to identify channels available on the cable plant, and to create the channel lineup, which has to be completed one room at a time. And maintained and reset one room at a time if issues come up.

Most commercial TVs, on the other hand, can be configured and upgraded remotely, easily fixing bugs, updating firmware, and adding new features.

When it comes to serviceability, parts are usually available for commercial TVs for a few years after the sets go out of warranty, which is typically not the case for consumer TVs.

Consumer-grade TVs also don’t have enterprise settings to prevent hacking and security risks for your guests and your property.

“The extra time and effort for manual daily processes, plus the devastating effects of possible security breaches, with consumer sets make them a bad option for hotels,” Frankenhoff says. “Commercial sets are specifically made for these types of environments and will end up saving you in the long run.”

3. Configure settings for the best experience.

Commercial TVs can be controlled by third-party devices like system integrator boxes or terminals.

“This means you can configure all the TVs in your hotel from a central location,” Frankenhoff says. “And defining the settings for features on your commercial TVs lets you provide a consistent experience from room to room and guest to guest.”

Configurations you can set up with commercial TVs in your guest rooms could include:

• Turning on to a designated channel, volume & input
• Displaying to a default picture setting & aspect ratio
• Restricting settings like maximum volume & brightness controls
• Creating, modifying & distributing channel lineups remotely
• Resetting user accessible settings (closed captioning, parental controls, etc.) at turn on, at a specific time of day, or at room checkout

“Once you configure settings the way you want them to appear,” Frankenhoff says, “most commercial sets allow you to remotely clone the settings onto other TVs throughout your property, simplifying the placement of new sets and the replacement of sets in existing rooms.”

4. Think about what else will be connected.

Depending on the features you want in guest rooms, the televisions you choose will need to have specific capabilities, or at least compatibilities.

“We often see hotels choose the wrong TVs for the setups they need, and then they have to buy extra equipment to make things work the way they want,” Frankenhoff says.

To avoid additional costs, first consider things like:

• Does the TV work with the interactive system or cable setup you already have installed?
• Does the TV need to accommodate a set-top box (STB) or set-back box (SBB)?
• Does the TV’s native controls for power, volume, and other settings sync with the same remote used for the STB/SBB?
• Does the TV require an external IR receiver?
• Does the TV include embedded apps for streaming, or do you need an external device like STAYCAST?
• Does the TV have a connectivity panel to provide enough input ports for guests to plug in gaming systems or other personal devices without unplugging your interactive and entertainment equipment?