Smart TV Experience

It is increasingly one of the most valued points in the guest experience inside the room.

Every day I am confronted with the same question:
Why can’t I use a Standard TV from a common store in my hotel?

Some manufacturers boast three types of TV:
1. Home use
2. Suitable for hotels / hospitals
3. TVs for displaying advertising.

The ones for advertising display known as Digital Signage are TVs equipped to work in Vertical and Horizontal, as its panel is built to be used vertically. They are prepared for 24h operation because they have more robust hardware and generally, they have more brightness to be easily visible in bright environments and even sun exposure. Its most important feature is the energy class which is lower to reduce costs. These TVs / Monitors have a higher cost than domestic ones and the ones available for hospitality.

The big differences between Hospitality TVs and Home TVs are as follows:
– Best Energy Class
– More brightness on your dashboard
– Improved Hardware for 16 to 24 hour operation.
– Possibility to hide functions in the Hotel Menu, where we limit the maximum volume, hide the channel tuning menu and network configuration, being able to use external ports, in this way the guest uses the TV and you don’t take the risk of leaving it unconfigured for the next Guest.
– In general suppliers give instead of 1 Year warranty 2 or 3 Years.

Then there’s another question that people ask me every day:
Why can’t I have AIR PLAY, Netflix Icon, HBO, among many APPs, in the Hotel TV as in my home?

Here we’re talking about the range of SMART TV Hospitality, that don’t have as many APPs as the ones for home use, and we may have a glimpse of the “wars” of royalties and rights.

The APPs featuring our homes TVs are for domestic and non-commercial use, displaying them in public spaces implies extra payments from the TV manufacturer to the platform holding the APP. And the use of these TVs in hotels can lead the hotelier to pay high fines since the licensing of Apps is not authorized.

The way we work around this issue is to resort to the use of CAST technology, and we screenshare our phones and APPs on the Hotel’s TV.

Even native screenshare without using Chromecast on Hotel TV is only possible on Android devices, as Apple uses Airplay technology which asks pay TV suppliers to license for the use of this protocol.

We at ABC Hospitality can help you choose the right TVs for your project, as well as transform your hotel room TV experience into an experience similar to the comfort of your own home.

Rui Picão
IT Strategist Designer
ABC Sustainable Luxury Hospitality