Streaming audio and video comes to the guestroom

Today’s Web-enabled radios, TVs and Blu-ray players now deliver online entertainment options and will change the guest in-room entertainment experience. How we watch TV and listen to music continues to evolve. It’s no longer just about “connecting stuff,” it’s about being connected to our stuff—and how we connect with each other. Facebook, YouTube and MySpace combine for more than 250 million unique visitors monthly. Netflix claims 12 million users, many of these users stream movies direct to their TV.

New Web-enabled TVs from Samsung, LG, Panasonic and others, offer TV widgets—links to online music and video. Through the hotel’s high-speed network and these TV widgets, guests will have access to a wealth of entertainment choices such as Amazon Video on Demand, Netflix, Blockbuster.com, VUDU, YouTube and HULU just to name a few. Guests can view photo albums at Flickr or Picasa or access their favorite radio station.

At the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Panasonic and Skype announced a collaboration that lets consumers make voice and video calls over Skype on Panasonic’s line of 2010 VIERA CAST-enabled HDTVs planned for launch in spring 2010. For video conferencing or staying in touch with family, this could be a terrific service for your guests.

Cool connect: Internet-enabled alarm clocks also connect to other devices.

The Internet has come to the alarm clock radio and music systems as well with Wi-Fi-enabled devices. New Internet radios are available from a number of manufacturers including REVO, Grace Digital, Logitech and Sonoros.
There are more than 14,000 streaming radio stations, many of them exclusive to Internet broadcast. One can create a personalized radio station through services such as Last.fm and Pandora and enjoy music of all genres from all corners of the globe, in just about any language. Guests can enjoy a little piece of home while on the road by listening to a radio station in their native language. Network radios offer streaming audio from local shared media as well. Hotels may use this for a welcome or information channel about activities on property or in town.

A huge benefit of Internet radio is reception. Resorts in Colorado and
Wyoming, Hawaii and the Caribbean all experience FM reception issues including quality and choice. Internet radio solves this.
Other advantages of networked entertainment systems include the ability to receive auto firmware updates, the clock and date settings are updated automatically through the network and user interfaces are easier to customize to fit the property and setting.      

Consumer awareness about network-enabled entertainment products is growing. A Vizio advertisement during the Super Bowl highlighted new Wi-Fi-enabled television models. Consumer Reports has addressed the growing interest in bringing Internet video to the TV by testing new Internet-capable TVs and Blu-ray players and rating them in its March issue in a “TV meets Web” report.