Alva Hotel, Hong Kong

“Capabilities, service and support were of paramount importance,” explains Mr. Leung, “So our natural choice was VITEC (originally Exterity, acquired by VITEC in 2021), which has built a strong reputation in the hospitality world while still being cost-effective and backed by an excellent local management, support team and distributor Comm-Tec.”

SmarTone created a fully featured VITEC in-room guest entertainment solution that has been deployed to over 700 Sony BRAVIA SmartTVs, as well as deploying digital signage across the hotel’s public areas. The integrator chose a set-up that did not require set-top boxes (STBs) to simplify the engineering of the system, choosing instead to leverage the VITEC system’s ability to stream content and signage directly to SmartTVs.

Using VITEC’s ArtioView® (formerly ArtioGuest®) software, each guest room has a simple and easy-to-use interface that allows a range of advanced features accessed from either the SmartTV or via an iPad in each room. These include numerous local and premium TV channels, available in up to 4K quality. The VITEC solution is also used to group different channels together for viewing in various public areas.

In addition, each Sony BRAVIA SmartTV runs the ArtioViewpowered interface with integrated Google Chromecast and Apple iOS Mirroring for guests to connect seamlessly to their own mobile devices and stream their own content onto the TV. The system also offers easy access to in-room environmental controls.

The innovative features also extend to security and ease of access, with VITEC facilitating guest check-out directly from the TVs. SmarTone has innovated even further, integrating advanced capabilities such as the ability for guests to use their own mobile device as a room key – as well as several selfservice options to ease check-in, all of which will be welcomed in a post-Coronavirus era when demand for speedy services and touchless technology become the new norm.