Hotel Lobby Digital Signage

On a recent visit to the Marriott hotel chain, we where met at the reception with a digital poster that had a built in motion sensor.

This gave us some basic information for the hotel, such as what leisure facility operating hours are, what was on the menu in the restaurant and in the pub and information about Internet access.

This bought time as the desk clerk was busy dealing with another customer who was checking in, and by the time the infomerical had looped completely we where being checked in.

This is the most basic use of digital signage, however a more sophisticated digital signage solution is deployed at the Hyatt group of hotels, here they have an self serve check in and an express check out. Also in their car park they utilise outdoor digital signage to advertise their chain of hotels in various destinations throughout the globe, this kind of solution is common in hotels and this is how they achieve it.

Check in desk digital signage.
Here numerous large flat panel TVs are installed above the desk and are viewed by guests as they check in. The content is stored on a local networked media player just behind the wall, kind of a back office application; this is then connected to the large displays using Category 5e data cables, this enables the media to be uploaded from a local computer connected to the media player.

Self serve check in and check out.
This application uses a floor standing kiosk that is touch sensitive so guests can input their data, i.e. booking number. This can either be on a secured wireless network that is also used by the handheld terminals used by employees to take card payments, or alternatively they can be networked to the main computer infrastructure or be a standalone solution with the media player built in.

Benefits of WIFI touchscreen kiosks - is there are no unsightly wires running across the floor or from the ceiling, also the kiosks can be located any where in the reception of the hotel lobby and can be moved to another location with very little disruption.

Disadvantages of WIFI touchscreen kiosks - these can be expensive.

Benefits of hard wired interactive kiosks - kit costs are less than the WIFI type as the hardware is more expensive.

Disadvantages of networked interactive kiosks - due to the nature of the installation, the location is really restricted to either the edges of a room of near a pillar to hide the cables. Moving the kiosk to a new location is costly as engineers have to be called in to re-lay to the new location.

Advantages of an interactive digital kiosk - these are very affordable, due to the media player being built in and can even run Flash content. Moving to another site is easy, just move the kiosk with out having to buy any WIFI adapters or having to pay for engineers to come to site.

Suming up.
If you are going to deploy digital signage in a hotel lobby, you need to consider how to connect it, bearing in mind if it is likely you be moved during any event, such as a wedding - the bride does not want to be upstaged by the digital signage hardware. If this is the case a digital poster is the most affordable solution.

Graham owns the leading manufacturer of LCD enclosures, this range of flat screen enclosure are used throughout the world through a network of integrators.