Tillman Digital Cities (TDC), a developer, owner, and operator of in-building connectivity infrastructure and solutions in the United States, announced a partnership with Penn Entertainment, Inc. to improve in-building LTE and 5G cellular coverage and capacity within Penn Entertainment casinos, hotels, and gaming properties. 

The partnership extends nationally with Penn Entertainment. TDC’s solution leverages the SOLiD ALLIANCE 5G Distributed Antenna System (DAS) platform to provide advanced cellular voice and data services for patrons. Additionally, the neutral host network infrastructure will support all mobile network operators as well as FirstNet, the national public safety network. The initial deployments are now live at Hollywood Casino at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kansas and Argosy Riverside Casino in Riverside, Missouri. 

“We’re excited to partner with Penn Entertainment and bring our top-of-the-line connectivity to all of their locations across the U.S.,” said TDC Chief Operating Officer Joel McIntyre. “TDC’s solutions for connectivity enable Penn Entertainment to better serve their employees and guests, creating a more seamless digital experience.”

TDC’s solution enables Penn Entertainment to offer guests unrivaled connectivity with next-generation wireless infrastructure, and powers its modernized “3C” (Cordless, Cashless, and Contactless) global iGaming and sports betting strategy.

"We're committed to enhancing every guest experience,” said Carlos Figueroa, Vice President of Infrastructure for Penn Entertainment. "This was a key factor in our decision to work with Tillman Digital Cities. TDC cares deeply about the customer experience, which enables our venues to offer exceptional hospitality and consistent, best-in-class connectivity service to our guests."

“Seamless connectivity is the lifeblood of today’s hospitality experience, and we are gratified to support TDC in the delivery of this amenity for Penn Entertainment’s patrons,” said Scott Deweese, SVP and GM, SOLiD Americas.

Founded in 2020 and based in New York, TDC is a one-stop-shop provider for in-building connectivity and “network as a service” infrastructure. TDC works directly with all constituents, including mobile network operators, real estate owners, and enterprise customers, to design, install, optimize, and maintain in-building networks and infrastructure. 

Rapid delivery of grocery and convenience essentials in 30 minutes or less is now available to customers in Vancouver and Edmonton, Canada, through a Walmart Now pilot program with food delivery marketplace SkipTheDishes.

For the first time in Western Canada, Skip account holders will be able to access rapid delivery of over 2,000 grocery, convenience and household essentials through a dedicated Walmart Now offering within the Skip app and website. Customers will benefit from free delivery on all orders over $40 and can place orders seven days a week from 9 a.m to 12:30a.m.

• Online Ordering: How to Streamline Your Restaurant Operations with Technology

These orders will be delivered through Skip's courier network from "dark stores," local Skip fulfilment centers where fresh produce, meat, poultry, baked goods and local favorites are hand-picked on demand for every order. These fulfilment centres are optimized for streamlining orders, with several orders processed per minute during peak demand.

Walmart Now first launched in June 2022 with a pilot in the Greater Toronto Area offering delivery from select Walmart Canada stores in as little as 30 minutes. Since launch, more than 40,000 customers have experienced rapid grocery delivery from Walmart Now – and many became repeat customers. This marks the first time Walmart Canada has leveraged dark stores for delivery, with customers benefiting from all products being delivered directly from suppliers to each fulfillment centre, ensuring real-time product availability, product freshness, and customer satisfaction eliminating the potential for substitutions.

SkipTheDishes is part of Just Eat Takeaway.com, a  global online food delivery marketplace. SkipTheDishes connects millions of customers with over 50,000 restaurant partners in Canada.

Sharp NEC Display Solutions of America (SNDSA), a global leader in the projector and display markets and Sharp Imaging and Information Company of America (SIICA) added a new large format screen to its professional-grade M Series lineup. The NEC MultiSync M751 is a high-end professional display with an advanced feature-set for clear and bright corporate presentations or large-scale digital signage applications in restaurants, retail, command/control centers and other segments.

This new large format display has a 75” diagonal screen with a 500 cd/m² brightness, anti-glare panel which allows it sufficient backlight intensity for most commercial applications. It features an ultra-high-definition panel with a streamlined, slim bezel design mounted on a durable metal chassis. This MultiSync display is engineered to capture and keep attention with pristine imagery and messaging today while supporting changing needs with fit-for-purpose, high-performance. It can be presented in landscape or portrait orientation with 24/7 runtimes for years on end.

“The new large M Series display strikes a balance between high-end, feature-rich elegance and an industrial-strength chassis with components built to last,” said Ben Hardy, Sr. Product Manager, Large Format Displays for Sharp NEC Display Solutions of America, Inc. “This is not your average large format display. The advanced functionality such as video/control daisy chain, Multi-Stream Transport, SpectraView™ Engine, Multi Picture Mode and full Intel® Smart Display Module expandability capabilities will satisfy even the most discerning project-focused customers.”

Connectivity meets the latest standards with HDMI x2/Out, DP x2/Out, LAN (Control) Daisy Chain, Audio Amplifier and USB Upstream / Downstream. The large M Series provides expandability through integrated slots with Intel® SDM, which allows users to add other peripherals such as HDBaseT™, 12G-SDI or an ATSC/NTSC Tuner if the particular project calls for these types of options. Furthermore, Sharp NEC boasts a full line of SDM PC options that can also be integrated within the slot if necessary. On top of this, the display also has the option to fully integrate a Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 that empowers users by giving them the flexibility they desire to complete their solution and satisfy their needs.

Additional features include:

• High Haze, anti-glare panel with localized dimming capabilities
• SpectraView Engine color control capabilities allow for professional-level adjustment to all color settings including intensity, gamma, white point and more
• Multi Picture Mode can support up to four simultaneous images on a single display through internal processing capabilities
• PQ/HLG/HDR10 Support
• Quick Input Switching and full input detect functionality allowing for minimal downtime and full failover capabilities
• Key Lock/IR Lock to protect from potential vandalism or unintentional changes to the display
• Integrated Cooling Fans and temperature sensors ensure that temperature is regulated throughout the chassis and overheating does not occur
• Quick Power Feature allows for much quicker on-time than previous generations of this sized product
• Low Latency Mode allows for quick reaction time from source to panel
• Integrated 10W x 2 Speakers
• Energy Star 8.0 compatible

Unlike the competition that offers plastic chassis, the Large M Series is housed in a metal mechanical structure that is up to 27% lighter than earlier models.

The Retail & Hospitality Information Sharing and Analysis Center (RH-ISAC) today released the public version of the Retail & Hospitality Intelligence Trends Summary, which analyzes trends in the cyberthreat landscape for the retail, hospitality, and travel sectors. The report sheds light on the top threats and malware families reported by the RH-ISAC community from January – April 2023.  

Analysis of the intelligence sharing for this period showed that the top reported threats by volume continued to reflect the steady reliance by cybercriminals on tried and tested threat vectors like credential harvesting and phishing. Agent Tesla remained a key threat, Emotet has reemerged after falling off during previous reporting periods, and familiar threats like IcedID and QakBot remain steady threats to the community. Key tactics leveraged against the community included Spearphishing links and attachments, and imposter and malicious domains. As familiar threats continue to shape the threat landscape for the retail, hospitality, and travel sectors, emerging trends shift the nuances and demands on resources for cyber defenders. 

In addition to the intelligence sharing analysis, the report highlights the most discussed topics in the CISO and analyst communities. Nearly half of the CISO discussions were related to security architecture, including sub-topics such as identity and access management (IAM), and tools integrations. 

Download a copy of the report here. This report is a TLP: Clear redacted version of the original report, which includes privileged information available to RH-ISAC members.  

Fourth announced an exclusive partnership with Doncaster, UK-based Automated Analytics to offer rapid recruitment via AI-powered programmatic bidding to U.S. customers.

Integrating Fourth’s PeopleMatter applicant tracking system (ATS) with Automated Analytics' TalentTrack AI-powered programmatic bidding, customers can optimize their ad targeting during high-traffic timeframes, lowering the cost per application. Beginning with Indeed, Fourth and Automated Analytics will roll out this capability with leading job boards nationwide.

• Tighter integrations with other operating systems are driving 29% of restaurants’ POS upgrades, according to HT's 2023 POS Software Trends report 

Using conversion data generated by tracking the source to hire of every candidate, TalentTrack’s AI programmatic model generates a higher volume of better-quality candidates. By optimizing advertisements for the most cost-effective bid times, TalentTrack ensures budgets are focused on attracting and quickly hiring quality applicants.

• Read more tech-centric National Restaurant Association Show news on HT

Attending the 2023 National Restaurant Association Show May 20-23 in Chicago? Visit Fourth's booth to see a demonstration of AI-powered programmatic bidding and meet experts from Fourth and Automated Analytics.

BeCause, a startup transforming how the hospitality, travel, and tourism industries manage their sustainability data, has announced a significant early investment from renowned Danish entrepreneurs-turned-investors Carsten Mahler and Daniel Heskia. The $450,000 investment provides important financial backing for the Danish company’s next phase and brings valuable strategic guidance and advice from seasoned investors known for identifying successful enterprises and generating significant returns.  

The startup’s AI-powered sustainability hub simplifies, speeds up, and reduces costs for sustainability management in the tourism industry, freeing up resources and allowing for greater real-world impact. By eliminating 60% of the resources previously used for repetitive, error-prone manual administrative tasks, BeCause enables stakeholders to stay up to date with the latest sustainability improvements, resulting in a sixfold faster return on sustainability investments. This improvement ultimately leads to a significant increase in bottom-line profits, potentially amounting to millions of dollars for a typical hotel chain in the first year alone.

“Since our founding, we’ve already attracted some of the world’s leading travel and tourism brands, including Booking.com, GreenKey and other leading travel & tourism companies, all of whom believe in our platform’s ability to transform their approach to sustainability and are committed to providing sustainable options to travelers while improving how their companies manage their sustainability efforts more efficiently,” said says Frederik Rubens Steensgaard, CEO and Co-founder of BeCause.

Solving the $21 billion problem in sustainability management

The investment, secured ahead of the startup’s official seed round opening, enables BeCause to expand its commercial and product development efforts with added resources and runway. “Ineffective sustainability management is costing hotel and travel brands over $8 billion each year, in addition to missed revenues of at least $13 billion annually based on our industry estimations,” added Steensgaard. “This early investment addresses a significant need in the industry and helps support our mission of making sustainability management simpler, faster and cheaper so that tourism companies can make a tangible impact on people, the planet and their profits.”

BeCause is also participating in the Alchemist Accelerator, a global top-ten incubator for enterprise software startups whose Demo Day, scheduled for May 30, has historically attracted more than 400 investors seeking high-impact opportunities.

A shared vision for a sustainable future in travel, tourism and beyond

Investors Mahler and Heskia have a track record of founding successful companies, including FundConnect, which before its acquisition, provided data management and reporting solutions for the financial sector and is now Europe's preferred neutral fund data infrastructure. The investors' success with FundConnect, which manages financial data similarly to how BeCause handles sustainability data, highlights their expertise in creating and scaling digital ecosystems. It also points to the potential of future applications for BeCause’s sustainability data solutions beyond the travel and tourism sector. 

The investment also comes at a time when the market for sustainability data solutions is maturing. Over the last 24 months, regulations and supply chain pressures have spurred demand for the solutions BeCause has developed – AI-enabled automation and streamlining of sustainability data and workflows across multiple stakeholders.

The startup’s technology framework connects certification entities such as Green Key and travel providers and distributors, enabling over 10,000 hotels and OTAs (Online Travel Agencies) to provide travelers with accurate and reliable sustainability data. These processes, traditionally handled via spreadsheets, emails and unconnected niche systems, are ripe for transformation, and the need to manage them efficiently to ensure compliance and competitive advantage is fueling BeCause’s growth.

Cross-sector expertise and guidance

“We see the potential impact of BeCause’s sustainability data management hub can have on businesses, and we believe in their unique approach to applying these principles to sustainability," says Carsten Mahler, former CEO of FundConnect and Danske Invest, one of the largest and oldest mutual funds in the Nordics. "We are excited to join Frederik and his team on this journey and provide guidance and support to help them achieve their profit with a purpose-driven goal. We have been impressed by the team.”

The investment was made through Prolab Holding, an entity held by Mahler and Heskia. Other investors in BeCause include Innovation Fund Denmark, Alchemist Accelerator, the Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship, Vækstfonden, and Corde Invest.