Quadriga Personal Media Network Named 2012 Most Innovative Hospitality Technology
Hotel Technology Next Generation (HTNG), the membership association that unites the world’s hospitality companies and technology innovators to solve industry challenges, has announced that its member hoteliers had voted to award the 2012 “Most Innovative Hospitality Technology Award” to the Personal Media Network from Quadriga. The award is given annually to the technology that became available for use at hotels during the previous year.
Voters selected this year’s winners from a diverse field of 22 hospitality technology entrants. Product entries covered a very broad range of hospitality technologies that included entertainment systems, network management technologies, guest room devices and communications gear as well as revenue management and front and back office tools and systems.
Quadriga describes their winning Personal Media Network™ (PMN) as enabling guests to more efficiently stream content to their in-room TVs while also helping hotels optimize their HSIA/Wi-Fi network infrastructure. This provides hotels with a means of reducing the costs that mobile devices and streaming place on the hotel’s network infrastructure. PMN pairs devices such as the TV, smart phone, tablet or laptop, and makes content stored on the guest device or Video on Demand (VOD) system portable, enabling movies, videos, photos, music, and TV programming to be viewed across all screen-based devices from anywhere within the hotel Wi-Fi area.
The first runner-up technology was the HD4000®, Enseo’s cable television solution product, which enables hotels to eliminate expensive cable television head-end equipment and still offer a full in-room channel lineup. Similar to a residential cable box, the HD4000 allows an encrypted cable feed directly to the hotel room. Whether a property has 50 rooms or 250+, HD content is delivered directly to the guest room without expensive hotel-based transcription equipment, which has been an impediment for smaller hotels being able to implement HD. Enseo says that the HD4000 provides hospitality features and compatibility that hoteliers expect, like TV control, one remote and a hotel-branded interactive program guide and welcome page.
The second runner-up was OpenWays Mobile Key Trio with Triple Play Reader. The reader enables hoteliers to upgrade their existing locking systems with a solution that provides hotel guests with the ability to use their mobile phone as a room key, bypassing front desk check-in lines. It is a “triple play” because it combines three card-reading capabilities into one device – CAC™ (Crypto Acoustic Credential), Pure NFC™ and RFID. Guests can use the Mobile Key version while staff can use the Mobile Master Key. OpenWays promises that when hotels refresh existing locks with the Mobile Key Trio, they gain a truly deployable, secure, mobile-based room-key solution that is 100% compatible with all mobile phones, 100% future proof and 0% mobile carrier dependent.
The winner and runners-up can immediately start using the award’s seal on product promotional information and packaging. The HTNG website has descriptions and links to all contestants from its 2012 Innovation Competition page at http://htng.org/innovation-award/2012-miht/all-2012-entrants.