Acentic is at the forefront of the future of technology in the hotel industry

On the 10th floor of the Pullman Paris Bercy, one of the upscale brand’s flagship hotels in Europe, you’ll find a hotel room unlike any other – one that combines futuristic techniques with state-of-the-art design and emerging technologies. Designed to be a real-life research lab, Accor Group’s Innovation & Technology Unit created this concept room to test innovations in hotel trends and brand concepts before introducing them throughout the group.

The design of the room is all about using space while erasing boundaries, with technological innovations that are discreet and useful rather than complicated or overwhelming to guests. From a RFID door lock that can be opened by mobile phone, to numerous automated functions, such as the lighting system, no feature was left untouched - even new fibers and fabrics were designed for the bed linens and bathrobes.

And nowhere is the innovation more apparent than with the concept room’s television, featuring Acentic’s Panorama® high-end digital in-room entertainment and communication platform. Acentic’s Panorama® user interface, designed in partnership with Accor’s Innovation & Technology Unit, extends the innovation of the room to the screen by presenting a new way of connecting guests to entertainment services. With easy content choice and live information taken from the Web via RSS feeds (live web links), Acentic Panorama® is the focal entertainment and information point in the room.

The Pullman Paris Bercy room marks the first time in EMEA that full digital broadcast TV, PayTV and radio content is delivered to the hotel room over the existing coaxial network. Through the use of the Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) standard, Acentic is providing an outstanding digital experience that offers sophisticated guests the same high end quality of service as the technology they use in their own homes and everyday lives.

Now that full digital technology is available to hotels over the coaxial network, content choice is even more crucial. Not only is the quantity of movies increasing, but more importantly, through close relationships with the content providers, the content has to be of the highest quality. This is positively impacting the take up of movies and improving the return on investment for hotels.

Hotel TV technology, as proven by the Acentic Panorama® platform, is also set to enable hotels to link to the resources provided by the World Wide Web. This can be in the form of RSS feeds to bring live information into the room, but the trend we are seeing is to bring in more complex data for both information and entertainment purposes.

The concept room is helping Acentic to understand better how hotel guests react to a number of elements. For example, we can study the guest’s interaction with an integrated remote control. This enables us to understand the differences in viewing habits when varied content is provided in a cinematographic context. Additionally, with the use of a video projector on a specially treated glass screen, using thin film technology instead of a regular television, guests will experience exceptional resonance and sharpness. Acentic's Panorama® perfect picture quality makes it an ideal system to be used with such technology.

Accor further made the screen the focal point of the room by positioning it in the window with a great view of Paris beyond, automatically attracting the eye of the guest and adding to the boundless sense of space in the room.

Acentic is proud to be a featured partner with the Pullman Paris Bercy, reflecting the dedication to providing continuous innovation and new services to maximise the guest experience and enhance revenues for the hotel. This concept room at the Pullman Paris Bercy, combined with Acentic's user testing through the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology, the largest organisation for applied research in Europe, keeps Acentic at the forefront in developing the in-room technology trends of the future and ensures that Acentic Panorama® is the ideal hotel digital TV platform.

To read more about the Pullman Paris Bercy concept room featuring Acentic, visit the Accor Web site at http://www.accor.com/gb/commun/gabarits/actu_lo.asp?ID=9698.