blog#2

Koroneos, George. (2007) Wireless Access Everywhere, Hospitality Technology,  1 Sept. 2007

URL: http://www.htmagazine.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=MultiPublishing&mod=PublishingTitles&mid=3E19674330734FF1BBDA3D67B50C82F1&tier=4&id=E6A4E4B2F790464293ADC6524A996382 

Summary:

Nowadays, internet has been a necessary to hotels. What's more, it is required every spot in a hotel should be covered by wireless signal. Some brands believe that guests demand WiFi, so they require it to be accessible throughout the whole property. Winegardner & Hammons is the earliest hotel management company that adopted wireless, and made it available to every guest rooms and meeting location. This company is also looking for some new wireless technologies that take advantage of the WiFi signal, which allows guests to be able to work or access e-mail from the lobby, restaurant, and hallways. However, when hotel owners look to add wireless to older properties, they meet a big tech challenge--they need to rewire the hotel's infrastructure to connect the wireless access points. Marcus Hotel & Resorts installs a solution to pipe internet signals through the existing power system, which has proven beneficial to larger hotels that are older and harder to retrofit. At the same time, redundant internet services are installed to  make sure that there is never downtime on the system. The author also points out that wireless is used not only for bells and whistles, but also for the staff communication. Also, this communication system can inform an arrival group that a guest has entered the hotel and needs service. In order to make the wireless more security, many hotels adopt a branded sign-in page for the time when the guest opens their browser. 

Reflection:

This article points out the importance of wireless internet to hotels, and how much contribution the wireless technology has made to this industry. Many years ago, when wired internet are widely applied in hotels, people started to thinking about how to make it easier and easier. And people are getting big progress year by year. At first we gained the achievement of making internet wireless, and then getting bigger coverage. And what is followed is the security of wireless internet. I remember last time when we went to Marriott headquarter, Mr. Neil told us lots of modern technologies that are used in the hotel system, and wireless technology was include. He also showed us some of devices that used to support this technology. Thanks to the trip, I know many kinds of wireless technology, such as WiFi, Cellular phone and data, cordless phones, Wimax/LET, RFID, Ultra, Subgig controls, and ZIGEE. What these technologies have already given us, and what they might give us in the future?  Email, video, music, communication, all of them now are available to people who has a terminal in a hotel. This article was written one year ago. So I think some of the content in it could be classified in to the part of  “history” of wireless. Now, with a cell phone we can connect to internet through wireless. So I believe that the application of wireless technology would be better and better, even from in-building to out-building.

blog#1

Lorden, Abigail A. (2008) "Eat, Drink and Play Games." Hospitality technology, 08 Sept. 2008.



URL: http://www.htmagazine.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=MultiPublishing&mod=PublishingTitles&mid=3E19674330734FF1BBDA3D67B50C82F1&tier=4&id=57E685C6923646828D0A367993A3EA2F





Summary:

This article describes a creative restaurant system which combines eating, drinking and playing games together. It was started by a restaurant entrepreneur Nolan Bushnell, who introduced games into restaurants, by which he pushed his entertainment companies to a new high level. It seemed to be a venture at first, and then was proved to be a big success. At first they mounted touch screen terminals at each table for the purpose of operation of games. The game system is built with a Web 2.0 approach and employing XML to move data around, which makes users feel like using the internet, although it is a closed network. Right after the touch screen terminals were on the tables, they became the foundation of the restaurant automation. The touch screen terminals are loaded with digital restaurant menus and a breadth of games that facilitate interaction among guests. With this system, customers can order food and drink by themselves from the terminals, play games while waiting food, and pay bills. Customers get one hour free games when eat in the restaurant. If they intend to play more, it charges. In the future not far from now, users will be able to use their cell phone as an operator to play games. In addition, thanks to this system, a restaurant is able to manager more tables with less waiters or waitresses and provide higher service quality. The Bushnells is working on introducing other restaurant brands to use this platform.



Reflection:

When I read the title of this article, I felt a little confused: what is the link between “eat, drink” and “play games”? And then I went through the article. I am so impressed by the creative idea of introducing game platform into a restaurant. I was always thinking about the waiting line problem of a restaurant in the rush hour when I was in China. It is a serious problem because the large population in China. We use waiting numbers, we try to put a TV or Video at restaurants, but it seems not satisfy the customer very well. Firstly, when customers get their waiting numbers, some of them stay in the waiting area, which makes no big difference from waiting in a line, except that they can sit down in stead of standing. Secondly, some of the customers might walk round after getting their waiting numbers. They meet problems as well. Not every of them are so lucky that they are back at the perfect time, they would have to wait for some while or they have to take the waiting numbers and wait once more because they missed the call. We never think about providing games for the waiting customers. So that is great! I don’t worry about the technology platform of this idea. The only point I concern by now is the time of table occupation. Since customers have so much fun sitting at the table no mater with food, drink or not, it may make them occupy the table for longer time than that they spend in a regular restaurant. Although the author presents a countermeasure to this problem—free game for an hour and then charged, unless the charge of the game, whether by time or by game, is higher than the amount the restaurant would receive from food or drink service at the same period of time, the income would not be able to cover the opportunity cost.