LG launched a fully digital television set with the hope of attracting corporate clients in the hospitality industry in Kenya, this morning.
The new PRO: Centric Smart Hotel TV set allows hotels to customise tools that can make their clients room experience exciting as well as provide interface program guides and internet feeds.
LG says the TV sets will also have the ability to provide premium hotel services without the need for a set-top box and will have a Pro:Idiom digital content system tailored for the hospitality industry.
“Pay TV providers will not supply content to hoteliers without a digital rights management system,” said Joseph Kim, LG East Africa director.
LG believes hotels using their products will save more than KSh2.2 million (US$26,000) in acquiring encryption servers and an annual fee of KSh2,000 (US$24) charged per set thanks to the in-built digital content protection system.
A statement from the company read: “It allows a central server in a hotel to encrypt video from a satellite feed and encode it for secure delivery to TV sets in each room and using Pro:Idiom which is in-built only on the LG Hotel TVs, the content is decrypted.
“Pro:Idiom is widely used in hospitality environments and is quickly becoming a standard feature for hospitality television.”
Among its pre-loaded applications the Smart TV has a History Auto-Delete that ensures guests vacating a room have their search history removed via a reboot to protect their privacy.
LG adds that the hotel and service industry will also need to manage digital rights during the digital migration process especially as hotels move towards HD.
Kim further challenged players in the hospitality sector to present ideas on innovations that could help reduce costs and lift hotels service and standards.
