As hotels strive to create a ‘home-from-home’ experience that’s unique for every guest yet distinctive to each hotel, the hospitality industry is intensifying its demands of new consumer technologies. Guests now expect a lot more than a selection of TV channels from their in-room TV. The demand to watch their own content via the guest TV is growing and watching the TV via the internet from a laptop, mobile or tablet is now commonplace.

I think the ability to view and manage a wide variety of digital content on personal PCs, consumer electronics products and mobile devices is a challenge that many hoteliers will have to overcome – soon. The Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) offers one solution. It is a consumer technology with the potential to allow guests to watch ‘brought-in’ personal content via the guest TV. It is an industry-wide standard for sharing data on a home-network, and there has been an unprecedented level of growth in the number of DLNA Certified TVs during the first quarter of 2011 – yet it has not yetbeen widely adopted by the hospitality industry.

According to the DLNA, there are more than 4,000 certified TV models available and total shipments of connected DLNA TVs in 2015 are expected to reach 138 million worldwide. These figures almost guarantee that DLNA will become a prominent technology in the hospitality sector.

What steps do I think hotels should take? They will certainly need to have a robust Wi-Fi service to support the streaming of content from guest devices. They should also look to partner with an established and experienced integrator to help navigate through the various complexities and challenges and hotels need to be sure to choose the right partner. Expertise is needed to understand the expectations of the guest to provide the necessary network and infrastructure, appropriate communications platforms and relevant TV content. Getting this right will ensure that hotels maximise the potential return on investment they are looking for. What do you think? I would be interested to hear your views about this exciting technology and its impact on the hotel industry.