- vuTyme delivers an in-room TV viewing experience equal to or better than home!
- vuTyme delivers Searchable IPG, Pause Live TV, Over The Top services and more!
- vuTyme delivers messages to guests via the Room TV!
June 20, 2016 – New Orleans – Today ADB introduces vuTyme at HITEC, a new, 4th generation end-to-end, managed-services iTV solution for hotels. vuTyme delivers a complete set of services like live TV, VOD, PPV, concierge, digital signage and targeted advertisements PLUS it offers exciting features such as Searchable Interactive Program Guide (IPG), Over-the-Top (OTT) services access like Screencasting from BYOD, direct-to-guest messaging through the TV, local attractions map with QR Code, Pause/Rewind/Record/Fast-Forward LIVE TV, and much more. Unlike other providers who claim to be cloud-based, vuTyme operates in the cloud, requiring no hotel head-end equipment and featuring minimal in-room devices. The only hardware on-site is a compact set-back box which is discretely mounted behind the TV.
“For 20 years, ADB has been committed to offering the best and most useful interactive features for its customers,” said Peter Balchin, CEO at ADB. “As the provider of 60 million at-home television set-top boxes and broadband gateway systems around the world, we are intimately familiar with what guests have, what they use, how they use it, and what they want. This gives us the technical and behavioral experience that no other supplier has when designing, developing and deploying the next generation of iTV for the hotel environment.”
Why Reinvent iTV for Hospitality?
ADB set out to reinvent the iTV experience because hoteliers and guests said they want a better and more cost-effective interactive TV experience. Through a neutral, independent study commissioned by ADB via The Prism Partnership in cooperation with the Consultancy at Pointer’s Ridge, ADB learned exactly what guests and hoteliers want in an in-room entertainment solution.
The “2016 In-Room Entertainment Preference Study,” which involved hotel industry executive interviews and consumer focus groups, revealed that hoteliers want a solution that is simple to install and quick to manage, features current content and capabilities, and can be made personal with branded content and interfaces. vuTyme goes far beyond just offering basic television for guests. Its two-way interactivity, robust line-up of guest-demanded applications (especially among millennials), hotel branding and customization capabilities gives hoteliers the service benefits they need and the revenue and communications opportunities they expect and require in terms of entertainment, marketing, staff efficiency and more.
The study also revealed that guests want iTV to entertain in a way equal to or better than they already experience at home. They want to be able to access their stuff the same way they access it at home. They expect the interactive TV platform to provide them with the types of information they want to know, and they want information delivered directly to them that they need to know relevant to their stay. Finally, guests want a voice to let the hotel and the rest of the world know if it delivered on their expectations.
“Hoteliers asked for an iTV solution that is high quality, easy to use, and offers fast and reliable service,” said Chris Dinallo, ADB’s SVP of Business TV. “We answered with a solution that creates the best in-room experience for guests while offering a true service platform for hoteliers. Welcome to vuTyme.”
- VuTyme entertains guests with more than 200 HD channels, a Searchable IPG, thousands of FREE Video on Demand titles and a Pay-per-view offering.
- VuTyme gives guests easy access to their personal accounts and content via OTT applications and Screencasting.
- vuTyme tells guests what they want to know via folio review and check out; hotel amenities and local information; news, weather and sports programming; service requests; and a dedicated branded channel.
- vuTyme gives guests what they need to know, such as meetings information and group agendas via a digital signage for in rooms and public spaces.
- vuTyme gives guests a voice by rating their stay experience, providing social media connections, inputting housekeeping or maintenance service requests and receiving hotel/group messaging direct to the in-room TV.
“With vuTyme, hotels and guests now have value features that entertain, inform, and enrich the in-stay experience,” Dinallo said. “Better yet, we deliver this reinvented platform using the hotel’s existing coaxial cable or Ethernet, saving costs, space and power consumption.”
The vuTyme Advantage
vuTyme is offered as a managed service using the global cloud infrastructure or cable company central office. ADB offers 24/7 monitoring to ensure reliability and delivery of service. It eliminates expensive head-end equipment at each hotel, thereby cutting capital costs. It also frees-up physical space (no footprint) and consumes less power, making a hotel more environmentally friendly. As new services are developed, a property can usually upgrade quickly and remotely.
Here are a few other benefits:
vuTyme Requires No CapEx: ADB’s relationship with the major cable operators makes it easy and cost-effective to offer the latest on-demand and OTT services. For a small addition to the monthly FTG fee, hotels can offer hundreds of full HD channels, OTT, thousands of free video-on-demand titles, and a host of other guest services all with no CapEx required. No other provider can match the scope and selection of vuTyme’s offering.
vuTyme supports PMS/Guest Service Interfaces: We integrate to 40+ PMS systems, including Oracle/Micros, and have interfaces to a dozen-plus Guest Services Systems.
vuTyme Lets Guests Pause/Rewind/Record/Fast Forward LIVE TV: vuTyme enables hotel guests to pause, rewind, fast-forward and record live TV using patented ADB technology and off-the-shelf SDHC memory cards. This service – to be spotlighted in the coming days at HITEC – provides a better, more reliable in-room viewing experience for guests and lower operating costs for hoteliers.
vuTyme Offers Screencasting: vuTyme is available via a wide range of STB configurations that allow guests to easily plug in their own devices or screencast content directly to the in-room TV. In addition, the software-based platform allows easy access to pay-OTT services like Netflix, Spotify, Hulu and others through a standards based HTML5 browser. OTT services enable guests to stream media from their personal accounts to the guestroom TV. If guests don’t have a streaming account, they can watch free-VOD provided via vuTyme.
vuTyme Supports Digital Signage: As a modular system with integration into core PMS systems, vuTyme enables hoteliers to create their own digital signage campaigns facility wide that mix still and video images. These are stored in vuTyme’s library and played out through vuTyme STB’s and connected screen across the facility based on an easy to use and highly automated management system.
For more information on ADB, visit Booth 134 at HITEC 2016 and our website at www.abdglobal.com.
About ADB
ADB is Connecting Lives and Connecting Worlds with innovative software, systems and managed services for personal TV, business TV, broadband and industrial IoT. We understand how multimedia convergence is changing consumer consumption and driving demand for powerful, flexible and cost effective connectivity and services.
Our Connected Solutions bring together our proven expertise and 20 years of award-winning industry firsts, enabling our customer’s to build successful businesses, harness greater efficiencies and deliver the connected experiences consumers crave. We know what success looks like because we are empowering some of the world’s leading content distributors, pay-TV service providers, broadband operators and appliance manufacturers, including: A1 Telekom Austria, Border States Electronic, Brighthouse Networks, Canal Digital, Charter Communications, Cox, Graybar, NC+, Swisscom, Telecom Italia, Telefonica, Telenet, Time Warner Cable, Vodafone and Whirlpool.
ADB has a passionate and dedicated team of more than 550 people, including a 350 strong engineering team. The company is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, has a strong US presence and has offices throughout Europe and Asia.