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Imagine the perfect hotel experience: when you walk into your room, the lights turn on to your desired setting, the curtains part to let in just the right amount of light, the heating or a/c system turns to your ideal temperature, and the TV or sound system switches to your favorite station. If this sounds like a pipe dream, you may just want to check out CityCenter’s ARIA Resort Casino, Mandarin Oriental, and the Harmon Hotel and Spa when they open. Three of the urban metropolis’ luxury hotels set to open at the end of 2009 and the beginning of 2010, these hotels will offer a new technology that will allow guests an unprecedented amount of control over their hotel room.
This technology is called Zigbee, a new wireless standard similar to Wi-Fi and Bluetooth that allows machines to talk to one another. A low power, promising green technology, Zigbee can sense and control lighting and heating in homes and businesses. And at CityCenter, the biggest project yet for Zigbee, the rooms will be outfitted with this technology, making it seem as though a virtual butler is at your disposal. Changing the temperature, TV channels, light settings, and almost everything else will be possible wirelessly through this innovative tech creation.
As guests approach their room or suite, the room will recognize if it’s their first time entering and will ‘greet’ them by opening the curtains to reveal the full view and turning on the lights. The television will act as a communication center, revealing guestroom features and even displaying new voicemails or packages. And with a remote control and seven-inch touch-screen display, guests will be able to customize lighting levels, television/video systems, music, wake-up calls, draperies, and even service requests. All settings are remembered and incorporated every time the guest is in the room, in addition with certain preference or mood “scenes” that modify all the settings at once.
According to Scot Campbell chief information officer for MGM Mirage, Zigbee will be integrated into the design of CityCenter’s hotel rooms. CityCenter will house at least 10,000 wireless thermostats, 5,000 touch screens, and 7,500 controllers. In the main tower, 65,000 Zigbee receivers will be connected across a single mesh network, 35,000 of which are already installed. Each room will also feature a fiber optic cable and a gigabit Ethernet switch, a step up from the traditional coaxial cables of most hotels.
“We would have had to put wire all over inside these walls,” said Campbell. “With the Zigbee technology, we don’t need all those connecting wires. They talk to each other through radio waves.”
In addition to a completely automated hotel experience, CityCenter hotel rooms will also feature keyless locks using RFID technology. Instead of that temperamental key card with the magnetic stripe, guests will be able to unlock their door by flashing a key over a lock sensor. Unlike magnetic key cards, this electronic key can’t be demagnetized.
With Zigbee technology, the hotel room TVs at CityCenter will be smart enough to learn what you like to watch. You’ll never have to worry about turning the light off when you leave. And when you wake up in the morning, you can be greeted by music and warm sunlight, let in by curtains that have opened by themselves. With so much customizable comfort right at the push of a button, CityCenter may find that their guests never want to leave their hotel room.
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