Grand Hyatt, Dubai

A majestic resort that towers over the edge of Dubai's historic creek and overlooks the city’s glorious skyline, Grand Hyatt Dubai offers both comfort and convenience. The contemporary and lavish hotel, conference venue and convention centre is situated near the bustling Sheikh Zayed Road and is home to 682 luxurious rooms including 38 suites, all served by 13 dining and entertainment outlets spread throughout the property.

The Challenge

The five-star conference venue provides 8,000 square metres of event space, including two ballrooms: the largest ballroom in the city, with LED video walls and ambience lighting, and a junior ballroom on the same level. The conference facilities are further enhanced with seven meeting rooms in the convention centre, plus several areas for outdoor events. Upgrading the hotel’s communication platform to support the visitor experience in this extensive facility was key for Grand Hyatt Dubai.

Behind the scenes, audio visual technology plays a critical role in meeting hotel guests’ and conference delegates’ expectations. Charles Pineda, Information Systems Manager, Cyber Security SME – EMEA for Grand Hyatt Dubai, says reliability is a critical requirement. “Digital signage is vital for helping to inform and direct guest across our hotel and we were concerned about the reliability, limited integration and poor automation features of our legacy display solution,” he explains.

The main challenges with the existing system were a lack of technical support, and only minimal capability to allow the hotel to automate features such as automatic guest welcoming screens. Following a few minor outages that were resolved slowly by the incumbent provider, Pineda and his team began evaluating alternatives. “We issued a formal tender to several, well regarded local installers and one of the most impressive, from RPS Technologies, recommended a VITEC (originally Exterity, acquired by VITEC in 2021), -based digital signage solution.”

The Solution

At the time, Pineda notes, VITEC was not on the approved list of technology suppliers to Hyatt. However, following a detailed proof of concept test within the hotel it became clear the VITEC hardware and ArtioSign digital signage software was not only very compatible but included features that offered a big improvement on its existing system – winning out over the other tenders.

“The VITEC digital signage solution integrated seamlessly alongside our existing IPTV platform,” says Pineda, “while the VITEC Media Players made deployment incredibly easy and also gives us the option to change or add more displays with ease.”

Another strong area was the ease of use. “Sometimes in a busy hotel, we need to make last minute changes to meet the needs of our guests – especially within the conferencing area,” says Pineda. “The VITEC software is incredibly easy to use and text, graphics and logo changes can be created and updated in just a few seconds.”

The end-to-end VITEC solution comprises:

ArtioSign® Digital Signage application

AvediaStream® Media Players

AvediaServer® c1510 with m8115 module

The Results

The hotel’s facilities team, working closely with RPS technologies, has enabled VITEC digital signage on 26 displays across the site, mostly within the conference centre but also in key meeting rooms, entrances and exits. The stunning HD quality images combine text, graphics and dynamically updated information have been widely appreciated by guests and staff.

But perhaps the biggest benefit has been reliability. Commenting on the stability of the VITEC deployment, Yancy Dizon, Information Systems Assistant Manager at Grand Hyatt Dubai, said: “Where our old digital signage solution would give us some technical issue on an almost weekly basis, the VITEC solution has been running continuously without unscheduled downtime for nearly three years.”

The hotel is now integrating the digital signage into its guest management systems to increase the level of automation and remove the need to carry out several repetitive tasks associated with managing digital signage. “VITEC has proven that it deserves to be on our approved supplier list through its features, ease of use and unrivalled reliability,” says Pineda. “This project has been a tremendous success and we look forward to working closely in with VITEC into the future as our needs evolve.”