anybody ever network a hotel?

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reaper12

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I don't know if this is the right place to ask, but, has anyone here ever done any work for a hotel? I mean installing broadband connectivity for each room, and also supplying video on demand features. Either using the coaxial TV cables or the phone lines that are already installed in each room.

If anyone has done anything like this and would like to help me out by answering a few questions I would really appreciate it. PM me or reply here if you can help a guy out :)
 
I ran the IT department for a top hotel for 18 months, ondemand TV, captive portal wi-fi, full intergrated PBX, front office software, intergraded POS system. etc. oh and about 1000 miles of CAT5 and fiber!

ask what you need and I will see what I can say.
 
Thanks a million Jay.

This is not a Top hotel by any stretch of the imagination, it's basically a business class hotel, very mid range. And of course their budget is likewise very limited. But to attracdt more customers they have to offer more services.

LOL about the 1000 miles of CAT 5 cable, That's not an option here, becuase it would cost too much on top of installing the video on demand etc.

I was asked orginally by the hotel to put in a wireless network, so that all rooms would have it. I site surveyed and put in a quote, they came back to me and asked me to quote for video on demand, internet over the TV, ordering taxi's, checking their bill, all that kind of thing. So I am thinking instead of installing a wireless system throughout the whole hotel, use the existing phone wires or Coaxial cable to carry the broadband and the additional services.

I know nothing about getting these services over the TV cable, do you anywhere I could start? A webpage or something. LOL I am so clueless I don't even know how to frame the questions!!
 
this is a HUGE job

first of all you need a licence for video on demand, all on demand services are normally over CAT5 or CAT6. It needs to be intergrated into front of house for paying for the ondemand services they use.

http://www.nstreams.com/pdf/appnote1.pdf

http://www.webpms.com/

No hotel should install anything like this without using a proper company to do it, we had special TVs a full 42U rack for the servers, full CAT5 install.

If the hotel can't afford it then it just can't be done.

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RearofSwitch1.jpg


Even for a Wireles network I would advise you to have a Wired AP for each floor, captive portal etc.
 
reaper12 said:
I don't know if this is the right place to ask, but, has anyone here ever done any work for a hotel? I mean installing broadband connectivity for each room,
Click to expand...

Yup we've put in equipment which utilizes existing phone lines in each room...gives a 10 meg connection to a central switch...to give broadband. It's an option if it's a building that will be too difficult and expensive to run new ethernet in.
 
YeOldeStonecat said:
Yup we've put in equipment which utilizes existing phone lines in each room...gives a 10 meg connection to a central switch...to give broadband. It's an option if it's a building that will be too difficult and expensive to run new ethernet in.
Click to expand...

there is no way on demandTV can run on that though. It sounds like a real head ache to me.

I agree with the above that you can run wired internet over the phone line no problems but on demand over coax is going to be very hard... how are you going to select the on demand service?

If you want to run over Coax I would say have about 10 DVD players hook them upto a central splitter that sends the signal out at different frequencys and then tune each TV to each player using the normal setup. For them to watch a film the change the channel on the TV.

Its not "on demand" and its against the law without a licence.
 
Jay_oasis said:
there is no way on demandTV can run on that though. It sounds like a real head ache to me.

I agree with the above that you can run wired internet over the phone line no problems but on demand over coax is going to be very hard... how are you going to select the on demand service?
Click to expand...

Yeah I didn't state it was for video..stated the phone lines were used for "broadband". It was actually pretty easy, the bridges are easy as heck to setup.
 
I work for a company that provides the ondemand service, regular TV and interactive services to hotels as well as broadband access, hit me up if you're interested.
 
ND40oz said:
I work for a company that provides the ondemand service, regular TV and interactive services to hotels as well as broadband access, hit me up if you're interested.
Click to expand...

explain how you would do it.
 
Well, Here is the equipment that I was thinking of using for the hotel.

http://www.smc.com/index.cfm?event=solutions&localeCode=EN_IRL&page=214

What do you guys think of this? For 70 rooms you would need 5 switches.

It will be completely out of budget to lay cat cable down to every room. Due to the bad design and build of the hotel it would be a very, very costly job to do this.

I had a complete wireless solution done for them, but now they want the on demand movies etc.

I am from Ireland BTW.
 
You can do ondemand through coax, but you're going to need a pretty complex backend. What set top box are you going to use. How are you going to create your menus and license the programs and movies that you are going to offer ondemand?
 
ND40oz said:
You can do ondemand through coax, but you're going to need a pretty complex backend. What set top box are you going to use. How are you going to create your menus and license the programs and movies that you are going to offer ondemand?
Click to expand...

"Homemade" movies o.o

Seriously though, I agree with Jay_oasis. This is something that is going to require a large investment upfront and alot of training to have the knowledge to be able to maintain something like this in house.

http://lodgenet.com/
Lodgenet offers a complete solution to what you're looking for.
 
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