The
Challenge.
The current infotainment system in each guest room has undergone a transformation in recent years. As Chakib Dhahri, IT Manager for Six Senses Zighy Bay Resort explains: “We always try to cater to the needs of our guests while keeping up with the times and, in 2012, we decided to refresh our IPTV system to deliver HD quality video and improve the overall guest experience.”
The incumbent IPTV solution had proven limiting in its scope to upgrade, so Dhahri and his IT team began working with Rashed Al Mazroui for Technology and Information Supplies (RAMCO), a leading system integrator of IT/IP solutions covering a wide range of industry sectors, to find an alternative. “We spoke to several suppliers and brought a number of products in for testing and it became clear, quite quickly, that the Exterity platform offered us all the features we needed but also proved very easy to use with the flexibility to adapt to future requirements.”
This initial upgrade moved the legacy IPTV platform, delivering 50 satellite channels, over to a new Exterity system that added full HD capability and a more modern integration with the existing Video on Demand service. In total, the resort upgraded the service received on 140 TVs across the resort through the addition of Exterity AvediaPlayer® Media Players connected over the LAN to AvediaStream TVgateways and controlled by the central AvediaServer for end-to-end system management.
“The original upgrade to the IPTV service proved popular with guests and very reliable with no outages over the 6-year period,” says Dhahri. However, as an innovator in the luxury hospitality space, in 2018, senior management began another review of how they could further improve the in-room guest experience.
The
Solution.
“We started to get more requests from our guests to be able to connect their own devices to the TVs in each villa as well as easier access to their own subscription video (SVoD) services like Netflix,” says Dhahri. “We spoke with the Exterity team and we tested the new ArtioGuest application, which offered not only a similar user and management interface, but also added capabilities around integration with additional devices such as Google Chromecast and other BYOD options.”
Designed as a seamless extension to the existing Exterity based infrastructure, the resort updated each villa’s TV screens with additional Chromecast capabilities, which are integrated in a single ArtioGuest interface. The system is also integrated with the Opera Property Management System (PMS) to automatically set up welcome messages and to allow each guest to see current billing information.
The IPTV system has also been upgraded with additional HD channels, including options for French, German and Arabic languages. “One of the best features about the Exterity system is its flexibility”, says Dhahri. As an example, the IT manager highlighted an issue where a particularly popular German TV channel was no longer available on the resort’s subscribed satellite TV service. “To meet our guest needs, we purchased an Apple TV and a site licence for an IP-based stream of the required German TV channel and connected it via the Exterity system to stream it to all of the villas as an additional channel. The quality is perfect and we now have the option of adding additional IP-based TV channels when and if we require in the future.”
The
Result.
“We are also considering adding a HD video camera feed as a special channel, so that guests can watch the sunrise as it appears from the top of a nearby mountain,” says Dhahri. With a relationship that has spanned 6 years, Dhahri is fulsome in his praise of the Exterity system and its technical staff. “The technology and the Exterity team have never let us down and every request we have had, Exterity has been able to deliver. For the future, we are looking at other options such as Music on Demand and 4K TV channels when they become available, and we know that with Exterity, we will be able to meet all of the needs of our guests.”
Walid Tabet, Middle East Regional Sales Team Leader at Exterity said: “Today’s modern travelers long for their chosen accommodation to offer a ‘better than home’ experience in every sense, including in-room entertainment. Six Senses is a great example of how this can be achieved by using a fully customizable portal that seamlessly delivers live TV and VoD services. The fact that Six Senses is looking for more ways to work with Exterity in the future confirms the success of the ArtioGuest deployment and reinforces that tech-savvy hotel guests expect the highest quality in-room entertainment and service experience.”
A reliable proven solution
“The technology and the Exterity team have never let us down and every request we have had, Exterity has been able to deliver. For the future, we are looking at other options such as Music on Demand and 4K TV channels when they become available, and we know that with Exterity, we will be able to meet all of the needs of our guests.” Chakib Dhahri, IT Manager for Six Senses Zighy Bay Resort
About Six Senses Hotel and Resorts
Step into a sapphire lagoon from your over-water retreat, or onto an island where only the turtles have trod before, or even right off a mountain for the most unique arrival via para-glide. Six Senses Hotel and Resorts prides itself on a pioneering approach to wellness that helps guide guests to a path to health and well-being, starting with a personal screening and bespoke programs designed by experts.
The 5-star resort chain has been widely recognized and has now been awarded with the prestigious Condé Nast Traveller 2018 Readers’ Choice Awards, which placed three Six Senses resorts in the Top Ten of their regions, including the award-winning Six Senses Zighy Bay Resort, located on the northern Musandam Peninsula in the Sultanate of Oman.
The setting of these beautiful indigenous village-style accommodations and private marina is spectacular, with the dramatic mountains on one side and the sandy beach of Zighy Bay on the other. However, behind the rustic setting, Six Senses Zighy Bay offers all the modern amenities of a true 5-star resort, which extends to the 86 villas spread across its resort
