Ginn Resorts, a developer of upscale multi-dwelling-unit properties for owning and renting, says it has figured out how to offer all of its property owners a high level of standardized control — and all it took was a four-way partnership or, as Ginn Resorts considers it, a tech dream team.
The developer teamed with Control4, Circuit City and Connexion Technologies and plans to deliver control to all units at nine of its properties. Let’s take a look at the tech dream team scouting report.
Performance Highlights
The “user-friendly system … will make it easy for guests to schedule amenities, enjoy entertainment systems and locate favorite channels.” At least that’s how Control4, the manufacturer of the control products used in the Ginn Resorts units, puts it in a press release.
What exactly does that mean? While the system won’t allow guests and owners to touch a keypad and instantly request, for instance, a spa appointment, it does allow them to touch a button and prompt a service provider to contact them to schedule said appointment.
It does other things, too, says Darrin Pinkham, vice president of hospitality technology for Ginn Resorts. The biggest thing, he says, is the ease with which guests can access the video system. “That’s upward of 100 channels.” Through the control system, guests and owners can also access a Bose 3-2-1 sound system and DVD players. Customized universal remote controllers also operate the flat-panel TV, DVD player and iPod clock radios that sit in each bedroom. Owners who choose to upgrade the Control4 package can use the control system to access lighting controls and HVAC.
It all works seamlessly, says Pinkham. “It’s not off the normal IR technology. It’s off Zigbee [wireless control standard], so you can be on the patio and change the volume and channels without pointing at the source device. It doesn’t compete from unit to unit, because each device is independent of another.”
Secret to Success
It’s not easy to offer reliable, effective control systems to countless units with occupants that use the technology uniquely and have varying comfort levels with gadgets. The key is making it one-touch simple, says Will West, Control4 chief executive officer. “You have to make the units — whether they’re owned or rented — everyday easy,” he says.
Another challenge, Pinkham points out, is the need to standardize. “If you don’t standardize, it’s hard to support it from a hospitality rental program standpoint. We rent these units out like you would a hotel room. It gives you the synergy where that one remote works in any one of those bedrooms. You need consistency across all units and also across all properties.”
In a way, that standardization makes control system installations easier on the installers, West says. “It’s much simpler than a traditional one-off home automation environment because the vast majority of it is standardized. They get in, they do what they need to do and they get out. They know what the units look like; they can send a technician out and not be surprised by the layout of the home. They know all the units are online so they can manage them remotely. One home looks like the next. So, the job of the installer becomes much easier.”
It’s more challenging, West explains, when installers are working on one home on one side of the city that looks vastly different than the previous project. There are more “unknowns” he says, usually making the projects more complicated than in standardized units.
Key Acquisition: Installer
Ginn Resorts chose Circuit City and its firedog installation division to handle all the installations for the project. Pinkham says he was very involved in that decision. Key factors, he says, were being able to do it in properties across the country and being able to get the products in a timely manner.
“There are really only two [companies] out there that do it on a large scale: Circuit City and Best Buy,” Pinkham says. One of the benefits that Circuit City brings to the table, he adds, is 24/7 support. He says if owners or renters have a problem, a Ginn Resorts concierge can “do a hot transfer to a level 2 or 3 desk technician, who can virtually walk the guest through the problem over the phone, without having to roll a truck and be on-site.”
Control4, meanwhile, is fine with the decision to go with Circuit City, West says. “The way we view our dealers — our representatives to the customer — is that they have to be fully trained and qualified, whether they are a multi-thousand-person company or not. The training that the Circuit City person goes through is the same as any other dealer would be required to do and the testing is just as high. I will tell you that the work [Circuit City has] been able to do and the test results have been outstanding.”
Key Acquisition: Control Manufacturer
Ginn Resorts tested 25 different remote controls before it settled on Control4 as a solution provider for its property unit occupants, according to Pinkham. “You name it, we tested it.”
Basically, he says that for such a wide spectrum of end-users, many of whom are short-term renters, there is too much of a learning curve with the other remotes. He explains that whenever users get confused, they can hit one button on the Control4 system that takes them back to a very simple menu. “It tells you everything you need to know,” Pinkham says. “If you get lost, you hit the big center ‘Red Control4’ button again. It walks the guest through and the guest doesn’t have to know anything about technology. Press the button and a nice menu of services comes up.”
Another benefit of Control4, which is known for offering affordable home automation, is its ease of installation, Pinkham says. He explains that using Control4 allows Ginn Resorts to use a far-reaching installation company with plenty of customer support in place, like Circuit City. “If you deal with Crestron and AMX [competing control manufacturers], you don’t get that level of functionality. You need a very technical programmer.”
Element of Speed
It was important to bring in Connexion Technologies to design and install the fiber-to-the-home infrastructure, Pinkham says, for a few reasons. “The bottom line: I need that high-speed fiber connection to provide that rich video content. Also, we have people that work out of [the units] and so I need fiber for Internet and for a good voice signal. All of that requires bandwidth. At the end of the day, though, the biggest requirement is the video-on-demand, the high-definition TV and the high-speed Internet.”
Another benefit of having a high-speed fiber network is the ability to do seamless remote management, West points out. “Doing things remotely saves energy,” he says. “If it’s your place and you want to gain access and look at IP cameras to see who’s at the door or whatever, the broadband is important. There are many reasons [it’s important] … delivering content, monitoring, remote service — just to name a few.”