Lisburn City welcomes first hotel

The city of Lisburn in Northern Ireland, has welcomed its first hotel with the official opening of a new Premier Inn. Fifty full and part-time jobs have been created with the opening of the 60-room hotel by the budget chain. The hotel is located on the outskirts of the County Antrim city, near the Sprucefield shopping development. Airwave has installed the latest Samsung Hotel LCDs, providing the full variety of Freeview channels, including interactive red button functionality and the mandatory subtitle feature.

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Remember, remember the 4th of November

Forget Guy Fawkes, the 4th November is the date to remember in the Granada region, as this is the date at which analogue channels will start to be switched off. Hoteliers are being urged to avoid a last minute rush and ensure that they either upgrade their TVs to receive the new Freeview services in full, or at least to install headend equipment to enable their existing TVs to continue to receive BBC1, BBC2, ITV Channel 4 and Five.

All Freeview TVs must be retuned

On 30th September 2009, all Freeview TVs in the UK will require retuning to avoid losing some channels including Five, ITV4 and BBC Radio stations. That means that hoteliers with Freeview TVs already installed, will also be required to retune their own TVs on this date to avoid losing these channels. Toby Hart, Operations Director at Airwave commented “We are currently co- ordinating this re-tune for over 600 hotels in the UK. If any hotel would like advise they can feel free to call.”

LGs sail into Southampton

The Holiday Inn Express Southampton has recently completed a 45 room extension and furnished it with the latest system ready LCDs from LG. The bar now also boasts a new 42 inch LG screen to show the latest sports and news content, and of course the latest shipping forecast from BBC Interactive!

New TVs at Old Waverley

One of Edinburgh’s best sited hotels, the 80 bedroom, The Old Waverley in Princess Street has upgraded with Airwave to new Samsung Hotel TVs. Leon Kiteley, General Manager commented, “We are very pleased that our guests can now enjoy the full range of Freeview channels at the touch of a button. The whole system is working well and we are very pleased with the service from Airwave.”

The Barceló, Torquay

Torquay continues to be one of the top UK holiday destinations since Victorian times and the Barceló Torquay Imperial Hotel located overlooking the bay is one of the focal points in the town. The hotel recently completed a major upgrade to all its TV, network and AV furniture and selected Airwave and Samsung to implement the installation. Commenting on the works completed, Cormack O'Keefe, General Manager of The Torquay Imperial, said all 152 luxurious bedrooms and suites opted for the latest in Samsung Hotel TVs providing guests with the optimum viewing experience. All our guests now have a TV to further compliment their stay at one of the finest hotels in the English Riviera. We are delighted with the results.

Philips launches Ultimate HD Range

As high definition entertainment takes off in homes around the world, Philips is to offer the same viewing experience to business and leisure travelers by launching the first European HDTV solution for the hospitality industry. The sets also feature integrated DVB-T, DVB-C and MPEG-4 digital decoders. Full details of the range will be announced at launch in October.

Blackpool Lights up with digital

Hotels in Blackpool like, the family run 100 bedroomed St Chad's and the 3 All Seasons group hotels, Tiffanys, Parisienne and Ambassador are already upgrading with Airwave to LG hotel TVs, ahead of the switchover which happens in November this year. Andrew Moss, Area Sales Manager commented “These hotels are taking the lead, but there are still many hotels which could lose their TV channels in November if they do not act soon”.

Airwave launches the Ultimate Hotel Remote

Hotel remotes always go missing, either because they get lost in the laundry or pilfering. The answer for many hotels is either to pay for an expensive manufacturer's replacement remote, or get the cheapest universal remote, both of which are prone again to theft. Airwave has now developed the solution - a robust, simple to use remote, which works with all the main branded hotel TVs such as Philips, LG, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, Panasonic and Toshiba. The remote also has a battery cover screw to prevent battery loss, as well as the optional message “This hotel remote will not work at home”. The remote can also be branded with the hotel logo if required.