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Hotel Video Walls Keep Guests

Informed and EngagedMarch 17, 2014

Video walls throughout MGM Resorts properties have addedelegance, informed guests, promoted events and allowed forsocial media interaction.

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The MGM Resorts International digital signage initiative consists of a series of 4x4 video-walls

located at various MGM Resorts International hotel locations in Las Vegas. The video walls

serve as a source of entertainment, information and as antidotes to perceived wait times at

lobby front desks. A social media component to engage hotel guests is also a major part of the

implementation.

Nominee : MGM Resorts International (http://mgmresorts.com), Las Vegas

Nominating Company: NEC Display Solutions (http://NECDisplay.com), Itasca, Ill.

Project: A series of 4x4 video-walls located in MGM Resorts International hotel locations in Las

Vegas.

Category: Hospitality

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Since 2009, MGM has installed roughly 700 NEC large-screen displays throughout its Las Vegas hotels. Its

three 4x4 video walls in the MGM Grand's lobby highlight its latest phase of deployed screens.

BACKGROUND

MGM Resorts International has deployed a X551UN 4x4 video wall at each location in the

initiative. The initial video wall was launched during New Year's Eve weekend 2012 in the lobby

of the MGM Grand. Since that installation, it has spread to other Las Vegas venues, such as the

Mirage, Mandalay Bay, Luxor and a Starbucks outlet at the Aria. The original video walls, behind

the front desk of the lobby in the MGM Grand, informed hotel guests of events and promotions

at the location — on a real-time basis. They also encouraged interaction between the hotel

properties and guests on social media channels such as Twitter.

"We'll look at the calendar and see what we can put up on the video walls to help drive

feedback," said Randy Dearborn, VP of multimedia & guest technology for MGM Resorts

International."

For example, during the UFC 162 fight at the MGM Grand, the video walls not only displayed the

date and time of the fight but also promoted "real-time voting so that people could pick the

winners," said Dearborn. Also, there were bars, nightclubs and restaurants on the property

driving their own promotions on the video walls, like a "2-for-1 drink special at Taboo in the next

hour," he said. With a captive audience in the lobbies, the video walls are great ways to keep

people informed and engaged at the same time.

(/sites/default/files/article_images/8%20Luxor%20video%20wall%20web.jpg)

MGM Resorts International has found the 4X4 video wall format, like this one at the Luxor in Las Vegas, to

be so effective that the hotel company has installed them throughout its properties.

CHALLENGES

MGM Resorts International was one of the first to install these X551UNs, so it was a pioneer in

figuring out the best way to do so. The weight of the three 4x4 MGM lobby video walls was

substantial, as each weighs 80 pounds, and each accompanying bracket weighs 39 pounds.

This comes out to a total of 5,712 pounds. In addition, the top screens on the video walls were

pinching the bottom ones, causing some pixels to be lost. Another problem was that the initial

installation used DVI pass-thru on the displays, but this connection was passive and was losing

sync. Also, there was some occasional flickering on the video walls, rare blips in communication

and every so often, a screen going dark for a second.

SOLUTIONS

The installers used lock-washers and made sure the frames were held permanently to the walls,

and that the walls were checked for stability. In addition, cabling was rerouted for each of the

4x4 video walls to address the sync issue. To deal with the flickering and communications

issues, they further inspected the video walls and found that the Mac minis were enabling HDCP

encryption. They found that HDCP could be disabled through the Crestron DM switcher, which

allows a single source to run to different walls.

The video walls also proved to be an employee motivator. On the video wall behind one of the

lobby's front desks, guests openly complained about the attitude of a working employee in

various tweets. The problem turned into a great PR opportunity for MGM by what it did next. The

hotel leader not only discussed the matter with the employee to address the problem but also

conveyed to customers that their opinions counted. One employee expressed his own

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excitement with the social media engagement saying, "It's unbelievable the number of hits we get

on this. Everyone wants to be heard, and people love that stuff."

RESULTS

The video walls showed great results for MGM Resorts International. They added elegance to

hotel lobbies. They informed hotel guests of events and promotions, and also allowed for them

to interact through social channels. In fact, MGM Resorts International has received hundreds of

thousands of social hits every year from the video walls. MGM Resorts International also noticed

that when the marketing department got on board and helped promote the video walls, then

officials got better results through hits and interactions with guests. They were able to create

more interactive ways of communicating, too. Tim Kelly, president of Hotel Operations, said that

wait time complaints fell more than 25 percent once the video walls were up and running.

MGM Resorts International won the DSE 2014 Silver Apex Award

(http://www.digitalsignageconnection.com/2014-apex-awards-announced-dse-213#category6) in

the Hospitality category.

Read more articles about Hotel Digital Signage

(http://www.digitalsignageconnection.com/industries/hotels-motels-resorts)

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