Hospitality TV leader LG Electronics announced that it has developed integrated Google Cast casting capabilities for LG smart hotel TVs.
Hyatt is working with LG in the hopes of becoming the first hospitality brand to enable the deployment of these new integrated LG smart hotel TVs later this year. Hyatt through SONIFI, a casting partner that provides casting to more than 500,000 industry rooms, is assisting in the LG-Google next-generation casting solution for new and existing Hyatt hotels around the world.
Bringing Google Cast to the industry’s best-selling smart hotel TVs using LG’s Pro:Centric platform represents an important next step in the evolution of the guest experience journey, according to Michael Kosla, senior vice president, LG Business Solutions USA, which will demonstrate the new TVs publicly for the first time at the HITEC 2024 hospitality technology trade show. “LG is pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in hotel room entertainment through partnerships with technology leaders like Google to combine our new smart hotel TVs with the latest in casting technology to benefit hoteliers and guests alike,” he said.
“Aligned with our purpose of care and goal to make the guest experience even more seamless, Hyatt is proud to work towards building on our role as the leader in hotel room casting,” said Rohan Jani, associate vice president of guest products at Hyatt. “We introduced the first industry casting solution in 2017, and now with Google and LG, we are exploring taking in-room casting to the next level to boost operational efficiency and improve the guest experience.”
Embedding Google Cast into LG smart hotel TVs may reduce complexity for hotels and systems integrators to deliver the casting feature for both Android and iOS users, Kosla explained, adding, “With this integrated approach there is no additional equipment to buy, configure, and maintain, no risk of device theft, and it frees up an HDMI port.”
Tiger Lan, Google’s senior director of engineering for multi-device experiences, said, “Google Cast capabilities built into LG hotel TVs will give hotel operators the best integrated solution that reduces costs and allows guests to pick up where they left off in their personal streaming services.”
Visitors to LG’s HITEC booth (#3036) at the Charlotte Convention Center will be able to experience the new TVs and their integrated casting capabilities, seeing how hotel guests will be able to use their mobile devices or laptops to cast more than 3,000 cast-enabled apps such as Hulu and Spotify to their in-room LG smart TV for a personalized entertainment experience.
Using a simple QR code on the TV, guests will be able to quickly establish a cast connection and begin wirelessly streaming videos, music and more from their devices. In addition to mobile device controls, the TV remote can also be used for typical play, track and volume controls, ensuring a simple and familiar user experience. Then, when guests checkout, devices will automatically be reset.
The 2024 LG Pro:Centric smart hotel TVs shipping now will receive the new Google Cast feature through a software update later this year. As the leading television provider to the U.S. lodging and hospitality industry, LG offers a range of smart hotel TVs from 43-inches to 75-inches with up to 4K resolution to suit virtually every space from standard guestrooms to penthouse suites. The powerful LG Pro:Centric Smart software enables use of modern solutions including content streaming, interface customization, and even networked digital signage capabilities.
Google Cast is compatible with Android 6 and newer, iOS 14 and newer, and comes pre-installed on all Android devices.