Spotify Camp Nou

We dug into the details in our Signature Story on the Crestron site:

For the most part, the stadium's use had been limited to match days, which the refit will change dramatically. “Currently, Spotify Camp Nou is being used roughly 22 days a year,” says Antonio Ortega, Crestron’s regional sales director for Iberica and Italy. “It’s becoming a 365-day-a-year complex that will encompass a variety of spaces to host different events simultaneously, providing the city a reference location and maximize additional revenue to the club.”

And all of those event spaces, meeting spaces, dining and concession areas, luxury lounges, and VIP boxes — not to mention the stands surrounding the pitch — demand tech solutions that can handle everything from lighting to content sharing, from control systems to collaborative conferencing tools, and much more.

“We’re providing the content, control, and collaboration solutions across the different spaces,” says Ortega. “We’re deploying a complete ecosystem based around IP technologies with DM NVX AV-over-IP for video distribution, DM NAX Audio-over-IP and Virtual Control processing for all the areas in this complex project.”

There are more technologies in the mix, of course, but it’s obvious that a Crestron ecosystem can take a sports venue from one used only on match day to a connected set of spaces ready for events 24/7, 365.

But what does “scaling up” mean for a hotel owner?

A Skilled Partner

But there’s another link in the chain, and it’s a very human one: “It is so important that these organizations have a skilled integrator partner; a Crestron Hospitality dealer that can help them scale up and maintain that great guest experience,” says Guss. “The resources that we have through our hospitality partner program to provide training directly to their team is very helpful. Beyond that frontline assistance, the technology integrator can then provide a deeper level of support. It all works together.”

When something breaks down, a hotel operator hears about it. “There are so many outlets offering reviews, and the consumer is bombarded with information,” notes Guss. If the technology is working properly — doing what it’s supposed to do, in the background, nearly invisibly — tech will never be a part of that review. “If a guest has a really great experience, usually they're not going to say anything about the technology because it's done its job creating this overall amazing experience for them. If it's bad though, they're definitely going to hear about it.

“Hotels live and die by these reviews because the traveler is so educated. We have so much information and data at our fingertips through AI-driven platforms that I can learn if a hotel’s doing its job with just a few keystrokes. Delivering those positive experiences is so important to a hotel's success these days.”

The Meeting Room

There’s another benefit of standardization, and you’ll find it outside of the guest rooms.

When a ballroom or meeting space has been rented, it’s rare that the hotel property itself will be responsible for setting up AV or content-sharing technology. “It’s uncommon for a hotel to have their own staff that would configure the AV equipment for the room,” explains Hull. “So you end up with a third party who interacts with the hotel system.” And if something’s not deployed properly, the technology (often unfairly) shoulders the blame.

The fix: Keep it simple. “This is one of the reasons we make our solutions as intuitive and easy to use as possible,” says Hull. An excellent example is Marriott’s adoption of Crestron AirMedia Presentation and Conferencing solutions (a suite of products that allow for rapid, uncomplicated, one-touch collaboration with no additional software). “All the meeting organizer has to do is plug in an HDMI cable or one of our connect adaptors, and the meeting’s ready to begin.”

By eliminating a patchwork of AV devices, the hotel operator can reduce downtime and ensure that every space has the right connectivity. “A dark room with no one in it generates zero revenue,” notes Hull. (This concept moves up the chain into corporate offices; there are hospitality chains that have standardized on Crestron meeting technologies with Microsoft Teams® software for corporate HQs across the globe.)