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Ben Clifford, co-founder & CTO at Nevaya, discusses the latest innovations in televisions and why the hotel sector isn’t ready to go DIY in casting just yet.
Last year LG announced that it had developed integrated Google Cast casting capabilities for its smart hotel TVs. No more dangling dongle hanging from your TV like a lamb’s tail, ready to drop off onto the floor, behind the desk or into the guests’ suitcase.
LG has ensured that all the clever stuff is hidden away with all the rest of its clever TV stuff, far away from fiddling hands, leaving the guest to enjoy an uncluttered, fully embedded experience.
It all represented the next evolution in the guest experience journey, said LG, with Michael Kosla, the group’s SVP, Business Solutions USA, commenting: “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.”
The first group to snap this up was Hyatt, with Rohan Jani, the group’s associate VP, guest products, adding: “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.”
Kosla added: “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.” And who doesn’t like to free up an HDMI port? But that aside, Kosla was singing the hotel sector’s song.
One of the deterring factors in hotels adopting casting has been the vast differential in quality between providers and the need to have an extra room of black, blinking boxes on site, not to mention a ‘phone number for someone to come and make it all OK when things go wrong.
So the chance to take the option which limits the number of extraneous bits and pieces required is very appealing. As we have seen recently with Apple’s decision to embrace streaming, it is about to enter the mainstream and become a hygiene factor for hotels; the new Wifi. It would take a weight off the average hotelier to be able to plug and play and get back to the 400 other issues which serve to make hotels the most complex, if the most rewarding, of all the operational real estate classes.
At Nevaya we are of course excited for any innovation which encourages casting into more hotel rooms, helping hotels to both enhance the guest stay and drive ancillary revenues, but would caution against using this step to try and go it alone.
We love to see these sudden leaps ahead, but it remains important to work with a team which has thorough experience in casting, from installation to ongoing support. Operating solely in the cloud, for example, means that a system can be up and running quickly and guarantees speedy response times when something goes wrong.
Casting requires additional technology to work alongside, to deliver a smooth solution for guests and we have built our reputation on seamlessly connecting Google casting technology with hospitality. Casting can offer more than being part of your guest experience, it can help you improve your knowledge of the guest, and of groups of guests, allowing you to personalise and perfect their stays.
Whoever you work with should share your vision and understand what your medium and long-term goals are, then help you deliver them. After all, they’re right in the guest’s room with them.
Get in bed with embedding? Providers of beds are eager to do so. But pick your partner wisely.