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While the $1.5 billion Venetian Resort is a high-roller in network infrastructure, VoIP is less sexy than the bandwidth going to slot machines.
The Venetian, with its 7,000 guest rooms, 120,000 square foot casino floor, and waterways for gondolas uses 700 switches supporting 10G Ethernet with a network split into 98 virtual LANs supporting everything from 4,000 cameras to wireless hotspots.
Only 2,000 of the resorts 20,000 phones are VoIP, powered by PoE along with the wireless access points. It's hard to justify VoIP phones in the rooms, since a legacy TDM phone costs $20 or less, while an IP phone would cost $125; take the difference, multipley by 7,000 rooms, and there's real money.
A nearly identical network has been deployed at the Venetian Macao and officials expect to save $5 million over five years due to the reliability of the HP switches and other equipment involved.
For more:
- Learn more about the Venetian
high-speed network from Network World
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Comments
Posted by Ethan Schroeder | May 27, 2008 - 10:32pm
Very interesting. I was just in Vegas presenting for the Open Telephony Training Seminar, and was strolling around in the Venetian. I think they might have stolen some of my money, actually. Wait, is it stealing when you willfully put money into a machine that has no intention of giving it back to you?
I think the value proposition for IP in hotels is greatly enhanced by next-generation handsets supporting rich applications, such as the Aastra line of IP phones. The advertising and upsell opportunities that can be programmed into the handsets could provided a ridiculous amount of revenue, easily paying for the cost of the handset. I could even write applications that let guests order keno in real-time from their hotel room, purchase shows, etc.
That's not even to mention being able to provide the best possible user experience to guests which, especially in Vegas where competition for high income visitors, is paramount.
Ethan Schroeder
ethan dot schroeder at schmoozecom dot com
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