Sleepless in Slovenia
SINCE THE DAWN OF THE INTERNET, we've been hearing about how the digital revolution is going to transform our lives into something out of Star Wars. In particular, we've heard about how computers will merge with telephones, televisions, music systems, digital video recorders, game consoles and just about any other appliances you can think of. One home, one network. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates has been extolling the virtues of this futuristic vision for years, but it always seemed so Buck Rogers and so very far away.
Yet this is the 21st century after all, and in the quaint Eastern European burg of Ljubljana, Slovenia, the future is now. One of the benefits of being left behind under some 40 years of communist rule is that one has a chance to start from scratch with post-Cold War capitalism. Such is the case with the Domina Grand Media Hotel in Ljubljana, the capital city of the first state to secede from the former Yugoslavia and a recent entrant to the European Union.
The Domina Grand Media claims to be one of the most technologically advanced hotels in the world, and it might very well be. At the very least, it is a worthy model for how to implement the latest digital and communications technologies as lifestyle and business applications.
For starters, the brand new minimalist inn is a gigantic hot-spot unto itself. The entire, multistory hotel is covered top to bottom with free -- yes, free -- Wi-Fi Internet access. Most hotels, by contrast, require fees of up to $25 a day, and often times in older buildings, the coverage is restricted to just the main floor.
While surfing on your wireless laptop in the comfort of cozy Italian leather chairs, you are surrounded by walls of multimedia. The lobbies of the Domina and its sleek upscale restaurant are plastered with massive Sony flat-panel plasma televisions, replete with high-definition quality and in some cases, touch-screen interactivity. Think W Hotel on steroids.
Like the W or other tech-inspired hotels in the U.S., such as the hipster Ian Schrager chain, the Domina Grand Media has smaller flat-panel screens adjacent to most elevators that convey hotel information or project pleasant images of the verdant Slovenian Alps. At the entryway to every room or suite are yet two more digital panels mounted on the wall. One is for swiping a guest key card, and the other is an interactive touch screen where guests can punch in a combination code in the event they forget their key card or choose not use it.
Inside the rooms, the multimedia nirvana reaches a crescendo. Every room is equipped with a modern desk, Ethernet jack with high-speed Internet access (in case you forgot your wireless card), plenty of electrical outlets and a telephone using Voice over the Internet Protocol (VoIP) manufactured by Cisco Systems of San Jose, Calif. In fact, the hotel's entire computer nerve system uses Cisco routers, switches and other networking gear. The VoIP phones are a tremendous windfall for guests, because they let you make free calls to any landline (not mobile networks) in the world.
To make this all happen, Cisco's Slovenian-based sales staff has worked closely with the hotel's developer, Grand Media Holding, a unit of Alpha Baumanagement of Austria. "It's a question of building a network in a different way. Buildings can be nodes of an Internet network. This was [Cisco Chief Executive] John Chambers' vision," says Gerhard Kaspar, Alpha's top manager of the project.
Grand Media is the brainchild of Kaspar and a former Arthur Andersen information-technology consultant from Italy, Massimo Cotrozzi, who is now essentially the chief technology officer for Grand Media. Together, Kaspar and Cotrozzi have passionately pursued a project that many told them could not be done.
The hotel project has been a boon for Cisco's Adriatic sales division, which held its 300-person national sales and customer conference at the hotel in June shortly after it opened. The hotel developers "came to us as customers but they are actually our best sales force," notes Cisco's regional sales director Jasmina Stritar
Indeed, the high-tech hotel and (soon-to-be casino), which sits next door to Ljubljana's World Trade Center building, serves as a high-profile sales model for Cisco. But Cisco is not Grand Media's only important development partner. Others include Sony, for flat-panel monitors, Microsoft, for its Windows platform and network servers, and Fujitsu-Siemens, for its client-server computers (there is one in every room closet).
A 42-inch Sony plasma flat-panel screen adorns every hotel room except for suites, which boast 84-inch screens. They serve as the nerve center of the room. There are no radio alarm clocks in the rooms, because the network provides both high-fidelity stereo musical content and a wake-up feature. And if Cotrozzi has his way, he will also get rid of the telephone handsets because they will be, in his mind, redundant once every room is equipped with Web cameras and microphones.
Grand Media has developed custom software that turns your massive flat-panel monitor into a behemoth of a browser. Grand Media, under Cotrozzi's direction, has also custom-developed two pieces of media hardware for the rooms: a keyboard and a remote. Guests can hammer out e-mail messages on their media wall while lying in bed. If the room-service attendant arrives, the door can also be electronically opened by with a touch of the button on the remote. When you're ready to sleep, you can turn out the lights with the remote.
Of course, not everything is finely tuned. One glitch is that the flat-panel monitors need to be manually turned on when one enters the room, which is really a Sony hardware shortcoming more than anything. Also, customers can't check out of the hotel yet without going to the front desk because of a quirky Slovenian consumer law that prevents Slovenians from making certain e-commerce transactions within their own country. And when I tried to get a printout of an e-mail message, the printer at the front desk was down. But that was just a temporary snafu at a relatively new hotel.
For Massimo, hooking up with Kaspar, and the Austrian development company he works for, was a dream come true, giving him the rare opportunity to try blue-sky ideas that he hatched while working as a corporate consultant. Now, he feels like a kid in a candy store. "They have let me do just about anything that I always wanted to try," says Cotrozzi, who is considering supplanting Microsoft with the Linux open-source software platform.
The total cost of the hotel, so far, is about $64 million, with about $5.3 million devoted solely to software, hardware and gear, but it is still a work in progress.
The Milan-based Domina chain, which is the operator, is considering collaboration of other properties with Grand Media. But the Austrian company isn't limiting its digital concepts to just hotels, Kaspar says. The company has launched a software-development arm in nearby Graz, Austria, and plans to hire about 35 software developers, mostly from Slovenia, to create new applications for homes, offices and other commercial buildings. Grand Media is talking to Siemens's building-technology division about selling the software as a licensing partner, and Grand Media's project-management operations unit is designing and developing a demonstration showroom for Deutsche Telekom.
For Kaspar, a media lawyer by training who specialized in the privatization of government-owned television in Central Europe, the fun has just begun. Says he: "My dream has been to bring interactivity to reality." 斯洛文尼亚的不眠之夜
自从互联网诞生以来，有关这一数字革命将如何使我们的生活变得像《星球大战》 (Star Wars) 中一样的言辞就不绝于耳。人们谈论尤多的是，电脑将如何与电话、电视机、音响系统、数码录像机、游戏机以及任何你能想像得到的家用电器结合在一起。一个家庭就是一个网络。虽然微软公司 (Microsoft) 董事长比尔?盖茨 (Bill Gates) 多年来一直在不遗余力地宣传这种未来的美好景象，但这些景象似乎总是像《巴克?罗杰斯》 (Buck Rogers) 中描述的生活那样遥不可及。
但现在毕竟是 21 世纪了，在斯洛文尼亚的卢布尔雅娜这座神秘的东欧小城，未来已经变为现实。 40 多年共产主义统治带来的一个益处是，它使得从零开始构建冷战后资本主义社会成为可能。对卢布尔雅娜市的多米纳大媒体酒店 (Domina Grand Media Hotel) 而言情况正是如此。卢布尔雅娜是斯洛文尼亚的首都，该国是第一个退出前南斯拉夫联盟的国家，最近又加入了欧盟 (European Union) 。
多米纳大媒体宣称自己是全球技术最先进的酒店之一，实际情况可能真是这样。至少该酒店提供了一种可供借鉴的模式，让人们看看最新的数字和通讯技术是如何被融入到日常生活和商务领域的。
初次入住多米纳大媒体的人会发现，这家不起眼的小酒店本身就是一个巨大的公众无线互联网热点。在这座多层建筑的一楼到顶楼，到处都可通过无线方式免费接入互联网。相反，多数其他酒店会收取高达每天 25 美元的互联网接入费，而在那些建成较早的酒店，可以接入互联网的地方往往仅限于酒店的第一层。
当你舒服地坐在意大利式皮椅上用笔记本电脑无线上网冲浪时，你会发现自己被多媒体幕墙环绕著。多米纳大媒体的前厅和它富丽堂皇的餐厅都在墙壁上安装著巨大的索尼牌 (Sony) 等离子平板电视机，这些电视机不仅有高清晰度的画面质量，有些还安装有触控式萤屏，具有互动功能。想想 W 酒店吧。
像 W 和新潮的 Ian Schrager 连锁酒店等富于科技特色的美国酒店一样，多米纳大媒体的多数电梯附近都有屏幕较小的平板电视，或提供酒店的各类信息，或放映斯洛文尼亚阿尔卑斯山区的秀丽风光。在每个房间或套房的入口处，墙上还安著两台数字式平板电视屏。一个是为客人在前面展示门卡之用，另一个则是一个互动式触摸屏，如果客人忘了带门卡或不想使用门卡，他可以代之以在屏幕上敲击一组代码。
房间内的多媒体装置就更多了。每个房间都配有一张式样时髦的桌子，并安装有以太网接口，以便人们能够接入高速互联网（这在客人忘记带自己的无线上网卡时才用得著），此外房间里还有大量的电子器具，以及一部使用互联网语音传输协议 (VoIP) 的电话机，这部电话机由思科系统公司 (Cisco Systems) 生产。事实上，这家酒店的电脑系统中使用的所有路由器、交换机和其他网络设备都是思科系统的产品。 VoIP 电话对所有入住该酒店的人都是一个惊喜，因为它可以使你免费拨打全球各地的固定电话。
为了上面的这一切，思科系统在斯洛文尼亚的销售人员一直在与多米纳大媒体的开发商 Grand Media Holding 进行著密切合作，后者是奥地利企业 Alpha Baumanagement 的一家子公司。 Alpha 公司负责这一项目的经理杰哈德?卡斯帕尔 (Gerhard Kaspar) 说，这是在以另类方式构建一个网络，在这里建筑物本身就是互联网的节点，这就是思科系统首席执行长约翰?钱伯斯 (John Chambers) 的观点。
多米纳大媒体是卡斯帕尔和前安达信会计师事务所 (Arthur Andersen) 信息技术咨询师马西梅奥?科特罗滋 (Massimo Cotrozzi) 构想出来的，后者目前实际上担任多米纳大媒体的首席技术长。他们一直孜孜以求的这一项目在许多人眼里都是不可行的。
这家酒店已经成了思科系统公司亚得里亚海销售部门的活广告，酒店开张后不久，该部门即于 6 月份在这里召开了有 300 人出席的全国销售人员和客户大会，思科的地区销售经理贾斯米娜?斯特里塔 (Jasmina Stritar) 说，虽然这家酒店的开发商是以客户身份与会的，但实际上他们成了思科系统的最佳推销员。
这家高科技酒店（以及即将建成的赌场）与卢布尔雅娜的世界贸易中心大楼比邻而居，它实际上已经成了思科系统公司的一个巨大广告牌。但思科系统并非多米纳大媒体唯一的重要开发伙伴。索尼公司就为该酒店提供了平板显示屏，微软公司 (Microsoft) 为它提供了 Windows 操作平台和网络伺服器，而富士通 - 西门子 (Fujitsu-Siemens) 则为酒店提供了客户 - 伺服器电脑 ( 在每间客房的壁橱里都有一台 ) 。
除了套房外，酒店的每间客房都配备有索尼的 42 英寸等离子平板电视机，套房的平板电视机是 84 英寸的。这些电视机实际上是房间的神经中枢。客房内没有无线电闹钟，因为酒店的电脑网络既提供高保真立体声音乐内容，也提供叫醒服务。如果要按科特罗滋的设想，房间内连电话机也不应保留，因为在他看来，一旦每个房间配备了网络摄像机和麦克风，那么电话机就成了多余之物。
多米纳大媒体已经开发出了定制软件，它可以将客房内巨大的平板显示屏转变为一个超大浏览器。在科特罗滋的指导下，该酒店还专门为客房开发了两种专用硬件，即键盘和遥控器。客人只需躺在床上敲键盘，电子邮件的内容就能出现在房间的媒体墙上。如果酒店服务员来敲门，客人只要一按遥控器上的一个按纽，房间的门就能自动打开。当客人想睡觉时，也可用遥控器来关灯。
当然，客房内并非一切都尽善尽美。客人们进房间后必须亲自动手打开平板监视器就是一个小小的不便，不过这应归咎于索尼公司硬件产品的不完善。此外，客人还必须到酒店前台去结帐，但这要归咎于斯洛文尼亚的消费者法，这部法律禁止斯洛文尼亚人在自己的国家内从事某些电子商务交易。而当笔者试图将一份电子邮件的内容打印出来时，酒店前台的打印机却出故障了。不过对于一家尚未完全走上正轨的新开张酒店，这只不过是暂时现象。
对科特罗滋来说，受雇于那家奥地利开发公司，并与卡斯帕尔一道工作，给了他一个实现梦想的绝好机会，可以将作为一名企业咨询师时存在于脑海里的空中楼阁付诸实施。他现在感觉自己就像是一个走进了糖果店的孩子。科特罗滋说：“他们让我做我一直想尝试的任何事。”他正考虑在酒店内安装源代码开放的 Linux 软件平台，以弥补 Windows 操作系统的不足。
这家酒店目前为止的总建设成本约为 6,400 万美元，其中约 530 万美元专门用于软件、硬件和其他设备，但这方面的工作还在进行中。
总部位于米兰的多米纳连锁酒店是这家酒店的运营商，它正考虑将多米纳大媒体酒店的模式运用到其管理的其他酒店中去。但卡斯帕尔说， Alpha Baumanagement 这家奥地利公司并不满足于将它的数字概念仅仅应用于酒店。这家公司已在奥地利的格拉茨设立了一个软件开发部门，并计划雇佣 35 位软件开发人员，其中多数将来自斯洛文尼亚，要他们为家庭、办公室和其他商用建筑开发新的应用软件。多米纳大媒体正在与西门子公司的建筑技术部门进行谈判，有望将自己开发的这套软件授权给后者使用。多米纳大媒体的项目管理业务子公司正在为德国电信 (Deutsche Telekom) 设计和开发展示厅。
卡斯帕尔的本专业是媒体律师，他的专长是从事中欧国家原国家所有电视台私有化方面的工作，对他来说，乐趣只是刚刚开始。卡斯帕尔说，他的梦想是使互动成为现实。
