On a recent trip to 'rural' Italy, I stayed in a family-run hotel on the Amalfi Coast. I was pleasantly surprised that the 20-room hotel sported some of the best automation technologies available. To put this into context, the hotel is situated in an area that has winding roads that are almost impassable via buses or trucks. Buses can only negotiate the roads by doing three-point turns around some of the hairpin bends. The area is a good distance from the nearest major centre. Yet despite this rustic setting, the landlord (a typical Italian, matriarchal `Mama') has embraced an incredible level of sophistication.
Every single electrical device in the hotel is connected to a central control and reservation system.
Examples include:
* Interlocks on every door to ensure that the airconditioning system is only used to cool the rooms - and not the entire Mediterranean summer outside.
* Every light can be controlled from reception.
* Each room is 'disabled' until the occupants check-in.
* The LCD television sets in every room (also under central control) makes more than 300 satellite channels available to the guests.
* The pièce de résistance is the availability of affordable broadband Internet access in every room via both wireless and cable.
Although the systems are not in themselves particularly complicated, the smart use of technology helps the owners run the hotel on what can only be described as a skeleton staff (five people). As if to prove that such control really has its benefits, the owners seem to find enough time every day to join their guests and lounge at the hotel's solar-heated pool and solarium. As final confirmation, the European hotel's rates are (competitively) affordable when compared with our beloved Mother City's outrageously over-priced rate cards.
I believe that there is a lesson to be learned from Mama and her clan. If South African industry is to remain competitive in the global marketplace, we have to consider the adoption of intelligent control systems and an exemplary work ethic.
Also on the local scene, Technews is in the final stages of the production of the 2006 edition of The SA Instrumentation & Control Buyers' Guide. Subscribers of the monthly magazine should receive their free, posted copy in the near future. To confirm that your subscription is up-to-date, send an e-mail to Carmen at subs@technews.co.za
Graeme Bell
Managing editor: SA Instrumentation & Control
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