Why Consumer TVs Don’t Belong in a Commercial Environment

PRICE DIFFERENCE

The disparity in price between consumer and commercial electronics has always been distinct; that difference is even more noticeable in TVs.

So hotel owners and managers are starting to ask themselves why they should buy the higher priced commercial panel instead of the cheaper model on sale at the local big-box retailer especially when all they need is a basic TV.

Here are 4 points to consider when making that decision.

1. Warranty:
   Consumer TVs have a 90 day to 1 year warranty. If that consumer TV is placed in a commercial setting, the warranty may become completely void. Hospitality TVs on the other hand have a 2 to 5 year warranty which often comes with on-site support.
2. Duty Cycles:
   Consumer TVs are typically built to run four to eight hours a day while hospitality sets are designed to be used for 15 or 16 hours a day. There are even some panels that can run 24/7.
3. Guest Proof:
   In order to make it easy for users to change settings, many consumer sets have accessible external controls. Those controls are physically hidden, and are able to be locked through settings on the TV, in a commercial set giving the property the comfort of knowing that guests are not changing any pre-set limiters.
4. Guest Centered:
   There are extra features that come standard on a hospitality TV that you are not likely to get with a consumer model. For example, some TVs have a special start-up channel with relevant information about the hotel and the surrounding area. Pro:idiom, which is an internal chip that allows hotels to run video signal, is also another very popular feature available in hotel TVs.