Hotel TV supply is expanding into cooperation on cloud platforms. LG Electronics said on Tuesday it has formed a strategic partnership with Marriott International and will jointly develop hotel TVs and a cloud-based platform integrating in-room content and services. LG Electronics and Marriott recently signed an MOU at Marriott's headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland, to upgrade in-room entertainment and technology platforms. The signing ceremony was attended by LG Electronics North America head Do-young Kwak (곽도영), vice president, and Marriott's Drew Pinto, chief technology officer and chief revenue officer, along with executives from both companies.

Under the agreement, LG Electronics will be responsible for joint platform development, device management and operational technical support. If Marriott sets service direction based on customer experience, hotel operations know-how and global technology infrastructure, LG Electronics will take on roles including cloud platform development, integrated management of in-room devices and operational technical support.

The new platform will first be applied to 40 Marriott hotels in the United States and Canada. It will then be expanded sequentially across Marriott's global hotel brands. Hotel operators will be able to use cloud-based management tools to monitor device status in an integrated way, from individual room TVs to hotel-level and global portfolio-level, and remotely update content and applications.

Hotel guests at properties using the platform will be able to access live broadcasts and OTT content on LG hotel TVs in their rooms. In the future, various functions such as room temperature and lighting will also be controllable through the hotel TV. LG Electronics plans to continue expanding its business in the hotel digital infrastructure market spanning in-room entertainment, device management and smart services through this partnership. LG Electronics is providing global hotels with a hotel TV product lineup including "LG OLED TV", the "LG Pro:Centric" platform optimized for room environments and its own operating system, webOS.

Dong-seon Min (민동선), head of the ID Business Division at LG Electronics' MS Business Division, said, "We will continue to roll out total solutions for future smart hotels by combining our differentiated hotel TV product competitiveness with cloud and the webOS platform."