Sheraton Toronto Gets T-1
<B> Sheraton Toronto Gets T-1</B>
By Carolyn Green
The 1,400-room Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel, boasting 36 meeting rooms with 84,000 square feet of space, has added high-speed Internet technology to its menu of offerings.
The hotel, which was the global test site for Northern Telecom's Meridian Mail guest room voice mail system in 1989, recently has installed a T-1 connection that is accessible in about 87 percent of its meeting space.
Camille Renda, the Sheraton Centre's rapid response and telecommunications manager, said the T-1 line, along with other connectivity-related equipment that has recently been installed, makes the hotel the first in Canada to get wired on such a grand scale.
"In the city of Toronto, we are the furthest ahead," Renda said. "Nationally, there are other properties that in small areas--like a conference center or board room--put in some bells and whistles. But no one else has done it in almost their entire meeting facility."
The high-speed Internet link, provided by Bell Canada and its Bell Emergis division, is capable of carrying data at 1,544,000 bits per second--about three times the speed of even an ISDN line.
T-1 lines provide the fastest speed commonly available to connect networks to the Internet and allow for up to 254 dedicated addresses, either in one meeting room or spread throughout a variety of conference locales in the hotel.
The hotel also has added ISDN lines in all 36 of its meeting rooms.
According to spokeswoman Cynthia Bond, the new equipment will help boost the hotel's meeting and convention sales. "It's going to make the meeting planner absolutely delighted that there is this technology in-house, ready for immediate access," she said. "The response we've had so far is that they're delighted the hotel is already fully cable. They just come in and say how many lines they want without having to go to an outside company."
In many hotels, the installation of high-speed lines is done on a temporary basis and organized by the planner. Often, Renda said, it takes weeks before installation is completed. Now, "it's one less thing for the meeting planner to worry about."
Cost for one IP address is $245 through the T-1 connection or $210 through an ISDN line.
On other high-tech fronts, the hotel recently upgraded its Meridian mail program, which offers voicemail in English, French, Japanese and German. By June, Spanish and Portuguese will be added.
The Sheraton Toronto also has gone high-tech in its newly opened Traders Bar and Grill. In partnership with Reuters Information Services (Canada) Ltd., patrons can receive live financial market news and quotes from two wall-mounted data walls and ticker tapes. The Sheraton installation is Reuters' first Canadian venture outside a trading room floor. The information is received on-line through the T-1 equipment.
"We love technology here and we want to be at the leading edge," Bond said. "Our vision is to take this to the guest wherever he or she is in the hotel --in the restaurants or guest rooms, or sitting at the pool.