History and High-Tech Live at The New York Palace Hotel
Dec 3, 2014 2:20 PM
Nearly 100 years separate three phases of construction at The New York Palace in New York City. The original mansion, built by railroad tycoon Henry Villard in 1882, still stands today. But pass through the elegant courtyard and up the grand staircase and you find yourself in a 55-story black tower added to the hotel by Harry and Leona Helmsley in 1981.
When Northwood Hospitality purchased the hotel last year, the owners initiated a third phase of renovation, together with a technology upgrade, that began with the 167 rooms that make up the top 14 floors of the Tower.
Called in to assist with the upgrade, building technology integrator Bill Lally of Mode:Green chose a Crestron 3-Series Control System as the solution for the rooms.
“The advantage of the Crestron control system in each room is its internal wireless gateway,” says Lally.
Crestron InfiNET EX wireless protocol allows multiple wireless devices to be connected and managed reliably, even in extreme RF environments. Through the gateway, the system controls the room climate, door locks, window shades, audio, and lighting. As a focal point for the guests, Lally chose a bedside 7in. Crestron touchscreen.
The upgrades have created one of the most cost-effective and energy-efficient integrated guest rooms done to date. “We owe a lot of thanks to Crestron for their forward-thinking designs,” Lally says, “allowing us to retrofit new technology onto an infrastructure that is 20 years old. That is very rare in the technology world.”
PRODUCT AT WORK
Crestron 3-Series Control System
Economical and featuring a compact form, Crestron’s 3-Series Control System (MC3) has built-in InfiNET EX wireless technology and onscreen display capability. Fitted with the 3-Series control engine, the MC3 is designed for enhanced scalability and affords high-speed, realtime multitasking to seamlessly run multiple programs simultaneously. This modular programming architecture allows programmers to independently develop and run device-specific programs for AV, lighting, HVAC, security, etc., with optimization of each program while allowing changes to be made to one program without affecting the whole.
