What Happens In Vegas Stays In Vegas, Unless There's An Amazon Echo In Every Wynn Hotel Room
The Wynn hotel and casino in Las Vegas is going high tech by equipping all 4,748 rooms with an Amazon Echo smart speaker. Wynn Chairman and CEO Steve Wynn likened the hands-free speaker to having a personal butler, saying that in all the years he has been in the business he's never seen a better implementation of technology designed to make the user experience more seamless. He might be right, but having an Internet-connected speaker in every room also challenges the notion that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, as the popular phrase goes.
"As we have moved through the years, technology has always played an important part in our resorts," Wynn, Chairman and added. "The thing that Amazon has done with Alexa is quite perfect. If I have ever seen anything in my 49 years of developing resorts that has made our job of delivering a perfect experience to our guests easier and help us get to another level, it is Alexa. The ability to talk to your room is effortlessly convenient."
Wynn is the first hotel to partner with Amazon to bring Echo speakers powered by Alexa into each and every room. Once implemented, guests will be able to issue verbal commands to control the lighting, adjust room temperature, open and close the drapes, and control the television. Over time, Wynn says more features will be introduced, such as "personal assistant functions."
"Millions of people already enjoy interacting with Alexa at home via their Echo devices, and now they will be able to experience the same convenience while traveling," said Steve Rabuchin, Vice President of Amazon Alexa. "Wynn Las Vegas is known for its comfort and luxury, and we are excited to work with the resort to enhance its guest experience with Alexa."
The way Echo works is it uses on-device keyword spotting to detect the wake word "Alexa." When it detects the wake word, it begins streaming audio to the cloud. That includes a fraction of a second of audio before the wake word. The implication there is that a private conversation could potentially be recorded, uploaded to Amazon's servers, and hacked. We suppose it is also possible the government could use the device to listen in on conversations.
Privacy concerns aside, it'd be pretty neat to control all or most aspects of a hotel room with voice commands. Wynn says it will have Echo fully implemented in all guest rooms by summer of 2017.
"As we have moved through the years, technology has always played an important part in our resorts," Wynn, Chairman and added. "The thing that Amazon has done with Alexa is quite perfect. If I have ever seen anything in my 49 years of developing resorts that has made our job of delivering a perfect experience to our guests easier and help us get to another level, it is Alexa. The ability to talk to your room is effortlessly convenient."
Wynn is the first hotel to partner with Amazon to bring Echo speakers powered by Alexa into each and every room. Once implemented, guests will be able to issue verbal commands to control the lighting, adjust room temperature, open and close the drapes, and control the television. Over time, Wynn says more features will be introduced, such as "personal assistant functions."
"Millions of people already enjoy interacting with Alexa at home via their Echo devices, and now they will be able to experience the same convenience while traveling," said Steve Rabuchin, Vice President of Amazon Alexa. "Wynn Las Vegas is known for its comfort and luxury, and we are excited to work with the resort to enhance its guest experience with Alexa."
The way Echo works is it uses on-device keyword spotting to detect the wake word "Alexa." When it detects the wake word, it begins streaming audio to the cloud. That includes a fraction of a second of audio before the wake word. The implication there is that a private conversation could potentially be recorded, uploaded to Amazon's servers, and hacked. We suppose it is also possible the government could use the device to listen in on conversations.
Privacy concerns aside, it'd be pretty neat to control all or most aspects of a hotel room with voice commands. Wynn says it will have Echo fully implemented in all guest rooms by summer of 2017.
