After winning the bid to automate the Wynn Resort in Las Vegas in 2010 and wowing both owners and guests with a dazzling array of gadgets, Evolve Guest Controls moved on to another marquee project it hopes will deliver similar reviews.

Work on The Inn at Penn, a flagship Hilton hotel on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, included a complete renovation of 275 rooms, including upgraded HVAC systems, new lighting controls, new TV power controls and retrofitted wiring.

Balancing Act

The first phase of the project wrapped up at the end of 2010, and Hilton has received more than 250 positive comments about the upgrades with no negatives so far, says Avi Rosenthal, vice president of technology for Evolve. The hotel staff has reported already seeing a savings in its electricity since the first phase wrapped up.

“The main challenge was working in an active hotel,” he says. “Usually, we get in and we get out, and we can do it in about 45 minutes per room. For this project, it took us about three months to do what would normally take a week. There was so much else going on in the building.”

Each room at The Inn at Penn now includes a key card-based energy management system that activates the room, setting the thermometer and triggering a welcome scene.

Evolve used light fixture module and an LED director system to reconfigure the lighting control system to allow guests to control the three switches separately in the bathroom while still limiting the amount of space the controls ate.

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The Inn at Penn Gets a Tech Makeover

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