Matild Palace is the latest Commercial Integrator 2023 Integration Award winning project to grab the spotlight. Of course, CI’s annual Integration Awards highlight the most dazzling, most technology-forward applications of audiovisual technologies in venues around the country and across the world. Our independent panel of expert judges evaluates dozens of applications, selecting the best across numerous categories.
Matild Palace, which C.E.H. Kft and Crestron submitted, earned top honors in the extremely competitive Best Hotel/Hospitality Project category. Our editors are delighted to showcase the project for the Commercial Integrator audience.
Historical, Distinctive Matild Palace
As part of the Luxury Collection Hotel portfolio from Marriott International, Matild Palace is a historical palace intrinsically connected to its locale. The legendary facility boasts a distinctive ambiance, representing its Hungarian heritage. Built during the Belle Epoque era in 1902, Matild Palace is listed as a UNESCO world heritage site; accordingly, it is under monumental protection. Today, the Budapest hotel is committed to inspiring guests with its rich history, culture and epicurean excellence, which combine luxurious surroundings with authentic experiences.
Matild Palace reached out to C.E.H. Kft because of the company’s extensive expertise with AV in luxury hotels. The Marriott property turned to C.E.H. Kft to handle the AV part of the renovation. The firm’s mission was to make sure that the AV systems could fulfill the highest demands with respect to sound quality but also blend in with the sparkling beauty of this historical building.
For its part, C.E.H. specializes in designing, building, programming and maintaining professional hotel and restaurant AV, as well as building control systems. The brief for Matild Palace was clear: The owners wanted an intuitive, reliable, flexible solution. Since refurbishments in luxury hotels are done every eight to 10 years, the solution also had to remain innovative and relevant for a decade.
Crestron Technology Enhances Experience
Throughout the property, Crestron technology enables the manager to create the perfect scene for guests with a combination of background music, lights and shades. The manager can do so either by using the designated tablet or a Crestron touchscreen on the wall. The hospitality area consists of the Matild Café and Cabaret, where cabaret shows and functions take place. It features a historical rising stage controlled by Crestron technology.
The Duchess rooftop bar is a place for lounging and cocktail parties. It boasts a unique view of Budapest’s historical center, along with Spago by Wolfgang Puck (the first of this brand in Europe). The shading and lights at The Duchess, which doubles as the winter garden during the colder seasons, feature integrated control so that the glass walls and ceiling panels can be managed, as well.
The Conference Area at Matild Palace
The conference area is another essential part of the hotel. There is a total of five meeting rooms, the largest one built to handle a capacity of 100. Because different people book the rooms each time they’re used, it is paramount for the controls to be intuitive. Accordingly, C.E.H. decided to outfit each meeting room with a 10-inch Crestron scheduling panel. That makes it easier to see where each meeting takes place and when any given space is booked. A Crestron DigitalMedia Switcher accommodates any combination of digital sources; meanwhile, the boardroom is equipped with a Crestron Flex kit. The other meeting rooms use Crestron AirMedia wireless presentation and collaboration systems to make it easy for every user to connect instantly from any device to any platform.
The historical design and heritage of Matild Palace run beautifully through its core. Indeed, they are unmistakable from the moment guests step in through the front doors. Crestron technology provides the property with automated controls that can be selected by hotel staff or guests, with solutions that blend in seamlessly with the hotel’s truly impeccable design.
Matild Palace Management is Delighted
Management at Matild Palace expresses heartfelt appreciation for the world-class quality that CEH was able to offer by leveraging Crestron technology to serve this World Heritage location. CEH and Crestron were able to offer technology that is fitting and discreet for the protected building, management noted, while also offering all the functionality that guests of a luxury hotel expect. That, of course, includes lights, shades, sound and conference room control.
“At Matild Palace, we have extensively used Crestron technology, which helps us provide a unique front-of-the-house experience,” Selím Ölmez, general manager, Matild Palace, explains. “Besides the conference room technology, the sound, light, shades and control solutions enable us to create a seamless guest experience in our public spaces, restaurants and bars. Thanks to the flexibility of the system, we can use our mobile devices [so we can] monitor and adjust our systems through an innovative app.”
Máté Kovács, general manager, C.E.H. Kft, reflects on the project’s success, saying, “Crestron technology offered the exact functionality they were looking for at a reasonable price. The scalability was already proven during installation when we were also asked to include the control of the glass cover of the winter bar.”
The entire Commercial Integrator editorial team sincerely congratulates C.E.H. Kft and Crestron for winning a 2023 Integration Award for their remarkable work at Matild Palace!
