Tech Talks | Tracey Estes & Jeffrey Weiland, LG Technologies

Ian Richardson: 00:00:03

Hi, I'm Ian Richardson. Welcome to the Tech Talks podcast from theICEway and Seatrade Cruise. Each episode looks at technology and innovation in the cruise industry, as I host q&a sessions with tech leaders and innovators who are all working diligently to create solutions that will benefit crews in a variety of different ways. As co founder and CEO of theICEway ecosystem of

Ian Richardson: 00:00:25

companies, I myself are very excited to be involved in new technology projects on a regular basis. Many of these are specifically aimed at helping improve the cruise industry. There's a lot of great work and effort going into new and cutting edge technology solutions in the cruise industry as a whole. The objectives are far reaching, from enhancing the onboard experience for guests and crew to

Ian Richardson: 00:00:48

increasing the overall efficiencies both at sea and in port of destination. A lot of us are working hard to reduce wastage and to implement more sustainable practices, processes and features. The Tech Talks podcast will put a spotlight on these solutions and will include never before seen information and facts about them, whilst also providing an exclusive platform to some of the creative minds who

Ian Richardson: 00:01:11

are behind them. Hi, everyone, this is Ian Richardson, CEO and co founder of theICEway and seatrade Global's technology ambassador. On this Seatrade Cruise Talks podcast we're going to be discussing onboard displays and robotics and how these technologies are improving the guest experience to talk us through all this. I'm really excited to have Tracy Estes and Jeff Weiland from LG Electronics

Ian Richardson: 00:01:39

with me. So, welcome to the Seatrade Cruise Talks, both of you. Good to have you with us. So I guess we should just start with some introductions. If you both want to just tell us a little bit about yourself and what your roles are at LG. Maybe we could start with you Tracy?

Tracey Estes: 00:01:55

Sure you got it. So my name is Tracey Estes. I work for LG here in the US B2B division with electronics and my specialty with focus specific to fitness and cruise. And over the last few years Cruise has definitely taken over so specific to cruising!

Ian Richardson: 00:02:14

Right cruising and fitness. Okay, and what about yourself, Jeff?

Jeffrey Weiland: 00:02:17

So my name is Jeff Weiland. And I've been in the hospitality technology field for about 20 years. And I'm the US team lead of US b2b robotics at LG. I've been in that position for this my fourth year and looking forward to growing this business and LG.

Ian Richardson: 00:02:32

Great. So I think the last time we caught up it was at Seatrade Cruise Global in Miami. A few weeks ago. Now, how was your time at the show? How was it for you guys?

Tracey Estes: 00:02:43

See trade for LG was amazing. It was the first to Seatrade after the pandemic that felt real again. Um, it was full, you know, the attendance was great. The interactions seemed significantly different than the last couple of years. So we had LG, we're super excited to see that kind of industry is coming back and ready to do business in such a way because it's such a great

Tracey Estes: 00:03:06

and fun event. For us specifically, it was a banner show, we plan to have some highlight products to draw attention. But wow, our expectations were completely blown out of the water with the engagement. Not only was our booth well attended, but the folks that came had great questions. And they were truly engaged and wanted to know more about the products that we were showing. So I'll give

Tracey Estes: 00:03:31

a huge shout out to our tradeshow team and our product design team for giving us tools that really created a magical experience. If I could have every trade show, we like that it would be a success all the way around. Yeah, we're really thrilled. We look forward to the next one.

Ian Richardson: 00:03:46

I imagine that there's you do work in a lot of different sectors. So there's a lot of trade shows that you have to attend. So it's good to know that Seatrade was a really good one for you. I mean, I thought this year was fantastic. Well, it was really well attended. And as you say it's it's it's a good sign that the industry is really rebounding or rebounded already.

Tracey Estes: 00:04:06

Right. Well, it also the point at which you look at your clock, and you're like, Oh, the trade shows closing already. Yeah, that's how you know, it's a great show, because usually people are standing around and can't wait for it to wrap up. But our entire staff that was there and we had a good amount. They were just engaged the whole time a little exhausted at the end, but it was

Tracey Estes: 00:04:26

worth every bit of it.

Ian Richardson: 00:04:28

Yeah, well, we always say Seatrades. It's a it's a marathon, not a sprint. You have to pace yourself and really, if you do that you're gonna last the four days. As I said earlier, I mean, LG is very well known brand worldwide. I think I I own a number of LG products myself a fridge and a washing machine. But I mean, how exactly did you first start as a company to enter the cruise

Ian Richardson: 00:04:53

channel? And maybe tell us a little bit about that.

Tracey Estes: 00:04:56

Yeah, so that's a great question. So LG Electronics has been a large player in the hospitality industry for decades. And I believe it's more than 15 years now LG has been owning and enjoying over 50% of market share in the hospitality industry. So hotels, resorts, things of that nature. So it was a really nice natural transition into the cruise industry. Because we had so much

Tracey Estes: 00:05:23

experience of managing it for our hospitality and land partners, as you know, unique options to serve in the cruise environment. That is, all of the wealth that we have. And part of what makes LG so magical is that it's not just great immediate products, but it's the tech people behind it that are constantly asking great questions for customers and constantly wanting to serve our customers better

Tracey Estes: 00:05:51

with technology that will help them get more sticky with their customers. And so the evolution went from hotel rooms on land, to cabins with ships. But there were some specific technologies that we had to create, to make the magic happen, if you will. And so an example of that is one of the differences between hotel TV and an in cabin to you is that LG conformally coats the electronics,

Tracey Estes: 00:06:20

therefore helping from prevent from rust, and she really site and things of that nature. So it actually lasts longer in the cabin. And we do that obviously purpose, but our customers are greatly appreciated it because downtime is a big problem at sea, especially you know, your cabin and you don't have entertainment, that is a challenge. And so we work very hard to provide the solutions in

Tracey Estes: 00:06:44

advance. So that's just one example.

Ian Richardson: 00:06:47

Right? Yeah. Yeah, I was gonna ask you if there's any cruise specific challenges you've had to overcome, but I think that's, you've answered that, which is, it's really good. And maybe if we can focus a little bit more on the sort of you mentioned, I think some of the display technologies, we can what exactly are the types of technologies you're providing? Is it just screens? Or is

Ian Richardson: 00:07:08

it other things as well?

Tracey Estes: 00:07:10

So that's such a good question. So our division is electronics. And I will say Historically, most of it has been screens. But as we'll soon find out, we're evolving into much more. So the way that I like to explain what our team offers, the cruise industry kind of sits in four buckets, if you will. And bucket number one is in cabin experience. And that's critical. It's so important

Tracey Estes: 00:07:32

for the cruise lines, because that level of satisfaction, especially at the end of the day, it has to be on point has to be amazing. And so we have a line TVs that are commercial and cruise specific, as I mentioned with that conformal coating. And so we're really proud of our in cabin offering. Additionally, we have amazing signage products. And so that's digital signage that we call it public

Tracey Estes: 00:07:56

space, but it's really anywhere that a guest can roam on the ship that's not in the cabin. And the size ranges all the way from tiny 22 inch up to 110 inches in one display. So our variety is just off the charts, we have products that have touch. And we have all sorts of just interesting shapes and sizes to serve. Not only the cruise industry, but all of our industries. So that's bucket number two.

Tracey Estes: 00:08:24

bucket number three is, I think, a super exciting one right now. And that's our DV-LED, which is direct view LED. And we have specialty for indoor DV-LED, we have flat, curved, you can do a beautiful right angle, we have all sorts of amazing options with different pixel pitches, and different levels of brightness to serve. Because the cruise industries really do create this amazing experience. And

Tracey Estes: 00:08:50

DV-LED is perfect for grabbing their attention and and capturing their excitement if you will. But in that same third bucket we also have outdoor DV-LED. And historically, we've done standard stadiums and things of that nature. But we were so excited to release at this trade show a new product, which is GNV. It's a marine grade DV-LED. And we worked many, many hours, many, many meetings over the

Tracey Estes: 00:09:20

last three years with our partners to develop this outstanding product that we've now installed and is gorgeous and holding up very well. And I really have to do a shout out to the delio HMS for their partnership in that and your guidance. We just can't thank them enough. And we're super thrilled for this product to be now launched. And it was definitely a hit at the show. And then the fourth

Tracey Estes: 00:09:44

bucket is really all other things. They're equally amazing but don't fit in one of the other categories. And so an example of that would be her transparent offerings. And so we actually yeah, we have a transparent we it's an O-LED, which is amazing. And so LG just has a laundry list of fabulous, exciting products. And the fourth bucket, I could go on for hours about all the exciting things that

Tracey Estes: 00:10:13

are in here, not to mention...

Ian Richardson: 00:10:16

Well, that's a nice segway. I was gonna ask you actually, before we get on to letting Jeff talk, talk about robotics, could you talk a little bit more? You mentioned this GNB product?

Tracey Estes: 00:10:27

Yes. I'd love to talk more about that. So the, for us is GNEB product itself. Yeah, so it's an LG, marine grade DV-LED offering, designed to go on the outside of cruise ships. Right? Aha, and we it's IP 67 rated. So it truly is marine grade, we're very excited to have it, we expect that it will mostly be used for outside movies and things of that nature. But the way that we design

Tracey Estes: 00:11:00

it, it really can be shaped in many different ways. So it doesn't have to be limited to that because we build it with 400 millimeter by 600 millimeter tiles. So it really has in the future, we could wrap it around the ship, if you will. And you know, the ship come in with lights at the ports and such. But the product itself is designed to be engaging and give the customers that already are

Tracey Estes: 00:11:27

experiencing this a better experience, right? Because it exists in the industry. Now. There are other brands that have made a DVD led for movies and things of that nature. But we took the time, and being last to market is often best because we learn from everyone else's mistakes. But we really took the time to make this right. It's review thorough, and again with that partnership with Medallia

Tracey Estes: 00:11:50

HMS, and their leadership on the specifics that would make it more durable, more engaging, and more easy for the staff to maintain service. We're so proud of this product. So yes, it was the shining star at the Seatrade conference, we actually had it displayed with water running on the product the entire time. And so people would come by and say what's happening here, Water and electronics. Not

Tracey Estes: 00:12:17

usually good. But it was very eye catching. It really gave us a great opportunity to have really rich conversations about how this can become part of the experience.

Ian Richardson: 00:12:30

Yeah, I yeah, I was on a ship with my family. I won't say which. But the they had an outside screen. This was a couple of years ago now. And I think we were watching a movie, I think in the evening outside. And this always gets me on outside screens or very large screens, where there's kind of some of the pixel blocks are always black. And so you've got this kind of little spot

Ian Richardson: 00:12:54

there. And with me being a techie and nobody else was noticing was I was looking at this little black spot that was always there to you know, I guess does that sort of thing happened with this new technology? Or is it I guess it looked like a kind of an older type screen that was was there. But

Tracey Estes: 00:13:12

yeah, no, that's a great question. And my comment to you would be I bet more people notice that thing, right, because you're techie. But even a basic, you know cruiser who's who's spent time energy and money to get on the ship. They want that, that excellent experience. They're not looking for the average experience. So what we did, we spent a lot of time on the back end. And again,

Tracey Estes: 00:13:35

our partnership with Fidelio HMS and specifically Mr. Stone helped us with the how do you quickly manage problems that come up? How do you quickly navigate that change? And so within this GNB offering, there are service tools and tricks. If something happens to swap out quickly, as well as brightness, adaptation and calibration and things of that nature. To make sure if someone spots

Tracey Estes: 00:14:04

something wonky, we can correct it quickly. But I really have to do a huge shout out to our own LG team. Our advanced engineering department is truly amazing. And they were with us they have been hand designing this product. So I have to thank Gianni and his team. I just thought it was important to add that!

Ian Richardson: 00:14:24

No problem. So let's come up to you, Jeff, and talk about a little bit about the robotic side of things. How exactly have you leveraged robotics to enhance and augment the onboard experience for guests?

Jeffrey Weiland: 00:14:38

Right now? We're working on certain sections of the ships right so the robot helps assist the staff. We have what let me talk about the first the robots we have. Currently it's a serving bot. So think of it as a mobile tray. It has three trays on it and it assists servers and the restaurant industry so it helps augment staff for doing the last mile runs and things, so instead

Jeffrey Weiland: 00:15:02

of them having to go back to the kitchen, the robot brings the food to the table. And that frees up the server to engage with the guests at the table, so keeping them in front of the guests enhancing that guest experience. And second, we have a robot called the guide bot, which acts as a docent or a Wayfinding robot, so it can guide you from point to point, it can answer questions. It has 227 inch

Jeffrey Weiland: 00:15:23

touchscreens on the front and back. So what that does is it offloads some of the repetitive questions that cruisers may have at embarkation day, so they can go up and that robot can answer some of the quick repetitive questions, and then move the cruise around to the ship, kind of offloading some of that time from the staff freeing them up to be more, you know, enhancing the guests experience. So

Jeffrey Weiland: 00:15:46

those are the two bots. So currently, if you will, on a ship, picture a large ballroom where drinks are being served you can have are served by going around and guests can just take the drinks right off the bat and it keeps going where it can collect trash and take it back behind the scene. So it just helps augment the current staff. So that's kind of what we're doing right now. So the guidebook

Jeffrey Weiland: 00:16:08

is more for like on land at the terminal and embarkation. And then the survivors actually on the ship.

Ian Richardson: 00:16:16

Right. Yeah, cuz I was gonna ask whether the guide bot is actually on the ship or I'm on. So that's

Jeffrey Weiland: 00:16:22

on the ship. If it's if it's a large area that needs some help, we can definitely do that. But right now, it seems to be better at the terminal and, and on land.

Ian Richardson: 00:16:31

Right? And what kind of challenges have you had to overcome in developing these, these these robots?

Jeffrey Weiland: 00:16:39

It's been good, great challenges. It's, we've, you know, the same issues with the electronics, right? So the conformal coating, that's all easily solvable, the challenge is keeping up with demand and automating different functions within the cruise ship within the industry, because we'll get demands from all the different players that hey, do you have something that can vacuum

Jeffrey Weiland: 00:16:58

large spaces? Do you have something that can make a bed, we've had that request, clean a bathroom? So it's kind of figuring out what's going to make the most sense, and getting that in our product roadmap so that we can actually deliver on time. So everybody wants to automate everything, which is a welcome challenge for us. So keeping up as the main challenge.

Ian Richardson: 00:17:18

So presumably, there's, there's a certain amount of customization that happens with every client. So you have a robot, but it's, it can do a number of things, but you specifically fine tune those, that for that particular client, right, depending on their request.

Jeffrey Weiland: 00:17:34

Great. Yeah, great question. It's exactly that every installation is a custom event. So every map, we use onboard LIDAR to navigate the areas, we use time of flight sensors, we use 3D cameras, everything's mapping that entire environment. So we do an initial mapping. And then we'll have several other points of interest loaded. So if the cruise ship wants to make a change, and have

Jeffrey Weiland: 00:18:00

the back cover a different area, they just choose a different point of interest, and it moves to a different place. But all the pre work in the customization is upfront. And if you don't do that, right, you'll you'll run into some issues. So with our engineering staff and our partners in the industry, we like to avoid this.

Ian Richardson: 00:18:18

Do they need to be connected to the cloud or to the I guess they need to be always have an internet connection? Or a local internet connection on the ship?

Jeffrey Weiland: 00:18:25

Yes, and no, depending on the bot, the serving bot doesn't necessarily need a connection. But if you have a connection, it's better because we can pull more data and how it's used. You know what, when it needs to be tweaked when it needs to be maintained, but the guide, but it does need to be connected to the Internet all the time, which is a potential challenge on a cruise

Jeffrey Weiland: 00:18:44

ship. But since we use them at terminals, we kind of have a more stable connection. So yeah, they're killed, connected and managed through the cloud by our partners and ourselves.

Ian Richardson: 00:18:54

Okay, that yeah, they sound they sound really exciting, actually, some of the things that you can do in the possibilities, and obviously, the, the technology itself is constantly advancing, it's a relatively new field, I guess, but you've obviously been in it for a while, and you've got a bit of maturity.

Jeffrey Weiland: 00:19:11

If I may, utilizing the prowess of LG with r&d in our, in our factories, we actually set the new standard with UL for the 3300 certification, which you know, there's a Roombas and all these other type of commercial robots out there. But we actually went above and beyond the create the standard with UL because we're in an open dynamic environment that's commercial, and we wanted to

Jeffrey Weiland: 00:19:35

ensure the safety of our products interacting in that dynamic environment with humans and other objects. So we sent the veteran set the benchmark with UL for the sky certification and what sky is an acronym for its service, communication, information, educational and entertainment robots. So all these bots that we bring to the cruise ship into the hospitality industry, they fall into that

Jeffrey Weiland: 00:19:59

category. So having that extra layer and that standard gives the the customer peace of mind that this is going to work the way it does. There's a lot of product out there on the market today that doesn't care about that level of safety. So we went above and beyond to make sure that ours work and you can trust the LG brand.

Ian Richardson: 00:20:18

Yeah, great, because it is a concern that people have. Great. So I mean, let's talk a little bit about the future. What does the future hold? Maybe, maybe, Tracey, you can talk about the technology on displays.

Tracey Estes: 00:20:36

I'd love to! So the future for LG is great. And it always always evolving. What our kind of double focus is right now is how can we match your customers need while we're you're creating such crazy cool products. So specifically, I think transparent is a big part of our future. Transparent feature, if you will, is crazy cool. And guests, whether they're in a hotel or on board ship,

Tracey Estes: 00:21:08

are just so interested in how it works and what it works. I have people come up. When we did this at sea trade, we had a transparent OLED, which is absolutely stunning. And the one that we brought to the show functions as a tabletop. So it has a base, you know, it sits there just as a TV, but it's transparent. So many people would come up and ask to have a selfie taken with it, because they've

Tracey Estes: 00:21:31

never seen anything like that, right. But because it's all LED, it also provides this amazing image. So it's a double edged sword of amazing image, but also transparent. So we currently have that on board, the good handful of chips now. And they're using them in such engaging ways. So we're excited for the future that we can use that same transparent OLED to design, transparent video walls, or

Tracey Estes: 00:21:57

transparent elevator doors. Kind of anywhere you think of a glass application where you want to captivate your guests, we can use transparent OLED and our team is amazing at supporting crafting technology.

Ian Richardson: 00:22:11

Is it touch?

Tracey Estes: 00:22:13

Yeah, so we have both, we have the transparent OLED without to touch. But we also have it with touch. Yep. And that's very popular in retail settings when someone wants to kind of tap to see more as they look at the super expensive product. So yeah, so the transparent OLED is just beautiful. But also at Seatrade, we had a transparent film offering. And so it is literally a transparent

Tracey Estes: 00:22:40

film that adheres to a glass panel and has micro LEDs embedded in it that shine through. And it creates such a beautiful and engaging experience that that, again, transparent and fabulous, has really taken off and the cruise lines, we're super excited about it very engaging questions. Right now we currently have a 14 millimeter, it's a pitch. And we probably won't go smaller. Because the more LEDs

Tracey Estes: 00:23:07

you add, the less transparent it becomes. So this is kind of the sweet spot and where it's placed. It's just beautiful. So I think for us, the transparent technology focus is is going to be a big part of our future. And then I would also say LG is kind of special in a way that our team and our technology supports all of our products very similarly. And what I mean by that is our Web OS platform is

Tracey Estes: 00:23:34

designed to be helpful to the customer. We also support the ecosystem that our customers want. So we work with their design teams and their consultants as well. But using that word OS platform, allows our customers to easily add content, change content, support content, and enhance that experience. And we work very hard to make it easy for everyone to use. And so I know that's greatly appreciated

Tracey Estes: 00:23:59

because we feel it all the time for our customers. I would say that's number one of kind of futuristic what's cool and coming is going to be an enhancement on transparent options. Number two is just all things DV-LED right we are so knee deep in exciting DV-LED products for indoor and outdoor and I'll just highlight like the newest favorite one, which is called magnet and it's a micro LED. And

Tracey Estes: 00:24:27

it's just stunning. And no it's not OLED but it reminds me so much of OLED because of the contrast and color and it's very, very popular. The price is is worth the effort, if you will, because what you get is such a rich experience for DV-LED do so as you can tell you could go on for hours but ya know, that's the two focuses for the future.

Ian Richardson: 00:24:48

Lots of exciting things planned for the future. And what about robotics Jeff? What what does the future hold?

Jeffrey Weiland: 00:24:54

Yeah, I wish I could talk more about there are a product roadmap but as We work with our, you know, large customers in the hospitality industry and all vertical markets. It's just the collaboration between the two, the several to work to build these custom specific guest enhancing robots. So we're automating the mundane to enhance the overall guest satisfaction. And that's where

Jeffrey Weiland: 00:25:20

we're heading. And to just free up the thing that really matters in whether it's a hotel or a cruise ship, and that's the staff. That's the service, because that's what differentiates the experience. And if we can free them up to be more customer facing, that's what we're doing with robotics.

Ian Richardson: 00:25:36

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Get them in front of the people and automate the back end. Yeah, it makes a lot of sense. Well, yeah. Well, both of you. It's been really interesting to learn all about display technologies and what you're doing with robotics onboard cruise ships, and also hearing about where do you think the future is headed? For LG! So I really want to thank you both for

Ian Richardson: 00:26:01

taking the time to talk to me. I'm sure our listeners will love it. So thank you to both of you. And thanks to everyone listening in. I hope you found this podcast as educational as I have. Tune in for more technology Cruise Talks coming very soon. Thanks, guys.

Tracey Estes: 00:26:18

You take care, be well!