海底捞视频聚餐叫好不叫座

    我们不妨把它叫做视频聚餐新风尚。

    暖洋洋的房间内，火锅冒着腾腾的热气，同事们就坐在桌对面吃着，他们如真人般大小，而且还都是高清的。欢迎来到中国最受追捧的火锅连锁店——海底捞（Hai Di Lao）。在这里，你可以通过远程视频会议系统，与身处中国另一个大城市的朋友或是家人们一道享用火锅（目前，该服务仅限海底捞北京和上海的门店）。

    海底捞以超乎想象的优质服务而出名，比如用iPad来点餐、顾客在排队的时候可以获得美甲、按摩甚至是擦鞋服务。但自打去年年初，这家餐厅在其两家门店内安装了华为公司（Huawei）出品的远程视频通讯系统之后，才算真正地有了点炫酷的味道。这间“智真套间”约为15平米，内有6把椅子和几幅3.65英尺大屏幕（当然，它们已经经过了过防油防烟防雾处理），房费为每小时200元人民币（约合30美元），外加500元餐费，共计约合110美元。

    去年2月，当海底捞将这个消息发布到微博上之后，被转发了25万次。许多人呼吁海里捞在他们所在的城市也推出这样的视频聚餐系统。华为统一通信与协作营销运作部副部长冯杰克（音译）说：“这项服务相当受欢迎，业务发展很快。”

    在人们印象中，这类精密的高科技设备通常只是为高级行政套房所准备，所以，海底捞把视频会议系统“草根化”应用之后在中国掀起了热议也就不足为奇。但是这样的系统究竟代表着餐饮业的未来，还是仅仅只是这家火锅连锁店吸引眼球的营销手段？

    “人们能真真切切地体验到情感上的交流。他们会感觉如同身处一室。人们可以看到远方的朋友、家人或生意伙伴并与他们共进午餐或晚餐，”冯杰克说。他预计未来会有更多的餐厅加入这个行列，还华为与海底捞会继续在该项目上携手合作，因为两家公司都有着以客户为中心的企业文化。

    虽然这种“视频聚餐”在中国尚属新鲜事物，但这类概念却早已有之。早在1995年，后被宝利通公司（Polycom）收购的TeleSuite公司就曾经宣布，将在包括帕尔玛酒店（Palmer House）和比佛利希尔顿酒店（Beverly Hiltons）在内的40家酒店内推出远程视频聚餐套房。当时，《大众科学》杂志（Popular Science）似乎都已经看到了“视频聚餐”的光明前景，还特地推出了一些“视频聚餐小贴士”，其中就包括“吃完饭要说‘我吃好了，你那边继续’”还有“千万别叫对面视频墙里的侍者给你倒水”等。

    虽然视频聚餐远未形成气候，但仍有一些餐厅会提供“视频聚餐”套间，特别是那些商务人士云集的餐厅。比如，佛莱明牛排馆酒吧（Fleming's Prime Steak House and Wine Bar）就在其65家分店内为顾客提供思科（Cisco）的远程视频通讯设备。顾客可以在店内远程连接到弗莱明其他分店的视频通讯设备，还可以通过BlueJeans、Skype或是谷歌（Google）聊天工具等第三方视频工具提供商来连接到其他非弗莱明餐厅的视频设备上。

    Call it a new spin on TV dinner.

    The room is cozy, the hot pot steaming, and your peers eating across the table, they're life-size and in high definition. Welcome to the brave new Hai Di Lao, China's wildly popular hot pot franchise, where you can now break bread (er, slurp hot pot) with friends and family a major Chinese city away via video conference. (For now, the teledining experience is limited to a branch in Beijing and one in Shanghai.)

    Hai Di Lao is already known for its over-the-top dining experience -- iPads are used for ordering and customers can get manicures, massages, or have their shoes shined while they wait for tables -- but the restaurant really raised its gee-whiz factor when it installed Huawei telepresence systems in two of its dining rooms earlier this year. Time in the "Real and Smart Suite," a 15-square meter room that holds six chairs and 3, 65-inch screens (specially protected from oil, smoke and fog), costs 200 yuan/hour (about $30), plus a 500 yuan charge for food, about $110 total.

    When news of Hai Di Lao's initiative hit Weibo, China's Twitter, in February it was retweeted 250,000 times. Many called for telepresence hot pot in their own city. "It's very popular, the business is growing very quickly," says Jack Feng, Vice President of Unified Communications & Collaboration Marketing for Huawei.

    Sophisticated technology usually reserved for suits in executive suites, it's perhaps not surprising that telepresence served up for the masses is causing a stir in China. But is this the future of dining, or one hot pot chain's gimmick?

    "People can really experience an emotional connection. They feel just like they're in the same room. They see their friends, family, and business partners and have lunch or dinner together," says Feng. He imagines more restaurants will be interested in the technology in the future, and says Huawei and Hai Di Lao came together on this project because of their shared customer-centric cultures.

    Though teledining is new to China, the concept has been tried before. Back in 1995, TeleSuite, a company that has since been acquired by Polycom (PLCM) announced plans for remote dining suites in 40 venues including the Palmer House and Beverly Hiltons. At the time, Popular Science, perhaps imagining a brighter (or not) future offered "teledining tips" that included "Finish with the phrase, 'Over to you'" and "Never ask the waiter on the other side of the video wall to pour you water."

    While teledining has never really taken off, there are still eating establishments that offer telepresence suites, particularly those that cater to business crowds. Fleming's Prime Steak House and Wine Bar, for example, offers Cisco (CSCO) TelePresence suites at all 65 of its locations. Customers can connect with other Fleming's telesuites, non-Fleming's video conferencing systems, or by using a third-party bridging company called BlueJeans, Skype and Google (GOOG) chat users.