By Adrian Lim

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No more alarm buzzing and reaching for the switches with half-opened eyelids.

Instead, minutes before your wake-up time, the room lights will cast a gradual amber glow to awaken you - imitating the morning rays of the sun.

Enter the Ambience Experience Concept Suite at Fairmont Singapore - which though still in a developmental stage - has offered an exciting glimpse of how hotel rooms in the future might look like.

The first of its kind in Asia Pacific, this state-of-the-art suite was officially launched last Friday, a joint collaboration between the luxury hotel in Bras Basah and electronics giant Philips.

Selected lighting products, infotainment systems and in-room appliances from Philips are combined in the room to create four ambience themes of Rise, Perk, Lush and Rest, which guests can easily select using a centralised remote control.

The products employed - some prototypes and others available on the market - are built on Philips' promise of 'Simplicity', which the brand prides as being easy-to-use but technologically advanced.

"We want to design the Ambience Experience around the hotel guest," said Mr Bert Verschuren, Category Manager, Hospitality & Healthcare, Business Unit Professional & Business Solutions, Philips Consumer Lifestyle.

"It's not new to us. We've worked on it for hospitals, making sure the environment is right for the patient," he said, during a tour of the new suite.

The well-being elements of Philips' earlier projects are evident in their new venture into the hospitality industry.

The suite's wake-up light in the "Rise" theme, for example, is purposefully designed to simulate a sunrise, which clinical studies show the human body is biologically accustomed to.

Similar health benefits are sung by Philips regarding the toilet shower's Activiva lamp, which emits a rejuvenating bluish light in the "Perk" mode, and is specially tuned to reduce sleep hormones.

"A field test has shown that people working under this light increased their performance level by 10 per cent or more," said Philips.

In the room's "Lush" theme, the bathroom ceiling's LED lights illuminate to simulate a starry overhead sky, while electronic candles lining the tub add to a relaxing glow.

Strategically positioned motion-activated lights in the "Rest" mode guide a guest's path to the bathroom in the night, minimising the hassle of looking for switches.

CitizenM in Amsterdam is the only hotel currently employing Philip's ambient system on a commercial basis, with rooms available for bookings in June this year.

Using a touch screen mood pad, guests there are able to manipulate everything in the room - television, window blinds, temperature, coloured lighting, and wake-up alarm themes, the CitizenM website said.

"It's a totally different concept however, being on a budget experience, the size of the Ambience Experience there is totally different," said Mr Verschuren.

Fairmont Singapore remains tight-lipped about when rooms will be refurbished with the new holistic system and made available for guest bookings.

"What you see today is a prototype, profiling all the different technology that Philips has to offer. What actually manifests itself in every hotel room remains to be seen," said the hotel's general manager, Mr Ian Wilson.

As to the room rates which such luxury will be pegged to, Mr Wilson said with a chuckle - it will be "priceless".