1. A hospitality media system providing virtual user interfaces over a network, the system comprising: one or more computer servers deployed on the network and configured to manage operation of a plurality of server instances each with an associated virtual frame buffer, and to manage operation of a plurality of user interface applications; and a client device having one or more processors coupled to a memory storing software instructions, the client device being coupled to both the network and a display located in one of a plurality of guest rooms of a hospitality establishment; wherein, by the one or more processors of the client device executing the software instructions stored in the memory, the client device is configured to request a connection with the one or more servers over the network at a start of a user session; the one or more servers are further configured to allocate one of the server instances to the client device in response to receiving the connection request from the client device, and to associate one of the user interface applications with the server instance allocated to the client device, the user interface application configured to render a graphical user interface to the virtual frame buffer of the server instance allocated to the client device; the one or more servers are further configured to establish a first connection with the client device via the network to conduct a virtual user interface session, and to forward to the client device via the first connection updates of the graphical user interface from the virtual frame buffer of the server instance allocated to the client device, at least some of the updates including transparency information for use in blending the graphical user interface with video rendered by the client device; the one or more servers are further configured to receive user input from the client device via the first connection, provide the user input to the user interface application, and generate playback instructions for controlling playback of the video on the client device according to the user input, the user input representing interaction by a user of the client device with a representation of the graphical user interface; the one or more servers are further configured to send the playback instructions to the client device via the network over a second connection established with the client device; the client device is configured to receive the graphical user interface updates via the first connection, receive the playback instructions via the second connection, receive media content for rendering the video via a channel different than the first and second connections, play the video on the display according to the media content, further render on the display the representation of the graphical user interface overlaid on the video according to the updates and the transparency information, and translate the playback instructions into inter-process communications recognized by middleware running on the client device in order to control playback of the video shown on the display according to the playback instructions, the client device further configured to transmit the user input to the one or more servers via the first connection; and the one or more servers are further configured to reclaim the server instance allocated to the client device when the user session is complete.