Exploring the Latest Innovations from Crestron: Enhanced HomeAV, Graphics, and Integration

Exploring the Latest Innovations from Crestron: A Focus on Enhanced HomeAV, Graphics, and Integration

Crestron, a well-established name in the home automation and commercial audiovisual sectors, consistently pushes the boundaries of technology to create seamless and intuitive experiences. Recent announcements highlight Crestron new product debut innovations designed to elevate both residential and commercial environments. These include advancements in home automation operating systems, new audio-over-IP (AoIP) products, and enhanced integration capabilities with third-party devices. This article explores these recent Crestron new product debut highlights, focusing on how they contribute to a more connected and user-friendly future.

Enhanced Programming Capabilities and Branding Opportunities with Crestron Home OS

One key area of innovation is the Crestron Home OS, designed to deliver a smart home experience that integrates seamlessly with homeowners' lifestyles. The latest updates to Crestron Home OS 4 showcase the company’s commitment to both dealers and homeowners with new features that add customization options, expand the ecosystem of devices, and introduce tools to promote businesses and simplify system management.

New smart home conditional sequences introduce the ability to create "if-then, when" statements to the automation process. This personalization allows for more dynamic experiences that adapt to the lifestyle of those in the home.

• Conditional logic gives dealers the ability to create complex and nuanced automation scenarios with a defined set of conditions that must be met before an action is triggered.
• For example, a sunset sequence could be created so that when the sun is going down, and the light sensor in the living room falls below 30%, the living room’s lights rise to 80% to create a warm and inviting atmosphere that transitions seamlessly from day to evening.
• A multi-trigger sequence could also be introduced so that when a movie streaming app is launched, the system knows it’s movie night and to dim the lights, close the blinds, and adjust the speaker volume for the best viewing experience.

For dealers, this means easier and more efficient automation configuration alongside far more customization options for their customers.

Credit: residentialsystems.com

The latest updates also introduce a new branding feature that allows dealers to promote the work they do. Dealers can personalize their projects by adding their logo to the Crestron Home app and touch screens, enhancing brand awareness with a sleek and professional look.

Expanded Lighting Control and Integration

Choice and flexibility are paramount when it comes to lighting solutions, so the final product best reflects the design aesthetic and functional requirements. Crestron’s commitment to an open ecosystem has been further reinforced with native Lutron Ketra lighting integration, which expands the vast range of lighting options already available within the Crestron Home platform.

Another notable addition is the release of the Crestron Home SIMPL Integration Modules – a feature that enables integration of the Crestron Home OS lighting configuration with custom Crestron control processors programmed via SIMPL. This empowers dealers to leverage the speed and simplicity of Crestron Home OS lighting while maintaining the flexibility and customization capabilities of SIMPL programming for projects that require a custom solution.

Enhancements to Access Control & Security

Crestron Home OS offers a combination of features to improve who has access to your home and their level of access once they are inside. The experience can be completely personalized to best suit the activities of the family member or guest.

Credit: residentialsystems.com

Enhanced user management of door locks is available for Crestron EX Locks, including the brand-new Yale Pro 2 Deadbolt Lock for a better security experience, allowing each family member or guests to receive access to specific locks for convenient home entry. Crestron Home OS is also introducing a more unified view of garage doors, gates, and locks, as well as integration of the myQ driver for Chamberlain and Liftmaster garage doors with Wi-Fi connectivity into the “House Access” area of the app.

Beyond access control of exterior entries, the Crestron Home platform is also introducing more control over the security of your touch screens for spaces within the home. Pin code protection now allows chosen touch screens to be locked down during certain instances or at all times. Homeowners can turn on pin code access to the living room and kitchen touch screens when hosting family during the holidays and switch them back to normal mode when everyone leaves. Alternatively, for spaces where control doesn’t need to be granted for all users, a pin code can always be turned on in spaces like the primary bedroom where homeowners might want access to be private, preventing unauthorized users from accessing control of that space.

Crestron Flex Pods and Videobar 70: Revolutionizing Hybrid Collaboration

Hybrid meetings have become essential for businesses to operate. Crestron provides enterprises with the tools to enable effective audio and video collaboration in every space, utilizing a broad product catalog and powerful management tools.

Crestron Flex Pods tabletop wireless audio solutions are a new addition to the Crestron Flex line, providing organizations with more choice in the microphone and speaker category. Audio is a critical component of hybrid meetings; in-person participants must be able to hear remote participants clearly, while also ensuring their own audio is captured reliably. Today's hybrid meetings require audio technology that is scalable and flexible with minimal setup time. Crestron Flex Pods provide a simplified approach for adding high-quality tabletop audio to meeting spaces, transforming a room to work as needed for each meeting, without being confined to fixed in-ceiling microphones or speakers. The Crestron Flex Pods Hub is a wireless receiver that is connected to the room UC device and communicates wirelessly with multiple (up to four) Crestron Flex Pods that can be placed throughout the room. Crestron Flex Pods can be deployed as part of a Crestron Flex or AirMedia® Wireless Collaboration Kit or standalone to seamlessly integrate with existing Crestron Flex C-Kits, AirMedia Receivers, or other BYOD solutions.

Crestron Videobar 70 is a powerful all-in-one collaboration bar that delivers a stellar meeting experience for Microsoft Teams, Zoom Rooms, and any BYOD service and is designed to provide a premium audiovisual experience for medium to large meeting rooms. The simple-to-deploy form factor includes built-in UC computing and intelligent features that capture participants vividly Four high-quality cameras work together to intelligently crop for the best image, ensuring the video captured is always a clear, well-framed view of the person speaking, even at 30 feet. The Crestron Videobar 70 gives customers an elegant interface for meeting control in a refined form factor, while the Android™ OS makes it an easy plug-and-play deployment.

Every hybrid meeting space has the same fundamental needs – high-quality audio and video and an easy-to-use meeting interface. Huddle spaces, boardrooms, training facilities, or auditoriums need specific solutions optimized for certain types of meetings or events. No matter the room size, conferencing platform, or supporting devices, Crestron Flex affords multiple products and form factors to deliver the best experience for the space with access to video conferencing, presentation, and intelligent room control.

DM NAX Audio-over-IP Technology

At CEDIA Expo 2023, Crestron also introduced three new audio products, expanding its successful DM NAX Audio-over-IP technology line.

Completely new is the DM-NAX-4ZSA-50 GaN amplifier, the spiritual successor to the C2N-AMP-6X100/4X100 model, now delivering DM NAX technology at a lower price point. This 4+1 zone streaming amp (that’s four amplified zones with a bonus line output for an audio-visual receiver) offers incredible performance, with streaming, the latest GaN amp technology, and local inputs, all wrapped up in an elegant, passively cooled, surface-mountable half-rack box that’s a mere 1 RU tall. With eight channels rated at 50W (RMS) each, this silent, fanless amp features five dedicated media players, four audio inputs (two for analog sources and one each for coax and digital), and two network ports. The DM-NAX-4ZSA-50 offers native Crestron Home platform integration.

Crestron will also debut its DM-NAX-XSP surround-sound eARC solution — the company's first decoding DM NAX digital signal processor — to bridge streaming TVs to a multiroom audio distribution system. Finally, Crestron will introduce the DM-NAX-BTIO-1G, the first of a number of audio accessories coming to the DM NAX platform.

New York City Flagship Center

Crestron recently unveiled its new flagship experience center in New York City. Located at 200 Lexington Avenue in the world-class New York Design Center, the Crestron Experience Center is a state-of-the-art, immersive environment where visitors can experience the full potential of Crestron’s innovative solutions firsthand.

The Crestron Experience Center is more than just a showroom; it’s an interactive journey that showcases Crestron’s cutting-edge solutions in a dynamic and engaging environment. This new location meets the needs and expectations set by today’s customers as technology continues to become more pervasive. Visitors can explore a range of integrated systems, from advanced home automation solutions that enhance everyday living to sophisticated commercial technologies that create smarter, more productive spaces.

Crestron Flex Phones for Microsoft Teams Display

Crestron has also launched the new Crestron Flex Phones for Microsoft Teams Display. The conferencing solution enables effective Teams-based collaboration and quick access to channels, chats, files and calendars.

The new product expands upon the capabilities of the Crestron Flex Phones for Microsoft Teams to become the newest addition to the Crestron Flex Digital Workplace Platform. According to the provider, they were designed to “facilitate cleaner management of daily workflow and activity while freeing up other devices for more specialized work”.

Conclusion

The Crestron new product debut announcements reflect a commitment to innovation across both residential and commercial sectors. By focusing on enhanced integration, intuitive user interfaces, and powerful new hardware solutions, Crestron continues to solidify its position as a leader in the automation and control industry. These latest advancements promise to deliver more seamless, personalized, and productive experiences for users in homes, offices, and beyond.