With a new version of the Crestron Home® OS along with brilliant lighting, shading, and audio solutions, Crestron brought its best to CEDIA® Expo in Denver — and the feedback was nothing but positive.

Sept. 22, 2023 -  From a new version of the Crestron Home® OS to lighting, shading, and audio solutions, Crestron proved that the last 12 months have been a year of profound creativity

As the pandemic waned, Crestron began to rethink its approach to trade shows. A collection of black boxes that do cool things was a tried-and-true approach — but was admittedly becoming a bit uninspiring. Besides, a collection of devices doesn't illustrate the experience that all those gadgets create when they're working in concert.

To bring that immersive encounter to life, the team needed to build a story into its trade show booth — literally, a narrative arc that pulled attendees through the space. This concept — which has been growing in scope over the last few shows — is illustrated well by Crestron's Director of Technology and Alliance Partnerships, Bob Bavolacco, who took a tour of the booth right before the show floor opened:

But beyond the booth experience that Crestron created was another story, a story the team heard from those who dropped by. "The sense from the dealers was like, Wow, you've really come to the show full force with new products, new solutions, and positive news on shipping,'" says Michael Short, senior director of residential and hospitality marketing.

"Despite the shipping difficulties we experienced, we never stopped innovating — that was what I kept hearing, over and over," says Short. And now that those difficulties are quickly fading, the focus has returned to the innovations themselves.

Crestron's Vice President, Residential, John Yohanna, confirms Short's impressions. "There was a lot of positivity from the people visiting the booth," he says. "There was a tremendous reception for Crestron Home OS 4 — and a lot of the things in this version of the platform are things dealers have been asking for."

"They really feel like Crestron is listening and responding with the things that are important to them."

Crestron Home OS 4

Even before the show, the advance reviews of the latest iteration of Crestron's home automation and control platform were nothing short of glowing. A prime example: Ted Green's first look published in his digital newsletter, Strata-Gee. Green noted that Crestron achieved precisely what it had set out to do with Crestron Home® OS 4: Make the platform much more robust while maintaining an extremely intuitive interface. This was no small feat, given the wide-ranging, elegant improvements to the look, feel, and overall experience that went into this most recent version.

"The look and feel was obviously the first thing that everybody noticed," says Yohanna. "The second thing is the fact that the end users can now do a lot more by themselves — now they can create their own scheduled events and quick actions. It gives the end user much more autonomy."

Jeremy Glowacki, who's executive editor of Residential Tech Today, had his own unique preview — a conversation with Michael Short that's as personal as it is technical.

The Platform Runs the Booth

To drive home the point, the platform wasn't merely on display as a demo — it was running the stand. As Crestron's VP of Marketing Brad Hintze told Residential Systems:

"Crestron Home OS 4 is running the entire booth not only to demonstrate how it seamlessly works with our Crestron solutions, but to show the true strength of the platform. Crestron Home is a flexible solution that can be scaled to a variety of sizes of projects, including hospitality and MDU projects, which we know some dealers are interested in learning more about this year," says Hintze.

The decision to run the booth with the platform itself reinforced an attitude that had been developing for some time: That the Crestron Home OS was powerful enough for the largest luxury projects. "That 'this is the next level' impression that Crestron Home OS 4 had on dealers was demonstrated by what they told us," says Short. "People who might have been hesitant to make the jump to the platform said, 'It now feels like the time to move over from custom programming to Crestron Home OS 4.'"

For further proof, Yohanna noticed something striking about the winners of the 2023 Crestron Home Technology Awards: "Many of those projects were powered by the Crestron Home OS. We didn't create a Crestron Home category and a custom program category. We just picked the best projects."

Lighting Takes Center Stage

"With Crestron Home OS 4, we made a huge update to the digital lighting platform," says Short. To showcase that aspect of the platform, the team created a "dining room" within the booth. "It was a stunning demo," he notes. "We theatrically told the story of layered lighting and layered lighting control. We showed how to deploy Crestron DMX-C light fixtures to set a dining room scene, accentuating the artwork and flowers. But we then showed how to add a DALI-2 wall sconce, a DMX tape light, and Philips Hue smart lighting, with both tunable white and full color."

Seeing the end result by itself was terrific for, say, the design-build audience, but there was much more info for dealers included in the display. "On the opposite side of the 'room,' we had a technical station where we showcased how we did it. In addition to the overall experience, we had to show how we created it because that's what the dealers need to know."

Honors for Crestron

Here's a rundown of the awards Crestron picked up at CEDIA Expo and Commercial Integrator Expo:

CEDIA Expo

Technology Designer: Best Product — Crestron Home® OS 4

Residential Tech Today Innovation Awards: Crestron Home® OS 4

CE Pro Home of the Year: Best Combo Design + Tech Project - Net Zero ICONIC Home

CEDIA Expo Best of Show Awards

TWICE – Crestron Home® OS 4

Residential Systems — Crestron Home® OS 4

Residential Systems — Crestron Horizon® Keypads

Commercial Integrator Expo

Commercial Integrator Integration Awards

Best Hotel/Hospitality Project — Matild Palace

Best eSports Project — UNCG Esports Arena

Free of Fees

Having that layered technology demonstrated another benefit, according to Yohanna. "It showed the industry that Crestron Home is an evolving, open platform that's accepting of third-party devices — free of fees."

That "no-charge" approach extends to the customer. "Crestron Home OS 4 is a free software upgrade to any customer that has an existing system with Crestron Home," says Yohanna. "I can't stress this enough: We don't charge anything for the update, and the Crestron home system an end user has purchased will continue to improve over time for no additional charge in software."

"Additionally, third-party integration is something that we do not charge for," he adds. "If somebody writes a driver, they might charge a one-time fee, but you're not going to pay Crestron for the privilege of using it."

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