Strategy in TECH...
This is Part 2 of Strata-gee’s series on my recent visit to Crestron. In some ways, as much fun as I had at their Research Center, I can almost say it was eclipsed (if only slightly) by a visit to, at that point, their yet-to-be-officially launched factory that was actually a couple of miles away from the main Crestron campus at a facility in the state of New York.
They call it their “Factory of the Future,” and after touring it…I can see why.
ResiWeek, the podcast from AVNation.tv that is focused on the residential integration industry segment, has once again invited Strata-gee editor Ted Green to participate as a guest panelist on its weekly podcast. This episode #158 featured several top stories pulled from the industry news of the day.
Crestron announced today that it is dramatically deepening its partnership with Sonos that was first revealed at last Fall’s CEDIA show. That partnership, which Strata-gee was the first to break the story on ahead of the 2016 CEDIA show, is now growing even stronger as Crestron is making the full line of Sonos products available directly to Crestron Technology Professionals through their normal purchasing system. Crestron dealers can add as much Sonos product to their Crestron orders as they’d like…starting today.
During the Sapphire Marketing NYC Road Show in Manhattan this week, we had the opportunity to spend time with Jeff Singer, Crestron’s Executive Director of Product Marketing, who shared with us the latest updates on the company’s major residential technology initiatives. He also helped us gain a better understanding of the company’s philosophy of product development and design, saying “We’re just trying to figure out how to solve real world problems for real world people.”
One of the themes that appears to be emerging from the Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) show taking place in Amsterdam right now is several new competing solutions designed to distribute 4K Ultra HD over IP. We told you yesterday about Savant’s prototype solution and now we have Crestron with their DigitalMedia NVX Series, which it says transmits 4K60 4:4:4 HDR video over standard 1GB Ethernet “with no latency – an industry first.”
Crestron Embraces Sonos, Amazon, & OthersAt CEDIA 2016, one of the top themes we identified was companies seeking more and better integrations with other companies’ technologies. In most cases, this expressed itself with companies seeking to have their product lines properly interface with the major control companies. But at CEDIA this year, Crestron took that concept to new heights and in a new direction with their enthusiastic embrace of newcomers to the CI channel…Sonos and Amazon Alexa.
Copious numbers of jet planes have made, and are still making their way to Dallas, each carrying within their fully-loaded bellies, hoards of passengers on their annual pilgrimage to the Mecca of technology – the event formerly known as Expo, now known simply as CEDIA 2016.
Despite Crestron’s announcement earlier this year that they will exit the CEDIA show, Strata-gee has confirmed with CEDIA that Crestron Electronics, Inc. will in fact be exhibiting at this year’s CEDIA 2016 next week in Dallas, TX. Crestron will be exhibiting in booth 2510, a booth that they are sharing with Amazon Alexa.
Sonos surprised the industry this week with several announcements, some of which were directly targeted at the custom integration market just two weeks before the launch of the CEDIA 2016 show. But one announcement didn’t surprise us – we first told you about it a month ago when we revealed that we had learned that after announcing they were pulling out of the show, Crestron was back…in partnership with none other than Sonos.
We have learned from multiple sources, and now confirmed with the company, that leading control systems provider Crestron will in fact have a presence at the upcoming CEDIA Expo this September in Dallas, TX. This news will come as a surprise, perhaps even a shock, to many considering that just a few months ago, the company announced its departure from the residential custom integration industry’s biggest annual event.
