With five new products and a major OS evolution, Crestron's residential offerings are growing dramatically

Aug. 24, 2023 - The residential technology team at Crestron has been busy. You'll be able to experience firsthand the new platforms and products we're rolling out at CEDIA® Expo, but we decided to give the world an advance look at what we've been up to with a presentation called "Innovation Ignited." It's a tour through five new products and one massive update to our Crestron Home® OS.

Here are the main highlights (and watch this space for more details on each):

Crestron Home OS 4 (Expected Release September / October 2023)

Version three of the Crestron Home® OS has gone through many, many updates since its introduction roughly four years ago. In fact, that version of the platform saw nearly two dozen of those updates — and all the while, the Crestron team was working on a new version of the software, a version that represents both a foundational and experiential evolution to the most powerful home automation UI in the world.

There's a point, after all, in the development of any operating system when incremental updates give way to a bigger "jump" in a system's evolution. In the case of Crestron Home OS 4, that step was driven by two major developments:

• A platform-wide improvement to the look, feel, and overall experience that the UI presents to the user, and,
• A complete overhaul of the digital lighting portion of the platform.

The Details in the Update

Some of the experiential changes in this version of the Crestron Home platform include:

• The room list that allows homeowners to control various parts of their residence — or monitor usage and other elements of their systems — has been completely refined and updated. Now "compact" views allow the user to see multiple rooms at once, and a quick toggle function can switch the view from a "grid" to a "list" layout.
• Touch screens in the Crestron Home platform can now provide whole-home paging to make announcements to the entire household or a select group of rooms with one touch.
• The end-user schedule feature allows homeowners to schedule events and automate tasks without a call to the dealer. This is the most granular system customization that has ever been made available to the end user. Coupled with the recently introduced "password session" feature, the Crestron Home platform now allows the homeowner to rapidly customize any of their smart homes' functions, room by room or throughout the residence, by entering their personal password once.
• Xfinity® voice control has also been added to the suite of VUI products available in Crestron Home, and control via THE Apple® Siri® voice recognition software has been dramatically improved, too, with the addition of Apple Shortcuts.

In fact, this user experience is now so refined that a quick demo virtually sells the system to a prospect — Crestron Home OS 4 pushes the "wow factor" to new heights.

When it comes to lighting control, this part of the update almost functions as a "platform within a platform" — it's that advanced. It allows access to both the front- and back-end experience of a lighting system, regardless of the digital protocol used in the fixture type, giving you the power to blend a broad range of luminaires. One can now mix and match Crestron tunable white or color lighting using DMX-C, DALI® 2.0 lighting, Philips® Hue® smart lighting, and many more — regardless of the protocol. The system allows for unparalleled simplicity and ease of configuration, customization, and control.

As with previous updates to the Crestron Home platform, this update will occur automatically at no charge to the clients with smart homes running the Crestron Home OS.

Because Crestron Home OS 4 was built with both dealer and client in mind, improving the user experience extends to the installation — an integrator can deploy and customize this version more rapidly than ever before, making for quicker "ready-to-use-results" to keep the customer happy.

Made in the Shade

Crestron's shading solutions are constantly being updated — after all, shading is a critical part of any whole-home lighting and climate solution. You'll be able to have a look at these two new shading advances at CEDIA Expo in Denver:

The QMT® 3 Series Shade Motor Décor Hardware Collection (Available October 2023)

Crestron's offering what amounts to an aesthetic overhaul of its QMT 3 Series shade motor Décor shading with a redesign of the hardware system. Part of that update includes a range of modern end caps that mirror the modern aesthetic that Crestron's customers demand. They're available in six color options, including white, almond, light grey, dark grey, brown, and black. These elegant additions to our shading hardware line transform a project's windows with a sturdy, safe, and sleek end cap design that elevates any room's aesthetic.

The updated hardware includes black brackets and a black motor head to help conceal the inner workings of the shade, reinforcing that upscale look. The brackets themselves provide the second half of this solution — namely, an incredibly durable and sturdy design that ensures long-lasting quality and safety.

Crestron's New Lithium-Ion Battery-Powered Roller Shades (Available December 2023)

Beyond those instances where a retrofit demands cable-free installation, wireless shades provide many benefits. They're perfect for hard-to-reach windows, replacing manual corded products to enhance child and pet safety, or simply a solution for customers seeking motorized shading without wires. What's more, Crestron's Lithium-Ion Battery-Powered Roller Shades are attractive to your eco-friendly customers because they run on rechargeable batteries.

These shades offer battery-driven motor technology that ensures enduring performance for years to come with a long-lasting, rechargeable lithium-ion battery that can provide uninterrupted performance for up to 12 months. Available in sizes up to 120" in width, these shades include three adjustable motor speed options, allowing you to manage their functions as a client dictates. Charging is a snap — it's as simple as charging a cell phone. Just take the USB-C® charging device, attach it to the motor, and then plug it into the power source.

It's an elegant way to control light and temperature without wiring that works perfectly with Crestron's new QMT 3 Series shade motor Décor hardware collection and our Architectural 3 Series collection. In fact, this is the same hardware used in all of Crestron's low-voltage motors. That means customers can combine battery (lithium-ion) and low-voltage systems to cover all the windows in the home and enjoy a consistent look throughout.

Other key features of Crestron's New Lithium-Ion Battery-Powered Roller Shades include:

• An extremely quiet, powerful 1.75Nm motor
• A 5V power supply and USB-C® cable for recharging
• SG Wireless communication that provides a cable-free interface for programming, monitoring, and control
• Seamless integration with the Crestron Home OS

These shades are available in our Designer and Heritage fabric collections, with a variety of opacity options including sheer, light-filtering, and blackout fabrics. Their openness factors range from 0% - 15%. 

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