Crestron Electronics

Crestron Electronics
Type	Private
Founded	(1971)
Headquarters	Rockleigh, New Jersey
Key people	George Feldstein, President
Industry	Automation and control
Products	Home automation
Revenue	420 (est) Million USD (2007)
Employees	1200+
Website	www.crestron.com

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Crestron Electronics is a company that manufacturers high-end systems for home automation and audio/video control. The hardware developed by Crestron includes control processors, touch panels, keypads, lighting control systems, amplifiers and audio servers.

Crestron is the world's leading manufacturer of advanced control and automation systems, innovating technology and reinventing the way people live and work. Offering integrated solutions to control audio, video, computer, IP and environmental systems, Crestron streamlines technology, improving the quality of life for people in corporate boardrooms, conference rooms, classrooms, auditoriums, and in their homes. Crestron is headquartered at Rockleigh, New Jersey, and has satellite offices in Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Ireland and the United Kingdom. Crestron's entire development team is in Rockleigh, New Jersey.

Crestron products are intended to provide easy, complete control of electronic and mechanical devices. From one of their touch screen displays or keypads you are capable of controlling audio and video equipment, lights, heating and air conditioning, fire places, curtains and speakers throughout the house or room. Their control systems can be used to control other brands of equipment by IR signaling, relays, contact closures or RS232/RS422 serial communications.

The processor range include devices with Ethernet interfaces to allow remote control using E-Control to emulate a wired touchpanel using a PC web browser.

More recently Crestron introduced the Adagio and the MPS line of products that have 'Out Of The Box Functionality' to reduce the requirement for custom programming for simple audio & video distribution systems.

Crestron is partnered with Lutron (lighting control) and Extron (audio/video switching) although with the fully in-house development of small scale dimmers (iLux) and new multilayer video switchers these partnerships are likely to be dissolved.

[edit] System layout

Controller - The central "component" of the Crestron system. Commands are relayed to it via the interface devices, and the Controller executes the commands to the required devices. A controller contains a variety of fixed devices such as Relays, Infrared Emitting ports, I/O ports, and RS232/422 serial ports. The controller is programmed with a computer and Crestron's programming suite.

Interface - The interface is the device used by the user to initiate actions executed or processed by the controller. User interfaces can be touch panels (wired and wireless), web-based touch panels or simple keypads.

Controlled Devices - The devices the Crestron controller has been programmed to control. Includes items such as televisions, VCRs, DVD Players, projectors, audio/video switchers, sound processing equipment, video cameras, fire places, curtains, heating and air conditioning, teleconferencing equipment, lighting control systems, etc. Virtually any device may be controlled by IR signals or simple on-off power switching.

It is slightly limited to the wealthier users due to the prices involved with installation and programming.

[edit] System Operation

A programmer must create a program and user interface that will be uploaded to the controller and the touch panel. This program is what makes the whole system operate and ties the interface to the controlled devices.

Control Program Software:

SIMPL Windows
SIMPL+ Editor
SystemBuilder (a more user-friendly but less flexible program to create SIMPL Windows files)

User Interface Software:

VisonTools Pro-E (VTPro-E)

[edit] A+ Educational Partner Program

Crestron has been working with colleges, universities and non-profit ogranizations to expand beyond the home automation market, introducing their A+ program to provide colleges, universities and non-profit organizations with access to their True Blue Support system.