Nancy O'Dell's Crestron-Controlled Basement

A few weeks ago, we talked about a new show on DIY Network called Hollywood Hi-tech. The show tackles technology upgrades for numerous celebrities and many of the projects involve the installation of new Crestron equipment. It was really difficult to find the show on television, but luckily all of the episodes are now available online on the DIY Network website.

It can be tricky to find the location of the episodes on their site so we thought we'd help you out by hosting a few of them here. Enjoy!

Powering Crestron's CEDIA 2011 Digital Signage

The centerpiece to this year’s Crestron CEDIA booth was our pretty impressive digital signage. Cycling through several branded motion graphics, the video wall caught the attention of many of the tradeshow attendees. The video wall was made up of 2 identical clusters of 12 display panels, each connected to DigitalMedia 8G fiber room boxes. Serving the video to a 32x32 DigitalMedia Switcher (DM-MD32x32) were 12 Sony Playstation 3s running Sony’s Ziris digital signage software. Yep, you heard that correctly – 12 Playstation 3s. Another PS3 was used to sync the timing to create a seamless image across all of the displays. Who knew?

Check out our video feature on our digital signage. 

They like us...They really like us

In addition to handing out our own Integration Awards at this year's CEDIA EXPO 2011, we also had the pleasure of walking away from the show with some hardware of our own. Crestron was widely recognized for achievements in new product development and technology innovation by industry peers and trade press, winning five awards at CEDIA EXPO 2011 last week in Indianapolis. Experts from CEDIA and the most popular residential custom electronics publications selected the best of the best from thousands of products in a variety of categories.

CEDIA Manufacturer Excellence Awards

Best New Product: 6x6 DigitalMedia™ Distribution Center / SWAMP-24X8 Sonnex™ Multiroom Audio System

Attendees' Choice Award: SWAMP-24X8 Sonnex™ Multiroom Audio System

CEDIA Electronic Lifestyles® Awards

CEDIA Electronic Lifestyles® Awards is the most prestigious form of recognition in the custom electronics industry. These highly sought after awards are presented each year to recognize industry excellence while commending the outstanding work of its members at the annual awards banquet at CEDIA EXPO 2011. The following Crestron products won first place awards:

Best New Product: 6x6 DigitalMedia™ Distribution Center / SWAMP-24X8 Sonnex™ Multiroom Audio System

Built on Crestron DigitalMedia 8G+™ technology, 6X6 DigitalMedia™ Distribution Center offers a cost-effective solution for distributing uncompressed high-definition digital and analog audio/video content long distances to multiple rooms, all over a single wire. DigitalMedia 8G+ technology preserves every digital signal in its native uncompressed video resolution and audio format, ensuring a pure, HD lossless signal throughout. The result is quick HDMI switching and the highest quality HD experience available.

Attendees' Choice Award: SWAMP-24X8 Sonnex™ Multiroom Audio System

Blending one-wire technology, full-matrix switching, high-performance digital audio processing, and high-powered amplification into a single component, Sonnex™ 24X8 Multi-Room Audio System introduces a new generation of audio distribution. Sonnex transmits 48 channels of uncompressed 24-bit HD audio across a single shielded Cat5e cable to up to 74 zones, and virtually eliminates time-consuming speaker wire home runs back to the main rack.

The Resi Awards

Residential Systems Magazine's 8th annual Resi Awards honors the most innovative industrial designs of products in the custom installation industry. A panel of independent judges selected finalists from an impressive collection of entries. Crestron's new PMC3-XP Prodigy Expander Control System won first place in the Integrated Product Family category.

Integrated Product Family: PMC3-XP Prodigy Expander Control System

Prodigy PMC3-XP is a high-powered yet affordable IP-based home control system that brings the enhanced lifestyle of whole-house automation within reach for more people than ever before. Offering the high-performance of a Crestron system at a comparable price of low-cost alternatives, PMC3-XP delivers more power, speed, memory and network connectivity than any other processor in its price point to deliver a superior alternative to low-priced solutions.

2011 Exc!te Awards

CustomRetailer Magazine's Exc!te Awards winners were selected from over 400 nominations of products that stand out for being innovative, high-performing and solutions-oriented for the custom installation professional. The impact these products have on the custom electronics industry is felt in the custom installers' productivity, the dealers' technology offerings, the industry's vitality, and most importantly the homeowners' satisfaction.

The following Crestron products were first place winners:

Most Exc!ting Multiroom Audio System: SWAMP-24X8 Sonnex™ Multiroom Audio System

Blending one-wire technology, full-matrix switching, high-performance digital audio processing, and high-powered amplification into a single component, Sonnex™ 24X8 Multi-Room Audio System introduces a new generation of audio distribution. Sonnex transmits 48 channels of uncompressed 24-bit HD audio across a single shielded Cat5e cable to up to 74 zones, and virtually eliminates time-consuming speaker wire home runs back to the main rack.

Most Exc!ting Video Product: DM-MD6X6 6x6 DigitalMedia™ Distribution Center

Built on Crestron DigitalMedia 8G+™ technology, 6X6 DigitalMedia™ Distribution Center offers a cost-effective solution for distributing uncompressed high-definition digital and analog audio/video content long distances to multiple rooms, all over a single wire. DigitalMedia 8G+ technology preserves every digital signal in its native uncompressed video resolution and audio format, ensuring a pure, HD lossless signal throughout. The result is quick HDMI switching and the highest quality HD experience available.

2011 Crestron Integration Awards

On Friday, September 9th, we hosted our annual Crestron Integration Awards. Below is a full rundown on all of this year's winners: Best Prodigy® Home Service Tech AV Located in Austin, TX, the home was originally built in the 1980’s and featured a few audio zones with volume controls and cable boxes in each TV area. Service Tech retrofitted all new audio, video and network wiring. Crestron Prodigy® was a natural fit. It is simple to program and easy to use. The Prodigy processor and handheld remote gives the homeowner a powerful AV solution.

Click to read more ...

Create Your Own Sports Bar…at Home

One of the biggest hits at CEDIA Expo 2011 was the “Interactive Sports Bar” demo we set up in our booth. Using 8 of our brand new V24 touch screen displays and a 42” CyberTouch display (plus a DVPHD, DM-MD16x16, DGE-2, DM-TX-201-C, and a MC3), we managed to take watching the football game to a whole new level. Whether swiping video sources from the V24s to the main display or drawing up a play during 4^th down using the built-in telestrator, visitors to our booth couldn’t help but wish it were a football Sunday. Oh, and did we mention you could also control your home from the displays as well?

The Crestron Interactive Sports Bar: we'll provide the technology, you provide the beer.