Crestron Helps Secure Olympic Games

With the opening ceremonies of the 2012 Summer Olympics hours away, lets revisit how Crestron helped secure the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver:

Led by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), the Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit was responsible for securing the 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The massive AV support systems needed for the RCMP Command Centres played a critical role in the success of the security effort, and were delivered by Crestron and Canada’s leading AV supplier AVW-TELAV.

The two major venues for the 2010 Winter Olympics were in Vancouver and Whistler, situated about 100 miles apart. The security infrastructure was similarly separated, to protect the tens of thousands of athletes and visitors from all over the world. A Military Command and Control Center was set up at Whistler; the Local Command Center, the Master Command Center and their respective backup facilities were located in Vancouver.

Audio and video came from diverse AV sources and locations, with 30 centralized feeds routed through the Master Command Center (the main AV control facility), which was equipped with 37 HD displays. Sources included more than 100 HD security cameras, four to five simultaneous HD broadcast feeds of the individual events, HD mapping graphics and an assortment of high resolution computer applications, such as computer-driven digital signage. All feeds were delivered to and from the Master Command Center using the latest Crestron DigitalMedia (DM) products and HD switchers. A total of 12 Crestron control systems served as the “brains” behind the complete, integrated AV solution.

DM provided the communications backbone for each facility, due in part to its highly reliable, single platform infrastructure. DM transmits multiple signals over fiber, including analog audio and video, high-res computer, HDMI, DVI, DisplayPort, Ethernet and USB keyboard/mouse control over a single wire. DM Fiber distributes full HD content up to 1000 feet, and provides exceptional resistance to data interception. In addition, DM extracts audio from HDMI, routing stereo to speakers in multiple rooms without the need for an additional processor.

Fourteen Crestron DVPHD multi-window video processors enabled security personnel to monitor selected sources in up to eight simultaneous, full-motion video windows on each display. Stringent security required that all requests for video feeds went to the Master Command Center and/or the Military Command and Control Center. Crestron Roomview® Server Edition enabled full control over signal routing from 18 cascaded DM-MD16X16 switchers. Forty HD-MD8X2 QuickSwitch HD HDMI switchers, 50 DM-TX-100-F and 30 DM-TX300N-F fiber transmitters and 80 DM-RMC-100-F fiber receivers completed the signal paths feeding all the uncompressed signals to the DVPHDs or directly to a display.

Also, signals could be routed to and from on-site conference rooms and other designated buildings around the complex for press conferences, media interviews and other meetings. In addition to the primary routing system, a stand-alone DM-MD8X8 switcher — with all fiber inputs and outputs — routed the highest security content.

Crestron Media Presentation Button Panel (MP-B10 and MP-B20) units and an MPC-M25 Media Presentation Controller supplied local control in each conference room. DM-TX-300N-F fiber transmitters provided audio and video input connectivity for a laptop, local computer or other portable AV sources. Any of these local sources could be routed through the main DM switcher, enabling the sharing of content across the network. The Crestron audio amplifiers and mixers that fed the conference rooms were located in the main control room, eliminating the need for local racks of equipment.

“This type of quality of product and the commitment to professionalism truly ensured that the Olympic Command Centres had all the right tools,” said Paul Weisbeck, Audio Visual Planner & Coordinator, Vancouver2010 ISU/RCMP. “The mere fact that Crestron and AVW-TELAV delivered a system that had all the capacity to handle High Definition was amazing, and the success of the project was worthy of a gold medal in itself.”

"The ISU/RCMP knew that all the content in the stores, hotels, sports venues and security stations needed to be digital. The concern for them was how to manage and distribute all the HD content safely and reliably," observed Vin Bruno, Crestron Director of Marketing. "Once they evaluated DigitalMedia, the decision was made quickly. No other system was able to handle all the different formats over fiber, manage all the embedded data and transmit multiple HD signals simultaneously."

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. 

Now THIS is a Luxury Suite

What do you get when you have someone whose passion for technology is equal to his passion for the Dallas Cowboys? You get a luxury suite like no other.

Originally a basic suite with three small televisions and an obstructive pillar in the middle, this luxury suite was completely redesigned by its owner to offer the best environment for his family, associates, and clients to experience events in the new Cowboy Stadium. Now featuring nine LED televisions, multi-zoned distributed audio, multiple digital media feeds, internet, a PTZ camera, team logo water feature, fireplace, and much more, this suite is the model for luxury entertainment.

Crestron DigitalMedia technology was used as the foundation for a true HD signal routing solution and a PRO2 control system serves as the brain that integrates all systems, allowing simple touchpanel control of every aspect of the suite’s environment.

To learn more about this suite, have a look at our full case study.

Certification – Without it you’re Certifiable

Crestron Announces new Certification Requirements 

Trust, confidence, authority.  Do those words describe how you feel about your skills, is it how potential clients see you? 

You may recall the Norman Rockwell painting of the young boy in a doctor’s room, critically examining the wall hung diploma while the doctor prepares a shot? This is how your clients are looking at you and your company.  They need to be sure that the investment in your services has a foundation.

Qualifications matter. Just think about your own business, when you are deciding between two technicians one with certification and one without-  which are you going to hire?

This week we announced an updated list of certification requirements for all new dealers.  The purpose is to build a better-educated and trained community of installers.   The AV business is a funny thing, many of us started off during our late teen years, turning a passion into a career, doing the yeoman’s work – rising from apprentice to leader.   The process is still a valued one, working beside and learning from those who have spent their lives perfecting skills. Today’s system integration requires an in-depth knowledge set that cannot be fully taught with only on the job site exposure.

We have the easy part, teaching.  You have the grunt work of learning then demonstrating the knowledge. That hard work and dedication brings you a lot of rewards – respect from your coworkers, trust of your clients, the confidence to act decisively when issues arise and priority support from Crestron. 

Crestron extensively trains our staff but we also expect them to pursue higher levels of certification outside the CTI curriculum. All of our technical support staff are required to earn a Infocomm International Certified Technical Specialist (CTS) certification shortly after they are hired, if they have not already achieved this.  We also encourage our support people to peruse higher certifications such as Cisco CCNA, TIA and CTS-D or CTS-I.  We are dedicated to providing you the best customer support period.

We have been committed, since the start, to providing you with the most comprehensive training, making Crestron dealers industry elites, even our Crestron DM certification is fast becoming an industry standard. 

Qualifications matter, it is a crazy business and without certification, you’re certifiable.

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Point, Click , DM

DigitalMedia™ Switcher Configuration Tool enables point-and-click configuration 

High Definition Television brings your movies and favorite sports to life with dramatic clarity, picture depth and enveloping surround sound.  Connection is a snap, usually one small HDMI connection from your source to the TV.  Simple, right? Well, the truth is that if the above describes your system then you are golden, but what happens if you upgrade to distributing the video to other rooms? Like attempting to put a size too small sheet on your bed, one corner always seems to pop off.

This post is not about the hardcore technical issue, suffice it to say, all sorts of odd quirks appear.  You can read all the gory details here and find out why Crestron DMC certification is an industry standard and a Crestron Requirement for DM dealers.  

Crestron DigitalMedia has over 7,000 installs completed and one of the things we have learned - no one input source type is being used.  A typical install can have RGB, DVI-I, DVI-A, S-Video, Composite, and HDMI and display port.  

This is why we created the DigitalMedia Configuration tool, to give DMC-D certified engineers the ability to translate their systems designs into hardware as easy as  Point, Click, DM. 

Using a drag and drop interface, engineers can place input and output cards  into the slots you want them.  A graphical rearview layout and PDF printout allow the designer to see the exact setup.   

But wait, there's more! 

Free pre-sales design services to ensure 100% compatibility. A new 'click-and-send' button gives you the option to submit your design to our in-house DM Task Force of DigitalMedia experts to verify compatibility and pricing. If anything is missing or out of place, we'll let you know right away and help you get it right. Simply send your DM switcher configuration, along with any other system specific documentation such as drawings and specifications, to techsales@crestron.com for a design evaluation and quotation.

After you watch the tool walkthrough video below, if you would like to stand up and say  ‘Ta Da!” we understand.  

For some added fun we  will award a fabulous prize pack to the 1000th configuration - so get designing! 

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