Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) was once again a huge success for Crestron. The AV giant picked up numerous industry awards and with a focus on ‘Future Innovation’, were showcasing how their latest solutions cater for the intelligent workplace. As a Crestron Elite Partner our team were keen to check out the latest developments and so headed over to Hall 4 for a stand tour.
Crestron DM NVX – AV-over-IP distribution
DM NVX, Crestron’s AV-over-IP solution had a large presence and it was great to see our logo on stand, highlighting Cinos as a Crestron AV-over-IP Preferred Partner. Naturally checking out the latest developments in this product range was high on our team’s agenda.
New for 2020 and announced at ISE, Crestron have enhanced the DM NVX platform by taking audio support and switching speed to an entirely new level. As part of a free firmware upgrade, Crestron are adding support for AES67 to every DM NVX endpoint. Supporting this standard is a welcome upgrade for Cinos as DM NVX can now interoperate with all the audio-over-IP products on the market rather than being contained to its own ecosystem. Furthermore, by reducing the switching speed from 2 seconds to less than a second, Crestron have ensured content is delivered on screen in a seamless manner as soon as the button is pressed.
Sticking with DM NVX and on show at ISE for the first time was the new DM NVX D80 OPS module; a native network AV product for the leading display manufacturers. Created in partnership with Intel, the D80 has been designed as a plug-in-and-play solution; enabling organisations to insert the module into the native OPS slot of a professional display and in doing so, transforming the display into a native DM NVX endpoint. Not only does this deliver flawless 4K video with no latency, it offers organisations enterprise-grade-security and the ability to connect to the Crestron XiO Cloud for management and provisioning of the displays.
Crestron Flex
In the Future Innovation area, the latest developments in the Crestron Flex portfolio were on show and as a Cinos favourite, we were keen to find out more. Flex debuted at the show last year with the focus on delivering a native MS Teams and Skype for Business experience in every space you work in. Fast forward a year and Crestron have introduced Flex for Zoom Rooms. The latest development in Crestron’s UC portfolio now delivers a native Zoom Rooms experience from the desk all the way to the boardroom. With a simplified and consistent user experience which includes one-touch join, flawless video, crystal clear audio and instant sharing, the combination of Zoom software and Crestron hardware is sure to be a hit with out customer base.
Crestron Mercury X
Whilst the Flex range offers a native experience for MS Teams, Skype and Zoom, there are always those situations when you need to connect with customers or partners using a different conferencing platform. To cater for this eventuality, Crestron have introduced a vendor agnostic unified communications platform in the form of Crestron Mercury X. Like the Flex range, Mercury X supports native experiences for Microsoft and Zoom but also allows users to bring their own device.
On stand, Crestron emphasised that ‘our customers spoke, and we listened.’ As such, Mercury X was developed in direct response to requests for a simple ‘one-cable-to-table’ connection and a cleaner, simpler user experience. It enables users to use their conferencing platform of choice from their own device, whilst enjoying Mercury’s full duplex conferencing speakerphone, built in AirMedia 2.0 for wireless content sharing and once connected with the Huddly IQ collaboration camera, high definition video conferencing.
Whilst we cannot talk about everything we saw at the show, a final mention goes out to the new partnership between Logitech and Crestron. Born out of a desire to deliver the best room experience to customers, the partnership enables Crestron to expand their unified communications offerings whilst enabling the AV channel to mix and match solutions based on specific customer requirements.
We would like to thank the team at Crestron for taking the time to show us around their latest product developments. If you are considering Crestron for your organisation please get in touch, as an Elite Partner we are perfectly placed to help.
