Crestron is beginning to market some of their commercial solutions into the residential market, indicating a further push of resi-mercial
When the worldwide pandemic took hold, we all headed home. Working from home (WFH) took on an entirely new meaning. The impact of working, and kids’ learning, from home were felt immediately in our networks as well as the technology we were able to bring from the office. No one thought to grab a high-performance microphone, or video camera, or display.
Some technology companies have given stipends to their employees to outfit their WFH setup. However, these engineers and creatives haven’t put together a unified communications system. They will buy what their friends tell them to buy. The AV industry, though, has an opportunity here. Though, in the US, it may seem foreign.
What these new home-bound workers need is commercial audiovisual gear installed in a home office or dedicated space. Take dad out of the kitchen and mom off the back deck and give them proper equipment. Crestron is beginning to market some of their commercial solutions into the residential market. Call it, a further push of resi-mercial.
This week the company began outreach to their home dealers on this chance to offer higher-end connectivity. The space isn’t completely unfamiliar with the channel. A number of residential dealers have been working in light commercial since the housing crisis twelve years ago. With this new push though, Crestron is giving dealers some new tools.
“Microsoft Teams hosted 2.7 billion meeting minutes” says VP of Residential for Crestron, John Clancy. “Zoom grew from 10 million daily users to 300 million in just a few weeks. People are thinking about how to conference from home.”
Products the company already had that were situated for home conferencing are ones already being used in offices today. Crestron’s Mercury is an award-winning conferencing system that can be easily ported to the home office or den. The same can be said of AirMedia, the wireless content delivery system. Then Crestron unveiled two new systems that is squarely geared for WFH. The first is HomeTime. This is a camera and videoconferencing kit that can be installed behind a display in either a family room, den, or in a dedicated office.
The second piece is the Indicator. A status light is installed outside a dedicated space in your home. The wireless control button lives on your desk and you indicate whether you are on a call, busy, or can’t be disturbed by turning the indicator on or off.
As many have said, WFH is indeed our “new normal”. What is also a shift that will likely stay is leveraging the products we all see at InfoComm on the commercial AV side for residential workstations. Crestron’s move here makes sense as we gear up for Virtual CEDIA Expo next month. What is unknown is whether it will be the residential dealers who introduce commercial into their clients’ homes or commercial AV integrators who see residential as the next opportunity. Regardless, commercial AV products are in the home to stay.
Tim Albright is the founder of AVNation and is the driving force behind the AVNation network. He carries the InfoComm CTS, a B.S. from Greenville College and is pursuing an M.S. in Mass Communications from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. When not steering the AVNation ship, Tim has spent his career designing systems for churches both large and small, Fortune 500 companies, and education facilities.
