Three years ago, Crestron introduced the DM NVX AV-over-IP platform. I had been a diehard supporter of the DigitalMedia matrix platform, using the chassis model, for years. I loved the modular design of DM and was blown away by how fast switching between sources was. I had been skeptical of AV over IP, but with Crestron engineering behind it, I was ready to give it a shot. I am now converted.
For the past two years or so, all our video matrixing is done via DM NVX. The switching is even faster and it is even more modular than DM, since you can expand inputs and outputs beyond the sizes determined by the DM chassis. It’s a better solution at a better price for our clients. We could not be happier.
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Well, I guess we can be happier! Crestron introduced new transmitter/receivers for DM NVX. These new Tx/Rx units bring even more flexibility to our toolkit. First, they are interchangeable. No more purchasing separate transmitters and receivers. Just buy one part and use it on whichever end of the Ethernet cable you need. They also have a 3-port Ethernet switch in them — one is used for the video transmission, but the other two can be used to feed network to the TV for control and maybe for a local Apple TV or game system in the room — or an IP power conditioner behind the TV — without having to run or use another Cat cable.
The part of the DM NVX upgrade that I am most excited about is the ability to actually see a snapshot of the video image being passed by the receiver to the TV. Do you ever get a call from a client and they either say, “Nothing is working” or “I’m not getting a picture from the Apple TV”? You spend a lot of time on the phone with them to understand what they are seeing. Sometimes you even FaceTime or Zoom with them to see what they are seeing. Well no more jumping through those hoops. Just open the DM NVX Configurator and you can see a snapshot of the image. So instead of the “Apple TV isn’t working,” you can now instantly see that the Apple TV took them to an iTunes login screen. All they need to do is press menu a couple of times and they are back in business.
Finally, to help with the tech savvy client who always wants the latest and greatest, the new DM NVX 360/363 Tx/Rx supports DolbyVision and HDR10+. I have to say that one of the most embarrassing things to have happen at the handover of a project is to have the client test DolbyVision on the Apple TV and for it not to work, after spending tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of dollars with us. Now we do not have worry about that being an issue.
And upgrading isn’t a big lift: The new hardware works seamlessly with the old, so no need to upgrade everything in a client system to get the benefits. You just need to swap out the hardware you want to (or add it in to expand the system).
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What do I want to see for the future with DM NVX? I would love to see an audio solution. Something akin to Dante, an IP audio matrix. Imagine having the ability to combine your video matrix and audio matrix with just a single network connection, allowing all of the video’s audio to be available to the entire audio system throughout the home or business. We all know that Crestron excels at taking solutions that exist and improving upon them — for example, the original DM and DM NVX being improvements on similar solutions already in the marketplace. I can only imagine what an audio-over-IP solution from Crestron would offer.
