In our series of #CEDIAShares blogs, we’re talking with exhibitors about the hottest technologies and trends they’re looking to see at CEDIA Expo 2023.
Q&A with Michael Short, senior director residential & hospitality marketing, Creston.
Why exhibit at CEDIA Expo 2023?
It’s the biggest gathering of smart home professionals in the entire world — not just in North America but globally. This is the biggest professional smart home show in existence. And as one of the top brands, thought leaders, and innovators in this space, we want to be here to support our dealers, to showcase new technology, and to work with the industry and our partners to show off everything that we have done this past year and what’s coming in the next 12 months for Crestron. It’s a vitally important show for us, and we’re excited to be there.
Additionally, we’ve seen across the other major trade shows that we participate in that numbers are returning to pre-pandemic levels. We expect CEDIA to be as big as ever, and we naturally want to be there as the show returns to form.
What is the most exciting trend you expect to see at the show?
Without question, it’s the growth of the lighting segment. We know that lighting is probably the number one reason why most people want a professionally designed and installed smart home. When we talk about lighting, it’s important to remember that we’re talking about both deploying artificial light and harnessing natural light. Whether it’s utilizing shading solutions to manage natural light or the expansion of artificial light solutions through fixtures (including tunable whites or full-color LED), this segment is getting more and more popular.
I think that customers are starting to understand that shading and lights are not independent, siloed solutions. The best thing to do is bring them both together to provide that ultimate lighting solution, one that’s so well designed that a customer doesn’t really notice how artificial and natural sources are being blended to provide the perfect illumination at any given time of day or night.
We’ve been taking a careful look at both our own fixtures and our partner fixtures so that we can best understand how we can bring digital lighting into the home at every price point — but at the same time, we’re really trying to keep those solutions as simple as we can. Lighting is technical, lighting can be difficult. Our job as manufacturers and innovators is to simplify that for our dealers and create incredible solutions for our customers. We’re planning on rolling out some exciting new offerings, and I’m sure there will be innovations from others as we continue to move this category forward.
What will you focus on at the show?
You’re going to see a continued focus from us in a number of core areas. Our Crestron Home OS platform, which saw Version 3 go through 21 updates since its inception, will have a huge presence at the show as we introduce Crestron Home OS 4. The graphics, icons, and layout of the Crestron Home OS 4 have all been updated and refined to make the user experience much more fluid. The update allows for greater user customizations, simplified in a manner that’s going to reduce service calls. That’s really the tip of the iceberg — we just introduced all the platform’s new features (including a major update to the lighting section of the software) in a presentation on August 24. You can find full details on the Crestron blog.
We also made some great additions to our DM NAX line of audio solutions, including a new amp perfect for MDU applications, smaller integrations, or additions to larger systems. Beyond that, we’ve completely updated our shading hardware to reflect the aesthetic demands of our luxury clients and added lithium-ion battery shades to the line. Again, more details are available in that archived presentation on our blog.
To sum up: We’re bringing products, hardware, and software across all these categories — updates and new solutions that bring excellent value to both dealers and customers. We really look forward to Expo attendees getting that hands-on experience with all of these products.
To learn more, check out Crestron in booth #1901 at CEDIA Expo 2023 and visit www.crestron.com.
