Crestron is releasing Crestron Home OS 4, the company’s newest version of its home automation and control platform featuring a new interface, more interoperability and control of Crestron and third-party devices and other control and functionality.
The company bills Crestron Home OS 4 as a comprehensive update that won’t confuse existing dealers and users, allowing one-touch control and automation of a smart home’s entertainment, climate, lighting, shading, security and more.
Crestron Home OS 4 Adds New Lighting Platform and Third-Party Integrations
Among those improvements, Crestron says Home OS 4 brings one of the most anticipated advancements in lighting control – unifying multiple lighting protocols and devices within a single home automation platform. The platform now allows dealers to add “essentially any” lighting device into a Crestron Home system running the new operating system by writing a new drive or downloading the recently added drivers from the Crestron library, the company says.
As its first example, Crestron has launched Philips Hue smart lighting as its first example driver and has released new APIs to the driver development community, allowing for third-party integration possibilities alongside the company’s own lighting update.
According to Crestron, this new feature replicates the experience of native Crestron tunable light fixtures, giving Crestron Home users full control over the color, hue, saturation, color temperature and light intensity. Users can also opt to synchronize lights with their natural circadian rhythm or match the natural light outside.
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The new version of Crestron Home will also ensure that lighting fixtures work in harmony with Crestron shading controls, including the recently announced lithium-ion battery-powered shades.
Michael Short, the senior director of residential and hospitality marketing at Crestron, says the Crestron Home team has been working to refine and evolve the platform since its launch four years ago. Homeowners are becoming much more knowledgeable when it comes to their home technology, Short adds.
“Their expectations for home control, connectivity, and device security and privacy have soared since 2020,” Short says. “These demands drive requests for custom solutions in increasingly popular Crestron categories, such as home entertainment, lighting control, and smart shading. Crestron Home OS 4 ushers in gorgeous new aesthetics and delivers all new functionality to existing and new projects.”
New User Interface, Features
The most visible upgrade integrators and users will see with Crestron Home OS 4 is the new user interface, which includes updated graphics and icons along with filters and room lists, all of which are designed to make the Crestron Home platform easier to use, the company says.
New filters on a single screen allow users to find functionality in any room or zone with fewer taps, and a new compact view within room lists allow users to see multiple rooms at once. Homeowners can also toggle from a grid view to a list layout.
In fact, the company markets Crestron Home OS 4 as giving users more control and the ability to personalize their experience more than previous versions.
Crestron Home OS 4 also features an updated end-user schedule system that allows scheduling of events and the creation of automations without a call to the dealer.
Coupled with the recently introduced “password session” feature, the Crestron Home platform now allows the homeowner to rapidly customize any of their smart home’s functions, room by room or throughout the residence, by entering their personal password once, according to Crestron’s blog.
Other features include new voice control functionality for Xfinity systems and whole-home paging for Crestron touch screens running the new operating system.
“Crestron Home OS 4 is a monumental update designed to provide an unparalleled experience,” Short says. “We’re excited to bring this next-level solution to market and can’t wait to see how OS 4 will be received when it debuts at CEDIA Expo 2023.”
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