Crestron Electronics, Inc.

May 19, 2022 - The Crestron NEXT Road Trip Europe has now logged stops in 13 countries, with its "trade show stand on wheels" approaching the midpoint of the tour. As plans coalesced for Crestron's roadshow, ISE 2022 was postponed from February to May, coinciding with the middle of Crestron's Road Trip. After a 15-month pandemic-driven delay, having a moving booth traveling Europe and a fixed booth in Barcelona at the same time felt like a luxury, and Crestron was once again one of the major exhibitors at Integrated Systems Europe. While expectations for attendance were somewhat muted going in, ISE saw excellent numbers and a crowded show floor.

The combination of approaches — a rolling exhibit along with Crestron's traditional appearance on the ISE floor — ensured that a broader range of dealers and end customers could interact with the company's people and products, no matter their travel challenges and comfort level with COVID. The ISE stand, of course, offered a much larger display opportunity, and impressed attendees out of the gate, as is evidenced by this conversation with Crestron's Robin van Meeuwen and Dan Feldstein:

Bringing Holistic Solutions to Europe: Interview with Crestron

Crestron President CEO Dan Feldstein also appeared here with an overview of the Crestron stand:

As noted in the first video, the stand was massive. Here's a video that illustrates the sheer scale of the display.

Crestron's Neil Fluester's series of daily podcast updates posted on Crestron's channel on the YouTube® platform (all less than four minutes long) hits a lot of the product-news highlights, including the acquisition of 1 Beyond's auto-switching video technology and an overview of Crestron's VC-4 Virtual Control Solution. The 1 Beyond videoconferencing demo proved extraordinarily popular, with a live link from Spain to a Crestron team in New Jersey (who were all up in the dead of night to accommodate the six-hour time difference). Crestron's Jason Moulder also notes that, "There was a lot of interest in AirMedia, Crestron DM NVX products, and a huge line of people waiting to experience a virtual racing esports demo we had set up."

All that space allowed the addition of residential products to the display. The press outlets that are primarily focused on home technology have taken notice, and the Crestron Home® platform and its attendant products picked up several awards. For example: CE Pro honored no less five trophies in the magazine's 2022 TNT (Top New Technology) Awards. On the commercial side, the line of Crestron AirMedia® wireless presentation and conferencing systems picked up ISE's Best in Show honors, and Inavate added another trophy to the company's case. (Find a complete rundown of all the awards here.)

Another aspect of this year's ISE was a focus on superyacht technology, and Crestron made a splash (pun intended) in this segment: Superyacht Show Floor Tour.

As for the Road Trip, the Crestron NEXT truck has rolled on to Scandinavia and will ultimately swing through the UK before coming to a conclusion with a final stop in Rotterdam at the end of June. While the Crestron NEXT display focuses on commercial applications, another tour featuring residential products and services aimed at our dealers and integrators is ongoing.  

Whether the venue is the Crestron NEXT touring display or a massive stand in Barcelona, the one constant is this: People are thrilled to interact once again, with one another and the gear. "Everyone's very happy to be able to see, hear, and touch the products again after two-plus years of pandemic restrictions," says Moulder.