Crestron Questions Answered

Answers to the Most Common Crestron Questions

We’ve answered the most common questions asked about Crestron Home Automation systems — whether you’ve just heard the term and want to know what it actually is, or you already have a Crestron system installed and want to understand it better.

Frequently Asked Questions — Crestron

What is Crestron?
Crestron is a US-based manufacturer of professional home automation systems, in business for over 50 years.

What is a Crestron system?
A Crestron system is a smart home platform that sits above the electrical devices in a property, providing convenience and energy savings through a single, simple interface for lighting, heating, audio video and more.

How does Crestron work?
Think of Crestron as an umbrella sitting over every electrical device in the home — its purpose is to increase convenience and reduce energy use by bringing every system under one consistent control layer.

How much does Crestron cost?
The central processor for a system can be specified from around £1,000, with individual elements priced modularly — a single room of audio might be a few hundred pounds. Complex systems for very large homes with demanding requirements can run into hundreds of thousands.

What does “Crestron Connected” mean?
We use this term to describe an electrical device in the home that is under the control of the main Crestron processor, rather than operating independently.

How do you buy Crestron?
Crestron equipment is only available through an authorised dealer network, like Custom Controls — this exists specifically to ensure installation quality. Consumer-grade hobbyist alternatives exist (Apple Home, Google Home and similar), but they are a different category of product entirely.

How do you program Crestron?
The homeowner doesn’t — Crestron requires specific software that is only available to the Crestron dealer network. Clients can adjust certain settings themselves, such as lighting levels and saved scenes, without needing dealer support for every small change.

What is Crestron NVX?
NVX is Crestron’s current AV-over-IP video distribution platform, sending 4K HDR video around a property over a standard network using inexpensive Cat6 cabling rather than dedicated proprietary cable runs. It has largely superseded the older Digital Media (DM) range for new installations.

Why choose Crestron?
No other home automation platform offers comparable flexibility. Virtually any electrical device can be integrated into a Crestron system, delivering both convenience and genuine energy savings.

Does Apple integrate with Crestron?
Yes. iPhones and iPads control a Crestron system directly through the free Crestron Home app, Apple TV integrates natively, and Siri voice control is supported throughout the current Crestron Home platform.

Why would I want a wall-mounted touchpanel over an iPad?
We typically install at least one wired touchpanel per project, simply because a wired connection is inherently more reliable than relying on WiFi, and a wall-mounted panel can’t be misplaced or dropped. On larger projects, touchpanels also serve as intercom stations — functionality an iPad alone doesn’t replicate.

How much is the Crestron Home app?
The Crestron Home app itself is free to download on both iOS and Android. It requires a Crestron system that has been installed and licensed by an authorised dealer to function — the app alone doesn’t control anything without that underlying system in place.

Who owns the Crestron programme’s source code?
As a company offering freelance Crestron programming work on existing systems, we encounter this question often. Our position is that the client owns the code once payment has been made. We’ve seen situations where an end client paid an intermediary — a project manager, interior designer or builder — and that payment never reached the programmer. This is easily avoided by dealing directly with the programmer or dealer; the more intermediaries involved, the lower the chance of a clean outcome, in our experience.

Where can I buy Crestron?
Get in touch with us directly via our contact form or by phone — we sell direct to clients as an authorised dealer.

Can I buy Crestron online?
We don’t operate a conventional online store, but we do sell hardware directly. Contact us to discuss your requirements.

How do you reboot or reset a Crestron system?
The main processor has HW-R and SW-R buttons (hardware reset and software reset). Pressing HW-R resets the processor and reloads the programme. We generally recommend power-cycling the whole rack to ensure every device restarts cleanly. This may resolve an immediate issue, but a system genuinely shouldn’t need regular resets — if a problem keeps recurring, get in touch and we’ll investigate the underlying cause.