We get asked this question a lot when we’re first talking with prospective clients.

Frankly, the question was a surprise at first. The thought of commissioning software without visiting site at all was not one that really crossed my mind.

The reason for the question turned out to be very interesting; on the whole people really did not like it when programmers would do everything remotely. It would put a lot of demands on their resources and, sometimes, they felt that issues were not resolved efficiently.

We totally get that some of the companies we work with do not want the fact that they use sub-contractors to be public knowledge and we ensure that we are very careful on how we present ourselves.

How much hardware do we have here for testing our Crestron software?

In our software development, we aim to have as much tested and debugged before we get onto a project site.  There are so many reasons for this, but clearly, the primary one is to ensure that deployment is as painless and quick as possible.

CEDIA Communicates is a quarterly publication that goes out to members to keep them abreast of industry news and developments.

Delighted to say that the latest issue (read it here) that Marcus is featured in an article about CEDIA Industry-Related Professional Members (page 42).

Today, I want to tell you about a remarkably useful tool that I always make sure I have in my commissioning equipment and that is an infrared remote control tester.

I can hear you saying it now "everything is IP these days, why do we need to test IR?".  Fair comment, however, there are still a lot of devices that are IR controlled either because that is the only option or because the IP control is not as reliable as needed.

These days, the use of motorised window treatments is fairly common place.  The benefits of automating shades for temperature regulation and privacy are a very easy message to communicate to homeowners.