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10 pointers for designing a Home AV distribution system

Do you want to stream 4K throughout your home? Or do you want to monitor who enters your yard while you’re watching your favorite sitcom in your basement? You can do all of this and more with different devices that can be integrated by Crestron Digital Media™ (Crestron DM™).

In homes today, there are several different sources, signals, and infrastructure. The challenge is getting these different sources and signals to work together. For example, there are several stand-alone, streaming solutions or 4K products that do not really integrate with other solutions. In the past, there was really not one platform that could bring all of these solutions and services under one umbrella.

Also, increasingly, homeowners want a one-solution-stop for all their AV distribution needs. Crestron DM (and HDBaseT-certified products as well as Extron’s solutions) satisfies this need by integrating all of the different AV distribution solutions.

There are 10 pointers that you need to keep in mind when designing and installing your Home AV distribution system. So, here goes…

Ten pointers to keep in mind when designing a Home AV distribution system 

1. The first step is starting with the sources. You may still be using your old analog or standard definition sources. However, increasingly you are going to be integrating your IP sources like an IP camera, as well as your 4K sources, like your 4K Blu-ray player. In this way you can distribute streaming IP throughout your home.

2. The Crestron DM switchers help you to switch to 4K throughout your home. This enables you to display 4K content to all your 4K devices. The switchers are available in different configurations, such as 8”x8”, 16”x16”, 32”x32”,  which are card-based, and 64”x64”, and 128”x128”, which are blade-based. This switcher has input cards and blades for every signal type, to bring them into the switcher. Digital Media also has output cards and blades to be able to distribute these signals to every type of infrastructure in your home.

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3. You can route signals and displays to your Video wall in your home, which is fed by the switcher. Digital Media not only routes and distributes signals to all the displays in your home, but it also scales these displays. These displays may have different resolutions, and Crestron DM will give you the best possible resolution for your display. It also does all the video wall processing, so that there is no need for separate hardware or software for such processing.

4. Video on touch screens is also possible using Crestron DM. This takes place in response to a trigger event, such as the ringing of a doorbell, or an opening door, or motion detection. When this happens you can get the streaming image on all your touch screens throughout your home.

5. Increasingly, people are watching videos on their tablets, mobile devices, or laptops. Crestron DM enables you to do this, by wireless streaming output to your mobile device. You can also distribute 4K to your tablet or mobile device. You can use this Digital Distribution System as the only end-to-end 4K distribution system.

6. Video window processing is also something that Crestron DM does very well, by transmitting a picture in a picture. This lets you watch a movie while keeping tabs on your baby in the nursery, or the activity in your front yard.

7. Point-to-point video switching can be done in addition to streaming, to ensure the best picture quality on all your displays and high pixel resolution. This is done by transmitting the image over copper wires, which streams 4K on a 4K display.

8. You can also stream 4K downscaled onto an HD display. This means that you are increasingly going to be seeing 4K content in your home. Various vendors will be offering 4K services in the near future, such as a 4K Blu-ray player, 4K video-on-demand, as well as live streaming 4K.

9. You can also distribute HD over fiber, which lets you view your HD content outside the main structure of your home at a greater distance when you are outdoors in the guesthouse, pool house, tennis court, or basketball court.

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10. Crestron DM can transmit HDBaseT and can then send the signal directly to an HDBaseT display without any extra hardware.

So you can use Crestron DM as a unified platform that brings all your sources, signals, and infrastructure together so that they work seamlessly as a true matrix solution. So, what are you waiting for? Design the best AV distribution system for your home and get one step closer to living in your very own smart home!

 

 

(Content and Images courtesy: www.crestron.com)