Kiel the Coder

The Future of AV Programming: Part 7

2023 is coming to an end, and I’m so glad. This year has felt like I’ve stumbled out of one bad project right into the next. It’s been a constant battle of double-booking, short timelines, and delayed product. Everyone’s unhappy.

I thought it would be a good time to reflect on the challenges this year, but also to weave in my thoughts on where this is all headed in Part 7 of my Future of AV Programming saga.

Crestron + ZRC

Last time, I hinted that I wanted to explore connecting Crestron to Zoom Room Controls. I mostly run into this setup when a customer is replacing their video conference systems with Zoom rooms.

The scenario I’ll explore is: the user has a DMPS they’d like to continue using. They also want to be able to route non-computer sources to the displays once in a while (such as a cable TV box). They want to have 3 favorite channels available in Zoom. The user should have some flexibility to change the Zoom Room Controls without needing to touch the Crestron program (say they want to add another source).

Tools of the Trade

Being in the field again for the past week has been a good reminder that every AV programmer should equip themselves with some essential tools. I foolishly cleaned out my backpack last week because I wanted to have an easier time passing through security at the airport. Normally I take everything out of my backpack, dump it into my checked bag, then when I get where I’m going, transfer everything back into my backpack. Oh well, lesson learned.

Zoom Room Controls

Considering that I want to start small with some new posts, I thought a good topic is Zoom room controls. These are quick and easy to use once you know the configuration file structure, and sometimes you don’t even need a physical control processor! Isn’t that where all of this is headed anyway?

On the Road… Again

I’m traveling for work for two weeks, so I won’t have access to my normal equipment while I’m gone. It’s probably a good time to update on my previous post about setting up a VC-4 instance using a virtual private server (VPS).

Start Small

It’s been a while! My workload hasn’t slowed down any, and this blog has had to take a backseat until I get caught up. So this post will be very brief and about a single idea, one that works for many types of problems: start small.

Solid GOLD

I passed the Gold Exam! Once I get the official badge from Crestron, I’ll post it all over my online presence.

In accordance with testing protocols, I can’t share anything particular about this exam, but I thought this would be a good chance to reflect on my experience taking the test.

SIMPL+ and Delegates

I’ve been working on my Gold Exam and a good chunk of it is written in SIMPL#. It’s been a good reminder that getting code in SIMPL# to play nicely with SIMPL logic can sometimes turn into a chore. We have SIMPL+ to thank for most of the hair-pulling. I thought a post about delegates and getting them to work in SIMPL+ would be a good thing to write down.

Gold Exam

I’ve started my Crestron Gold Exam thinking the end of the year is likely to slow down. Ha! My workload has remained pretty high for the last few months, not leaving much time to work on this blog. I am still working on new posts, just not getting enough time to finish any of them. And now that I’ve started my Gold Exam, I’ll have to set aside time every week to work on that (due 3/13/23).

Sorry if things have been a little quiet, I do plan to keep writing when I can find the time again.

P201 Projector Exam

You can grab this short example from my GitHub repository at https://github.com/kielthecoder/Full-Crestron-Examples. This was the class project / final exam for the Intermediate Crestron Programming class (that turned into P201).