crestron – Kiel the Coder

HTML5 in 2026

I originally started writing this in 2025, so it had a punchier title. Oh well… last year ended up far busier than I expected, so writing has taken a backseat to everything else. I think the topic remains relevant (even more so) with the recent listing of TSW-1080 panels on Crestron’s website.

I haven’t touched HTML5 much since 2022. Once supply-chain issues resolved, I found myself playing catch up on many delayed projects. The workload hasn’t quite subsided, but I know the importance of working with HTML5+CSS+JS has only increased. I worry daily that SmartGraphics will be end-of-life sooner than I’d like.¹ We all need to be ready for that eventuality!

Recovering a CH5Z Project

In the same vein as Recovering a VTZ Project, sometimes there are reasons you might need to make a backup of an already loaded touchpanel.

Silent Errors and RS-485

This post isn’t so much about RS-485 as it is about running into “silent errors” in your program that either break things in mysterious ways or flat out crash the whole thing. This is a tale of the latter.

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).

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.

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).

Crestron Masters 2022

I’m getting excited for next week: Crestron Masters is happening in Orlando, FL. Classes are a little different this year. I’m basically taking Test-Driven Development one day and Immersive HTML5 the next. Then the last day is a bunch of panel discussions. I’m sure it will be worth the trip! Anything is better than sitting on Zoom all day…

Crestron Drivers

I just finished watching all the videos for the C# for Crestron – Crestron Drivers online course and feel like I absorbed very little of it. The driver abstraction seems overly complicated, and the overall presentation of their videos is very dull. I like to contrast them with Q-SYS videos which are short and focused enough to hold your attention. Something about Crestron’s videos feels too robotic and I find myself multitasking with them on in the background.

SIMPL Crosspoints Best Practices

When I started Crestron programming in 2010, you had to take two classes. One covered almost the entire Crestron catalog. All I can remember is my eyes glazing over after a couple days of that. We might have built a touchpanel layout, too. The second class actually got into SIMPL programming, but we only covered button presses, feedback, interlocks, and maybe a toggle. It was fairly basic, but it was enough to get started programming Crestron systems.

After passing the exam at the end of class, they told us to go program systems for a year then come back and take the 201 class.