Author: Jason Oster
The Crestron Home™ platform is constantly evolving. Unlike the value of your new car, which drops substantially the moment you drive it off the lot, with Crestron Home it’s the exact opposite. It gets more valuable over time.
One of the great things about Crestron Home is being able to control everything in your home from many different “surfaces,” such as your tablets, phones, and Crestron touch screens. Now, with the latest update to Crestron Home it also runs natively on the new MacBook Pro® M1 laptop computer.
With the changing work world, more people are working remotely part-time, and in some cases full-time for the foreseeable future. Now that Crestron Home can run on your MacBook Pro M1 laptop, you can easily switch from your work or conference call to easily control your office space and entire home.
I can make the Crestron Home app window smaller on my other monitor, so I can leave it open and visible while I work. Or I can make it full screen and simply switch to it when I need to control something quickly. It looks just like the app for the iPad® tablet that I’m already used to, so I don’t have to worry about having to learn a new user interface.
I love having the app handy at all times. If I forget to grab my Crestron remote or my phone, having full control of my home from my laptop is convenient and amazing. Sometimes, when I’m in back-to-back conference calls on Zoom Rooms™ software, it’s tough to manage the goings on in my home. Now, with it running on my laptop, I can quickly adjust temperature and shades in my office as the day progresses, or even play some background music between meetings, which helps when I need to clear my head and do some creative writing.
Having the Crestron Home app available on your computer when you’re in the office has its advantages, as well. You can manage everything in your home remotely: unlock doors, open or close gates, adjust temperature, check in on the security system, and more.
For example, I was at the office recently when I got a call that my parents from out of state informing me they would be arriving at my house earlier than expected. So, the original plan to greet them at the front door that evening changed. Now, they were going to arrive before anyone was home. No problem. Even though I was in the middle of a meeting at work, I was able to quickly switch to Crestron Home on my laptop and unlock the front door, so my parents could walk right in and relax without having to wait for me to come home.
I know what you may be thinking; I use a PC, not a Mac® computer. Can I run Crestron Home on my PC? Microsoft has recently announced that Android™ OS apps will be able to run on Windows® 11 OS software. Crestron Home is already supported natively on Android devices. We’ll be testing the Android version of Crestron Home on Windows 11. Hopefully, it will provide a solution to also run Crestron Home on PCs. So, stay tuned...
Here’s how to start using the Crestron Home app on your MacBook Pro M1 computer:
- 1. From your computer, search for “Crestron Home” on the Apple® App Store® online store and then download and install the app
- 2. When connecting to your home from the app the first time you’ll need to enter your “User Interface Password.” Request if from your Crestron dealer or have them log in for you
Being able to control my home from yet another device makes my day-to-day even more convenient. It’s just one more example of how Crestron Home gets more and more valuable all the time.