[drewman21]

Just as the title says. How the heck do you get Crestron's programing software? I have setup an account with them, sent e-mails, and tried calling.

I need to get access to it for the school i work at. We need to upgrade some of our projectors in our crestron controlled rooms as the new projectors won't be able to be controlled without changing/upgrading the programing. I would love to have the chance to see if I can learn it to save my college the $$$ to do it as we are in a huge budget hole for the forseeable future.

Any one have a suggestion on how to get it or apply/buy it? Thanks for any help you can provide.


AJ

 

[GoGo Delicious]

Crestron software is restricted to the following.

1) Dealers

2) CAIPS

3) A+ Educational Partners


Since you are an educational institution you would fall under #3, A+ Partner.


You need to apply as a A+ Partner, it not automatic, and you need to work with a Crestron dealer. It would actually be easier for you to go through your current Crestron dealer and have them sponsor your school.


As a Crestron dealer myself, I can sponsor/send anyone to Crestron training or give them access to software. Talk to your Crestron dealer and ask them.

 

[39CentStamp]



Quote:
Originally Posted by drewman21 /forum/post/18204432


Just as the title says. How the heck do you get Crestron's programing software? I have setup an account with them, sent e-mails, and tried calling.

I need to get access to it for the school i work at. We need to upgrade some of our projectors in our crestron controlled rooms as the new projectors won't be able to be controlled without changing/upgrading the programing. I would love to have the chance to see if I can learn it to save my college the $$$ to do it as we are in a huge budget hole for the forseeable future.

Any one have a suggestion on how to get it or apply/buy it? Thanks for any help you can provide.


AJ

Do you have the programming files? If not you will need to rewrite the entire program.

 

[drewman21]



Quote:
Originally Posted by GoGo Delicious /forum/post/18204488


Crestron software is restricted to the following.

1) Dealers

2) CAIPS

3) A+ Educational Partners


Since you are an educational institution you would fall under #3, A+ Partner.


You need to apply as a A+ Partner, it not automatic, and you need to work with a Crestron dealer. It would actually be easier for you to go through your current Crestron dealer and have them sponsor your school.


As a Crestron dealer myself, I can sponsor/send anyone to Crestron training or give them access to software. Talk to your Crestron dealer and ask them.

Well this is too bad. The installer/dealer that we had worked on this and past projects has really boned us. They don't have a policy of giving copies of the programing to us and have erased past installs because the felt they wouldn't need them again. They won't be willing to get us signed up as a partner as they have us on a hook for any the work that we need to do. It isn't a good situation for us but my bosses don't seem to want to deal with it other than paying out and complaining.


How much does it cost for a Crestron Dealer to sponsor a school? I might convince a Dept chair to come up with the money to pay our dealer to get us signed up. Puts me on the hook for trying to figure it out i guess but it may be better than nothing.


Thanks for your help and answers.

Have a good one!

 

[Neurorad]

Fargo isn't a huge town, but I bet you can find another Crestron dealer, locally.


But who says the dealer has to be local? Maybe you can find one online, maybe on AVS, if you look around.


If your college's Crestron dealer is failing to provide adequate service, find another. Involve the decision makers (Dept Chairs, Dean, Associate Vice Dean of Interdepartmental Filomatics, etc) now. Find a dealer that will work with the school's programmers to mutual benefit.

 

[GoGo Delicious]



Quote:
Originally Posted by drewman21 /forum/post/18206963


How much does it cost for a Crestron Dealer to sponsor a school? I might convince a Dept chair to come up with the money to pay our dealer to get us signed up. Puts me on the hook for trying to figure it out i guess but it may be better than nothing.


Thanks for your help and answers.

Have a good one!

It does not cost the dealer anything. It's up to the dealer if they want to sponsor the client. We have a set of criteria a client has to meet in order for us to sponsor them. Every dealer is different as to if they will sponsor a client, how they go about doing it and what criteria a client has to meet.


Hope that helps.

 

[weddellkw]

Find out who the Crestron rep for your area is and call them. Explain the situation and ask them to put you in touch with another dealer.


Crummy dealers hurt everyone else, not just themselves.*


*This may be an overly harsh appraisal as it is only based on one side of the story...

 

[Dennis Erskine]

Yes...contact your Crestron rep. See if he can get you in touch with another dealer. If the software is not available, you're starting all over again. From a timing perspective, you'll need to use an experienced Crestron programmer to get you up and running. Now that you have a working system, get sponsored so the school can move forward. If the school has a VPN, your "new" dealer need not be local. As you develop the in-house expertise, that sponsoring dealer can be a mentoring resource (usually not for free but certainly not overly expensive either).


Getting someone to come to Fargo in the winter ... that's another issue.

 

[drewman21]

I finally got a call back from Crestron direct that let me know we are a A+ partner and that we would be able to get the software from our local Crestron dealer/partner. So I and wait for a few day for our Crestron dealer to see about the software. When he does call back he lets me know that they don't give out the programing of previous jobs and that they prefer to do programing as it provides work/income for them. I told him I see his point but I would still like to have access to the software as we have hardware that has been mothballed and would be nice to cut my teeth on so to speak. He told me he would make a few calls and see what he could do about getting our staff access to get the software. So still waiting.....

 

[Neurorad]

The dealer is giving away the markup on programming, if he gives away the software.


Why would the SW come from the local dealer, if you're an 'A+ partner'? What's an A+ partner?

 

[drewman21]

The software can be gotten 3 ways(as far as I can tell) one being if your a crestron dealer/installer, you sign up and attend one of Crestron's training sessions, and 3 if you buy enough hardware/programing from a crestron rep for your educational facility. So in my case my school has bought several crestron systems and programing updates for them. We qualify as a A+ partner then. The partners are allowed to have access to the software from their dealer and to some extent skip the other two ways of getting the software.


I get that it cuts into their profits but on the other side since we are in such a tight budget year we won't be able to afford new systems and programming from them anyways. If we had to option to buy the hardware and install it ourself that would be a completely different situation. They don't lose out as much but still can have a some sales if they want to keep us as a customer.

 

[cntp]

If you're a Crestron partner (Dealer, CAIP, or A+), then you'll have a customer # or partner # or something like that. You'll need to find the number, either get it from your dealer, the person in charge of that department, or you may be able to call Crestron and get it.


Also - I'm sorry your dealer is railroading you - sounds like you need a new dealer. We actually get very good treatment from our dealers for the most part. Then again, our University does a lot of business with Crestron (we just cut a series of PO's, a large amount of Crestron stuff ordered. Well into 6 figures.)


Also, I'd have whoever writes up your bid documents to require that your installers include the source code to the programming, as well as all relevant panel designs, modules, etc. The integrators may not like it, but if it's in the bid document, they do it or they don't get paid.


Also - we've got a few rooms on campus that we don't have source code for. These were installed before we got our act together in writing bids, or were installed by departments that didn't know what they were doing, and didn't consult us. These rooms bug me to no end, I'm working on reprogramming them all, but our programming backlog is a mile long now.


Good luck

-Drew



Edit:

Quote:
Originally Posted by weddellkw /forum/post/18208222


Find out who the Crestron rep for your area is and call them. Explain the situation and ask them to put you in touch with another dealer.

Seconded! You really should try to develop a relationship with your Crestron rep, they can really help you out sometimes.

 

[Dennis Erskine]

Well...you could go back to the dealer and explain the facts of school life to him ...

"Here's how it works, we get the software from you and you have a chance of future business from us. We don't get the software from you, then you have no chance of any future business from us ever."