A live dashboard, alerts and energy estimates for Crestron Home, running on the system homeowners already have.
LCD today released LCD Dashboard for Crestron Home, a driver that gives every Crestron Home house a live overview in any browser on the home network. Phones, tablets and wall-mounted displays show every room at once, flag what needs attention, and estimate what the lighting costs to run.
Crestron Home is built for control: tap a room, dim a light, run a scene. LCD Dashboard answers a different set of questions. Is anything left on? Is a door open? Is the house locked up? It puts the answers on one screen, updated every few seconds.
Every room on one screen
Each room shows its lights and levels, shade positions, doors and locks, occupancy, temperature and what’s playing. A summary bar covers the whole house. Homeowners can pick from four styles, including Ambient, a dark, calm design made for a wall tablet. Wall tablet mode runs the dashboard full screen, keeps the screen on and dims at night.
Alerts that matter
LCD Dashboard watches for a door left open, a device gone offline, a low battery, a security alarm and more. Each alert says what, where and for how long, and can be snoozed or dismissed. Each kind of alert is also a Crestron Home event, so an installer can turn on the hall lights when the back door is left open or send a notification when a sensor battery runs low.
Energy and processor health
The Energy page estimates the lighting’s energy use and cost by room and by load, and shows lights left on in empty rooms or overnight. For installers, a System page tracks the processor’s load, memory, storage and errors over 24 hours and 7 days, with a one-click troubleshooter.
Built for the handover
At handover the installer gives the homeowner a QR code or a printed card. They scan it on the home Wi-Fi and the dashboard opens in their phone’s browser, with no app to install and no account to create. Every screen can carry the installer’s logo, company name and support details.
LCD Dashboard runs on the Crestron Home processor itself. It needs no extra hardware and no cloud service, and the house’s information stays in the home.
“LCD Dashboard is a window to your Crestron Home system and your energy usage, built in your style,” said Neil Silver of LCD. “Homeowners see the whole house on one screen, and their installer’s name is right there when they need help.”
Availability
LCD Dashboard is available now for 4-series Crestron Home processors. A licence costs £200 per processor and includes updates for one year from purchase. A 30-day free trial is available from the LCD Dashboard store page. Downloads and release notes are on the LCD Dashboard driver page, and full set-up guides are on the LCD docs site.
The dashboard Crestron Home owners keep asking for
Spend any time in smart home forums and you’ll see the screenshots. A wall tablet in the kitchen showing every room, the temperature upstairs, which doors are open and what the house used in energy today. Most of them are Home Assistant dashboards, and they look great.
Crestron Home owners see those screenshots too. Then they ask their installer a reasonable question: can we have that?
Until now the answer has been “sort of, with a lot of work”. LCD Dashboard changes that.
What Crestron Home does well
Crestron Home is built for control. It’s reliable, it’s fast, and the app, keypads and touch screens make it easy to dim a light, close the shades or run a scene. Installers trust it because it behaves the same way every day.
What it doesn’t offer is a single screen that answers the questions homeowners ask most:
Is anything left on?
Is a door or window open?
Is the house locked up?
What’s using the energy?
In the Crestron Home app you find those answers room by room. That’s fine for control. It’s slow when you want to check the whole house on your way to bed.
Why people reach for Home Assistant
Home Assistant is a powerful, open home-automation platform, and its dashboards are a big part of its appeal. You can build almost any layout from cards, track history, chart energy use and put the whole thing on a wall tablet.
Adding it to a Crestron Home house comes with costs that are easy to miss:
A second system to run. Home Assistant needs its own computer or appliance, its own updates and its own backups.
An integration to keep working. There is no official Crestron Home integration. Community integrations exist, and they vary in what they support and how well they keep up with Crestron Home updates.
Set-up time. Every room, device and card has to be configured, and kept in step whenever the Crestron Home configuration changes.
Support. When something stops working, who does the homeowner call? The installer who supports Crestron rarely wants to support a second platform too.
For an enthusiast who enjoys tinkering, that’s part of the fun. For a homeowner who paid a professional for a Crestron system, it’s a lot to take on for a dashboard.
Where LCD Dashboard fits
LCD Dashboard gives you the whole-house view on the Crestron Home system itself. It’s a Crestron Home driver, so it installs like any other driver and runs on the processor. There’s no extra computer, no cloud account and no app to install.
Open it in any browser on the home network and you get:
Every room at a glance. Lights and levels, shades, doors and locks, occupancy, temperature and what’s playing.
A summary of the whole house. Lights on, doors open, locks, devices offline and the security system.
Alerts. A door left open, a device offline, a low battery or a security alarm. Each alert says what, where and for how long. Each kind of alert is also a Crestron Home event, so it can trigger a sequence.
Energy estimates. Lighting energy and cost by room and by load, and lights left on in empty rooms.
Your own dashboards. Build pages from cards, with separate layouts for phone, tablet and desktop.
Wall tablet mode. Full screen, screen kept on, dimmed at night, in one of four styles.
LCD Dashboard running full screen on a wall tablet
Because it reads the house directly from Crestron Home, there’s nothing to keep in step. Add a room or a light in Crestron Home and it appears on the dashboard.
Estimated lighting energy and cost by room and by load
Side by side
LCD Dashboard
Home Assistant alongside Crestron Home
Extra hardware
None
A computer or appliance to run Home Assistant
Set-up
Install a Crestron Home driver
Install HA, add a community integration, build the dashboards
Whole-house view
Ready from the start
Once configured
Alerts for doors, offline devices, low batteries
Built in, thresholds set in the browser
Build your own automations
Alerts in Crestron Home sequences
Yes
Depends on the integration
Lighting energy estimates
Yes
Yes, once configured
Processor health and history
Yes
No
Installer branding
Logo, name and support details
No
Control
View only; control stays in the Crestron Home app
Depends on the integration
Who supports it
The Crestron installer and LCD
Whoever set it up
Cost
£200 per processor with a year of updates, 30-day trial
Free software, plus hardware and set-up time
Home Assistant can do far more than show a dashboard, and for some homes it’s the right choice. If what you want is the dashboard, LCD Dashboard gets you there with much less to look after.
Good for installers too
For integrators, LCD Dashboard is a simple add-on that improves the handover. Give the homeowner a QR code or a printed card. They scan it on the home Wi-Fi and the dashboard opens on their phone, with your logo, company name and support number on it.
The homeowner view on a phone, with the installer’s branding
The installer view adds a System page with processor load, memory, storage and errors over 24 hours and 7 days, plus a troubleshooter. Alerts for a processor restart or climbing errors help you spot a problem before the client calls.
Things to know
LCD Dashboard is for viewing. Homeowners keep using the Crestron Home app, keypads and touch screens for control.
It works on the home network only. There is no remote access.
Devices added by some third-party drivers show in part or not at all. Check on site before promising a device.
Energy figures are estimates based on dimmer levels and the watts you enter.
It needs a 4-series Crestron Home processor.
Try it
LCD Dashboard costs £200 per processor, including updates for one year from purchase, and comes with a 30-day free trial. Start a trial from the LCD Dashboard store page, download the driver from the LCD Dashboard driver page, and follow the set-up guide on the LCD docs site.
If your clients have been asking for a Home Assistant-style dashboard, this is the one that runs on the Crestron system they already own.
You can already open a 2N’s door from Crestron by pulsing a relay. But a pulsed relay isn’t a lock. It has no state you can trust, no users, no schedule, and no answer to the question every client eventually asks: who opened the door, and when?
The 2N Native Lock driver closes that gap. It drives the 2N’s strike through a switch output and reports live state back from the device, so the door appears in Crestron Home as a native lock — a standard lock tile with proper Locked/Unlocked state, events, PIN users and schedules. Not a relay dressed up as a lock. A lock.
A native lock, not a workaround
Because it’s built on the Crestron Home entity model, the door behaves like any other Crestron lock. It shows the real state on the tile — read from the 2N’s event log, not guessed — so if someone opens the door on the keypad, Crestron knows. Lock and unlock are exposed to scenes, schedules and quick actions the same way every native lock is.
Lock commands are always sent to the device, even when the tile already shows the target state, so a stale reading can never leave a door in the wrong state.
Who and when
This is the part clients remember. PIN users are managed in Crestron Home’s own lock settings, and when someone enters their code the driver reports “Unlocked from keypad,” attributed to the matching user. The commissioning app keeps a live access log — newest first, each entry tied to a person — which is exactly the who and when a plain lock tile never shows.
Schedules are enforced as a rolling validity window, which makes them fail-secure: if the processor goes offline, access expires rather than staying open. A caretaker’s 8-to-6 stays 8-to-6 even if the network drops.
[Screenshot to add: the commissioning app’s attributed access log]
An app that signs the job off
The driver includes an installer-facing commissioning app, served from the processor — no internet or extra software. On site it lets you:
Test the strike — fire Test unlock and Test lock from your browser and watch the door physically release, without walking back and forth.
Prove the connection — a troubleshooter runs a sequence of checks against the 2N (network, HTTP API, credentials, services, the strike switch) and tells you how to fix anything that fails.
Validate a user before you leave — the emulator runs the driver’s real access rules for a chosen user, method and time, so you can confirm a new PIN or a schedule window without waiting for it.
It plays well with the intercom driver
The Native Lock driver and the 2N Doorstation driver run on the same site. Use the Native Lock for the front door you want managed as a lock, and the Doorstation driver for raw switches, inputs and SIP calls elsewhere on the same unit.
Spec it for the door that matters
For a front door, a gate, or a plant-room the client wants controlled and audited, this turns a 2N you may already be fitting into a managed access point — with users, schedules and an attributed log — and no separate access-control system to buy or wire.
The 2N Native Lock driver is a licensed product — a 30-day trial and full licences are on its product page. Compatibility, user management and the commissioning app are covered in the 2N Native Lock driver pages on lcd.network.
A leak sensor under the sink. A contact on the wine-cellar door. A temperature probe in the plant room. Each can do exactly one useful thing when it trips: send an HTTP request. On its own that’s a notification nobody sees. Paired with the Sonos speakers already in the house, it’s an alarm — audible in every room, repeating until someone deals with it, and with no separate alarm panel to buy or wire.
Two LCD drivers make the fabric: UI Dynamic to catch the webhook and Sonos Chime to make the noise.
Sensor to scene, in one request
Every UI Dynamic control has a webhook URL that fires a Crestron Home event. Hand that URL to whatever the sensor can call — its own webhook field, a Home Assistant automation, a Node-RED flow — and the moment the sensor trips, a Crestron event fires. From there it’s ordinary Crestron programming: bind a scene to the event.
No bridge, no cloud middleman. The sensor speaks HTTP; UI Dynamic turns that into a Crestron trigger.
An alert that won’t be ignored
The scene fires the Sonos Chime driver. Two settings make it a real alert rather than a polite ping:
Repeat until stopped. A chime set to repeat 0 times repeats until something calls StopChime. An intruder or a flood shouldn’t stop on its own — this one doesn’t.
A pinned volume. Pin the alert chime to its own high volume and it ignores the house-default ChimeLevel. So a night-mode scene that quietens the music at 11 pm can’t quietly turn the flood alarm down to a whisper. If you pinned it to 95, it stays 95.
Give each sensor its own spoken announcement — “Water detected in the utility room”, “Plant room over temperature” — and the house tells you not just that something’s wrong, but what.
[Screenshot to add: a Sonos Chime set to repeat 0 (until stopped), or the UI Dynamic Webhooks tab]
Arm, disarm and acknowledge — on the tile
Because a repeating chime needs a stop, the acknowledge belongs on a tile the client can reach. A UI Dynamic control does both jobs:
An arm / disarm control — a two-state button whose state your programming checks before letting the alert scene run.
An acknowledge control whose press calls StopChime to silence the alert once someone’s on it.
Every call in and out is recorded in UI Dynamic’s activity log, so during commissioning you can trip the sensor, watch the webhook arrive and the chime fire, then acknowledge it — all without a processor console.
Spec it as a safety net, not a security system
This isn’t a graded intruder alarm, and it shouldn’t be sold as one. What it is: a cheap, flexible alert layer over sensors and speakers the client already owns — the leak, the freezer door left open, the plant room, the gate at 2 am — made loud, house-wide and acknowledgeable, using two drivers on the existing processor.
Both are licensed products with a 30-day trial and full licences on their product pages — UI Dynamic and Sonos Chime. The webhook setup is on the UI Dynamic webhooks page, and the chime, repeat and volume settings are on the Sonos Chime pages, both on lcd.network.
A 2N intercom is doing a lot of work at the front gate. It has relays for the strike and the gate motor, digital inputs watching the door contact and the request-to-exit button, a camera, a call button, and a SIP stack that can ring a phone anywhere. On most jobs Crestron Home sees almost none of it — the intercom rings a handset, opens a door, and stays a closed box beside the drive.
The 2N Doorstation driver opens that box. It exposes the 2N as a programmable control surface in Crestron Home: every switch, every input, the relay and output, and SIP call control — each one a tile control, a programming action you can call, and a programming event you can react to.
Everything the 2N can do, in programming
Add the driver and the intercom’s hardware turns into named pieces you can wire up:
Switches 1–4 — energise or de-energise each 2N switch to release a strike, trigger the gate, or drive a relay, from a scene, a schedule, or the tile.
Digital inputs 1–4 — the live open/closed state of a door contact or exit button, on the tile and as input opened / input closed events.
Relay and output — state changes surfaced to programming.
SIP call control — call the Crestron touch panels (or a custom SIP target) and hang up, when the 2N has a registered SIP account.
So the gate strike becomes a Crestron action, the door contact becomes a Crestron event, and the intercom can ring the panels in the house — all inside the programming you already build.
Events fire however the door was opened
The driver doesn’t just watch its own commands. It monitors the 2N’s event log, so a switch, input, relay or output event fires whether the change came from a Crestron scene, from the tile, or directly on the 2N — a keypad code, a request-to-exit button, a fob. There are also events for motion, noise and a call-button press.
That is the difference between “I know when Crestron opened the door” and “I know when the door opened.” Bind your notification, your log, or your welcome scene to the event and you catch every case, not just the ones your own automation caused.
[Screenshot to add: the 2N Doorstation tile — Switches / Inputs / Call Control]
A setup app that proves the wiring
The driver ships a browser-based Diagnostics & Setup app, served from the processor. It shows the live connection, streams the device event log, runs a connection troubleshooter that checks the network, the HTTP API and the credentials in order, and lets you fire test actions — pop a switch, place a call — from your laptop without walking back to the gate. Commission it once, prove it, sign it off.
The upgrade is painless
This is the current, web-configured version of the long-standing 2N Basic Http driver, rebuilt on the Crestron Home entity model. It keeps the same product SKU (CHTWONHW), so an existing licence key still works — there is no repurchase. Device actions are gated until the driver is licensed; feedback and the diagnostics app run regardless.
It also sits happily alongside the 2N Native Lock driver on the same site: use the Native Lock when you want the door to appear as a standard Crestron Home lock with PIN users, and the Doorstation driver for raw switches, inputs and call control.
Spec it because it needs no new hardware
The intercom is already on the wall and already on the network. The driver turns hardware the customer has already paid for into a first-class part of the Crestron system — no rack module, no bridge box, no cloud account.
The 2N Doorstation driver is a licensed product — a 30-day trial and full licences are on its product page. Compatibility, the full control/event list and the setup app are documented in the 2N Doorstation driver pages on lcd.network.
Sonos Chime for Crestron has been rebuilt from the ground up. V2 is a new driver on the Crestron Home entity model, and it changes how you set chimes up, what you can play, and how much the driver tells you when something goes wrong. Here is what is new.
A new driver, on the entity model
V2 replaces the previous Sonos Chime driver. It loads as a Crestron Home extension device — an Audio Processor — and everything below follows from that rebuild. In the driver list it appears as SONOS Chime V2, alongside the one it replaces.
Crestron Home lists the new SONOS Chime V2 alongside the driver it replaces.
Set up chimes in a browser
The biggest day-to-day change: chimes are configured in an app served from the processor, not in the driver’s settings pages. Search the catalogue instead of scrolling filenames, listen to any chime in your browser — instantly — and play it on a real speaker to hear where it lands before you commit. Speakers that can’t play chimes are greyed out with the reason, so you are never guessing why one is not working or not supported.
The browser setup app: search the catalogue, audition a chime, and choose its speakers.
Bring your own sound — included
The catalogue is no longer limited to the native crestron home chimes.
Upload two chimes of your own — any MP3 up to ten seconds.
Have the speakers say something. Type up to 100 characters, pick a voice, and that is the chime.
Or point a chime at your own https:// URL, if you would rather host the file yourself.
Text-to-speech used to be a separate subscription. In V2 it is included with the licence. An announcement is recorded once when you save it, so it plays instantly.
Upload two chimes of your own, or have the speakers say something — included with the licence.
Volume Controls
V1 played everything at one level. V2 gives each chime its own volume, with a house default it falls back to. A doorbell that is polite at 40 no longer drags your intruder alert down with it. The ChimeLevel command still sets the house default — but a chime you have pinned to its own volume ignores it, so an alarm set to 95 stays at 95 even if ChimeLevel is wired to a night-mode scene.
Upgrading from the previous driver
One thing to plan for: this is not an in-place upgrade. A site on the old driver has to be commissioned again — re-enter the licence key, reconnect the Sonos account, and rebuild the chimes in the new setup app. Your existing licence key still works: V2 keeps the same product SKU. Speech announcements have to be re-typed, but nothing else is lost — and they are now included rather than billed separately.
Ready to try V2? Start a 30-day trial at SONOS Chimes, and follow the full setup in the installation guide on our documentation site.
How Sonos Amp Multi is Revolutionizing Custom Integration for Modern Homes
Image Credit : Sonos
The home audio landscape appears to have reached a new milestone with Sonos’ introduction of the Amp Multi. This multi-channel streaming amplifier promises to address many common challenges in residential audio installations while maintaining the simplicity and sound quality the brand is known for. Let’s explore what this solution offers for custom integrators and homeowners.
The Changing Landscape of Residential Audio
Modern homes have evolved dramatically in recent years. Open floor plans, mixed-use spaces, and seamless indoor-outdoor living create unique challenges for audio system design. Homeowners typically want high-quality sound throughout their living spaces without complicated controls or visible equipment disrupting their carefully planned aesthetics.
This shift creates significant challenges for integrators who need adaptable solutions for evolving home designs. Traditional multi-zone audio systems often require extensive planning and complicated wiring schemes that can be difficult to modify post-installation. The Amp Multi appears designed to address these challenges with a more flexible approach aligned with contemporary living spaces.
Engineering Features: What Sets Amp Multi Apart
Looking at the technical specifications, the Amp Multi offers impressive capabilities:
Eight amplified outputs delivering 125watts each at 8 ohms
Support for up to four independently configurable zones
Capacity to drive up to 24 Sonos Architectural speakers (3 per channel)
GaN power architecture paired with Class-D post-filter feedback
Fan-less design for silent operation with thermal efficiency
Beyond raw power, the design choices suggest a focus on installation and operation ease. The system features an audible chirp function that can be triggered from the Sonos app, potentially eliminating tedious manual identification processes when working with multiple units.
Flexibility in System Design
One of the most interesting aspects of the Amp Multi is the freedom it offers in system design. Any output can apparently be assigned to any zone, allowing for adaptable solutions for unique spaces. This flexibility could enable integrators to adjust configurations as project requirements evolve without extensive rewiring.
For larger installations, multiple Amp Multi units can reportedly work together, creating extensive possibilities for ambitious audio projects. If the system maintains performance quality when scaled up as claimed, this could address a common pain point in large residential installations where consistent performance across zones can be challenging.
Professional Tuning Capabilities
The introduction of ProTune seems to be a significant advancement, offering integrators manual sound optimization tools for each output. The 10-band parametric EQ, gain adjustments, width control, and delay offset capabilities could make it possible to fine-tune sound for challenging spaces.
This level of control might allow for consistent sound throughout a home regardless of acoustic challenges. Combined with optimization profiles for Sonos Architectural speakers, the system appears to offer both automated and manual tuning options.
Installation-Friendly Design
The physical design suggests thoughtful consideration of the installation process. The 1.5U chassis works with a dedicated 2U Rack Mount (sold separately) to create built-in ventilation space. This approach eliminates the need for additional vent panels while potentially improving cable management.
The flat-back design and recessed connectors allow the unit to stand upright during rack mounting. These design elements could make installations more efficient, reducing setup time and potential complications.
Engineering for Reliability
The use of GaN technology and a convection-cooled design eliminates common failure points like fans that can collect dust and create noise. This approach potentially improves long-term reliability – a crucial factor for integrators whose reputation depends on system performance over time.
Reduced maintenance requirements could help build stronger client relationships while ensuring more consistent audio experiences for homeowners.
Control System Integration
The Amp Multi integrates seamlessly with third-party systems, extending its functionality beyond standalone audio capabilities. The LCD Sonos Chimes Driver works directly with this hardware, enabling chimes and spoken messages to be distributed throughout the Sonos system.
This integration delivers notification sounds triggered by control system actions, creating essential functionality for doorbell alerts, security notifications, and household announcements – transforming the audio system into a comprehensive home communication platform.
Meeting Contemporary Homeowner Expectations
Today’s homeowners typically expect technology to enhance their living experience without requiring technical expertise. The Amp Multi seems designed with this balance in mind – offering sophisticated capabilities through accessible interfaces.
The dual approach – professional-grade control for installers and streamlined operation for users – represents an interesting solution for high-end residential installations.
Evolution of Residential Audio Integration
The introduction of products like the Amp Multi suggests a shift in residential audio system design. The emphasis on flexibility, scalability, and user experience reflects an understanding of modern home functionality and technology interaction patterns.
As homes continue to evolve with more multi-purpose spaces, solutions that can adapt without major reconstruction will likely become increasingly valuable. Sonos appears to be positioning itself to address this trend.
A New Option for Custom Integrators
For the custom integration market, the Amp Multi represents an intriguing addition to available multi-zone audio solutions. The combination of hardware specifications, design features, and software integration could address challenges throughout the project lifecycle.
By potentially reducing complexity without sacrificing capabilities, this product might enable integrators to approach ambitious projects with greater confidence. The result could be improved experiences for both professionals and homeowners.
As Sonos prepares to showcase the Amp Multi at upcoming industry events, it will be interesting to see how integrators respond to this new option for professional residential audio installations in contemporary homes.
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