At CEDIA Expo in Altanta, Crestron has announced the iPaneL, which turns any iPad into a two-way wireless Crestron touchpanel.
The gloss black iPaneL features tactile hard buttons to access most-used functions such as volume control and mute, and a five-way thumb pad for channel guide navigation. The iPaneL comes with a charging docking station, and future models will feature streaming media.
“Every other control company has iPad apps, docking stations and wall mounts. We have all that too, but we went much further than that,” said Robin van Meeuwen, managing director at Crestron UK. “For just a few hundred pounds you can have a Crestron touchpanel – the number one brand of touchpanels in the world.”
The iPaneL enables users to roam around the house while selecting songs and adjusting volume without navigating through subpages, and instantly adjust lighting at the press of a hot button. A docking station provides quick charging and storage.
Crestron says the iPaneL is shipping “soon” to the UK.
The latest version of Crestron Mobile Pro G – the “Top Grossing Lifestyle App” on iTunes – includes landscape rotation and gestures navigation for both Crestron and Prodigy systems. A graphic template with user-selectable backgrounds designed for the iPad is available free from the Crestron website; alternatively, custom designs may be used.
