Debuted at ISE 2018, Crestron’s TSR-310 remote features a 3-in colour touch screen and programmable backlit buttons. The remote can support voice control and other wireless communications, with light and movement sensing technology allowing it to ‘wake’ when picked up to instantly be ready for use.
Reviewed by Gavin Baker, technical consultant at Challenge Control
Where have you used this product?
The remote has gone into our show facilities that we share with prefabricated home specialist Huf Haus in Weybridge in Surrey, England. It primarily lives in the lounge area and it’s showcased alongside a brand new 4K Sony OLED television we’ve just had installed too, which it works perfectly with. The brand new television and brand new high spec remote has been the perfect combination for impressing prospective clients.
Why did you choose it?
We’ve programmed our TSR-310 so clients can see how it can be used to control anything in the home, including blind, lighting, TV and audio – all at a touch of a button.
We originally had borrowed the remote for an open day we hosted after first seeing it at ISE. We put our programme on it for the day, meaning there was about 150 elements to control, and we were really impressed by how it handled it. We had really good event and received great feedback on the remote control so we made the investment.
Our showroom is end-to-end Crestron and we’ve worked quite a lot with the manufacturer’s products over the years.
What do you like about using it?
The reason why we like to use it is because the remote is really smart looking. It’s had a big upturn in sales from our perspective for our clients.
There’s also been a reduction in price, compared to Crestron’s previous models, which is helpful as it still offers all the same functionality and is smarter looking for a lower cost. The price of the TSR-310 is very competitive and useful for us (being under £1,000 in the UK) – the price may sound like a lot if you think about is as ‘just’ a remote control, but the actual functionality and list of things you can do with it is enormous.
The other reason we really went for this remote in particular was because it looks like nothing else on the market – it’s much sleeker and easier to use than others. There’s really simple little additions for clients to enjoy – for example, like the raised ‘pause’ button so their finger can get remote memory of where buttons are. I think Crestron’s whole approach to button mapping is really smart. The time spent on design is clear with features like the raised buttons and the new layout (i.e. reducing it down so from the top to the bottom it’s a 3-button remote, instead of the standard 4-button design with red, green, yellow and blue functionality buttons across the remote).
The colour display is a good definition screen as well, and the actual response of the touchscreen is really good, meaning when you press a button you’re not waiting a one or a couple of seconds for something to happen.
Voice control with the remote via Alexa has only just been activated here via firmware update and I haven’t yet had a chance to try that, but I look forward to testing it out. Obviously, with Sky’s work with voice control in the UK we can now offer a whole-home control package and use the voice controls on that, so it does have a big effect.
The programming from our perspective has been really good – the interface looks exactly the same as it does on the iPad and the iPhones, and it’s helpful to have that familiarity.
To summarise, we show all visitors to the showroom the iPhone and the iPad app too, but everyone still wants a remote control as part and parcel of everyone’s life. Being able to control things like opening and closing the blinds or turning on some lights from a remote control is quite handy for clients who come to us, as their obviously busy people and having that one remote (especially given that you don’t always have your phone on your person) to handle various things is really important.
Would you change or develop anything about the product?
That’s a good question. Being fully programmable, the remote does everything we need it do. I don’t know if I would change anything from an AV perspective, as I do genuinely think Crestron have hit the nail on the head with the remote.
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