Last month, a marketing email circulated from Aurora with the headline “The solution to Crestron NVX lead times.” Related social media ensued.
Crestron issued a Cease and Desist”. Aurora responded today. Crestron subsequently responded.
September 13, 2022 at 7:15 p,m., Crestron’s EVP Global Marketing Brad Hintze responds to a mass email sent by Aurora’s CEO Paul Harris.
“Aurora Multimedia issued a rather staged email today; we’d like to clarify. Crestron sent Aurora a trademark infringement and misleading statements cease and desist request. Though we appreciate Aurora’s flair for the dramatic, we must continually police and defend the use of our trademarks or we risk losing them. This kind of action is quite typical for businesses with valuable trademarks. There were a lot of paths Aurora could have chosen to address this matter, including responding professionally as an industry peer. Instead, Aurora chose to send a widespread inflammatory email, so this is how we got here. As noted in our town halls, dealers looking to integrate competitive products, including Aurora, into their Crestron systems can use Crestron Design Services. Crestron’s main priority is serving our customers at a time when they need us most, and that is where we will continue to focus our efforts.” Crestron EVP Global Marketing Brad Hintze
September 13, 2022 at 1:30 p,m., Aurora sent the following mass email from Aurora’s CEO Paul Harris.
As many of you know, Aurora sent out an email blast a few weeks ago pointing out the differences of our new VPX Series against the Crestron NVX Series. Apparently, Crestron took exception to that and was kind enough to send us a letter to Cease and Desist, to which Aurora responded.
Issues Noted and Clarified:
The headline “The solution for Crestron NVX lead time issues” reflects a clear comparison between the product availability of Aurora Multimedia’s products as opposed to the lead time issues experienced with the Crestron NVX. Such lead times are well documented, and thus the headline contains no misrepresentations.
The chart states “Dante via Software (No Semiconductor Delays)” and accurately reflects that this description applies to Aurora’s VPX products and does not apply to Crestron’s NVX products. The statement is neither false nor misleading. Crestron’s product does use a semiconductor by Audinate to achieve this function. Aurora does not require the IC from Audinate to achieve the same functionality.
The chart accurately states that Crestron’s NVX products are not controlled via the IPBaseT manager. The letter by Crestron even acknowledges that this is a true statement.
The chart states “8 Watts of Power with small enclosure.” Crestron’s letter somehow generalizes this to be a representation that Crestron NVX products do not include low power consumption products, which is incorrect. Note that the top line of the chart refers to NVX products that have a “4K60 4:4:4 (16ms Latency) Transceiver.” To our knowledge, any NVX products that meet that description, such as the DM-NVX-351 and DM-NVX-363, do not also use 8 Watts of power with a small enclosure. In fact, Crestron’s own specifications show the DM-NVX-351 uses 35 Watts and the DM-NVX-363 uses 22 Watts. Thus, this statement in the Feature Comparison Chart is neither false nor misleading.
Items Crestron did not take issue with the VPX Series:
Both companies support 4K60 4:4:4, Security, Scaling, Fast Switching, & Videowall.
Crestron does not support Image Rotation, Remote HD Preview at 30 Frames, EPG, PiP, Front OLED, & 4K60 4:4:4 Wall Plate.
Aurora did forget to add to the chart Dual Independent USB 2.0
One is for up to a 1080p30 Camera at 200Mbps from Decoder to Encoder
The other is for 170Mbps for Mass storage, peripherals, and HID.
HID mode will allow for roaming mouse and hot keys in KVM applications
I know this may come as a shock, but Crestron has been making false and misleading accusations about Aurora for years. We usually just make fun of it and move on. These are some of our very entertaining “Cutting Through” videos(opens in new tab) which were in response to many of these nonsensical claims. My personal favorite is the EMI Test (“Will it Blend(opens in new tab)” themed), but the one that stands out is the “VLX Setup vs Crestron’s Claim(opens in new tab)”.
Aurora continues to strive to support the A/V industry and provide solutions to the problems we hear from end users, consultants and integrators. We take that ground floor approach, as we want to solve problems, not make them. Aurora’s intent of the email newsletter was to call out a solution to a known problem in the industry and to show the differences in our product vs Crestron’s to assist when making a decision to make a change.
We strongly believe in partnerships, not just with our dealers but everyone. At the end of the day, if the project prevails everyone wins. Thank you all for your continued support and Aurora will continue to make state of the art products and enlighten you.
