Audio Command Systems
Audio Command Systems
STREAMLINING CRESTRON SYSTEMS FOR ONE OF THE LARGEST INTEGRATORS IN THE NATION
In business since 1976, ACS has always been predominantly a Crestron dealer, and as such, their residential Crestron programming skills are consistently top-notch. That didn’t stop ACS from considering alternative approaches to their programming process, so when Co-Chief Technology Officer Michael Grady heard about ADAPT in June 2016, he decided to see how this software could benefit ACS.
41
Years in Business
100
Employees
4
Locations Nationwide
ABOUT ACS
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Before ADAPT
Michael Grady and ADAPT creator Troy Morgan met to discuss the state of Crestron programming. During that discussion, Troy was able to share his vision for a better way to program Crestron systems.
“We both had very similar ideas about where the state of programming was and where it should be, and what people were currently calling ‘home automation’. As an industry, we’d focused on remote controls for a bunch of systems rather than actually automating homes and making them easier to live in. Once I saw the capabilities and amount of control available from the ADAPT software, I knew the game had changed.”
- Michael Grady, Co-Chief Technology Officer at ACSWith Adapt
SOFTWARE THAT BENEFITS THE WHOLE COMPANY
“What Troy and his team did was create a beautiful front end that made it so that someone besides a programmer could make the most common changes that get requested. Reordering a room, Renaming something from office to den, changing the way the interface looked - all the tiny changes that used to require a phone call to the programmer can now be done by my technicians with ease. It’s empowering the rest of my team so that my programmers can focus on what they do best.”
- Michael Grady, Co-Chief Technology Officer at ACS
Faster Back-End Customizations
The area where ACS found significant time savings was actually after the initial project completion. When clients would call and ask for small changes to their systems, ACS now had a way to make those changes almost instantly, dropping their support time by 50-60 percent.
“Almost all of the support requests for system changes are now just a checkbox or name change away. It has been fantastic, and because of all the feature sets are there, it’s a matter of what we unlock and make visible to our clients. We normally try to provide a simple, easy to use system, then in cases where we have clients that want to do everything, we can press a button and reveal it all instantly.”
- Michael Grady, Co-Chief Technology Officer at ACS
Support that ACS Can Count On
What ACS values most about the ADAPT software is the full support that comes with it. From the initial training through ongoing support, the team at PanTech Design is one phone call away for any Crestron project using ADAPT.
“I feel like we have a real team behind us. We call up PanTech Design and say ‘hey, my client needs XYZ, and PanTech is able to deliver that first-class experience in no time. The user interface and ease of programming is fantastic, but it’s the support they provide behind the scenes that I love the most. One of the most important things to me is that we do business with people who support us, and PanTech’s support has been second to none. You call and you get a human on the phone right away.”
- Michael Grady, Co-Chief Technology Officer at ACSUpgrades to Existing Systems
Occasionally, existing ACS clients will want to upgrade their older Crestron systems. In these cases, Grady has heard firsthand the difference that ADAPT makes on the client side. The clients prefer the look and user-friendliness of the ADAPT systems.
“The response from clients who had our previous systems, which were working very well, and upgraded to ADAPT has been very positive. They’re pleased with the new systems, which is great to hear.”
– Michael Grady, Co-Chief Technology Officer at ACS