Crestron imposes $500 "Lutron tax"

http://www.cepro.com/article/crestro...on_integration

Just an FYI if you plan on integrating your system with Crestron. They are going to start charging a $500 license fee for any system that uses Lutron or Vantage for lighting instead of their built in lighting system which from what I've seen is not at all impressive. I guess if you can't convince people that your product is better, you have to punish them lol. I'm glad that Lutron and the other lighting system function perfectly whether they are integrated or not and customers can use their own methods of integration even if they want, but I will be sure and discourage my customers from using Crestron and if they nudge them to other systems.

Think this is just the start of Crestrons plans. I wouldn't be surprised if they do the same for other third party products that they make competing versions of....its a slippery slope! I've just bumped Crestron from a project I've been working on specifying in Australia. It having Lutron and its now having AMX as I'm concerned that by the time it comes to installation, Crestron will impose more of the same, Prefer AMX anyway!

Well right now they are only imposing it on Vantage lighting systems and Lutron. Their company line is that they want to recoup the support hours they spend troubleshooting systems linked to Vantage and Lutron but it's a flawed reason given that they are supposed to be the system that works with everything and have to help out their dealers whether it's with lighting or a set of swimming pool LED lights.

I have to say though that I think it's just as bad that Lutron also charges a Lutron tax on itself when people upgrade from illuminations to QS. There seems to be very little technical difference between the older wired keypads (as judged by the tiny link exchanger that just seems to slow down the signal) and yet they charge over $1000 for a "license fee" that will be passed on to a loyal Lutron customer who either wants to or is forced to upgrade to a new QS system. This is also a strong arm tactic to sqeeze out an extra $1300 as punishment for not buying new keypads. Lutron is the only company I know that does. If I was Crestron's PR firm, I would channel that 1980's anti-drug commercial and justify their $500 Lutron tax by saying "I LEARNED IT FROM YOU LUTRON! I LEARNED IT FROM YOU!".

So how does this actually work? Do they blacklist Lutrons MAC addresses or exactly how do they prevent your code from communicating with a Lutron proc?

Im not an AV guy but from what I've read in the crestron forums, that's probably how they do it or it could be more sophisticated to prevent workarounds.

So how does this actually work? Do they blacklist Lutrons MAC addresses or exactly how do they prevent your code from communicating with a Lutron proc?

Hi Duncan, I work for the Australian distributer of Lutron. Please feel free to reach out to me if you need any help specifying for Australia, Ironically we used to distribute Crestron and Control4 so I'm very familiar with most 3rd party control systems.

Dominic Libertone, dom@c-t.com.au

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Originally Posted by Duncan Ellis

Think this is just the start of Crestrons plans. I wouldn't be surprised if they do the same for other third party products that they make competing versions of....its a slippery slope! I've just bumped Crestron from a project I've been working on specifying in Australia. It having Lutron and its now having AMX as I'm concerned that by the time it comes to installation, Crestron will impose more of the same, Prefer AMX anyway!

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Hi Domonic. I'll probably take you up on it as I need to find a couple of good Lutron contractors to take part in the bid for the job. A lot of the AV guys just want to spec Crestron lighting, but I've insisted on Lutron. I'll give you a shout later in the week. Thanks Duncan