From Crestron’s 50-year legacy to its latest breakthroughs in intelligent video and wireless collaboration, Brad reveals how Crestron is helping enterprises, universities, and government agencies scale content, collaboration, and control across their environments.
Crestron has been at the heart of workplace technology for decades—but what does its future look like in an era defined by hybrid work, AI, and global scale? Brad Hintze joins Kieran Devlin for an in-depth discussion on how Crestron is evolving its solutions, culture, and partnerships to meet the needs of today’s enterprise customers.
Watch now to hear:
- How Crestron’s culture of passion and innovation shapes product development and customer engagement.
- Why solutions like AirMedia, AutomateVX, 1Beyond, and NVX are leading the way in wireless collaboration, intelligent video, and AV-over-IP.
- How Crestron empowers partners and customers with its “true blue” go-to-market strategy, FlexCare support, and hands-on training.
- What trends are dominating customer conversations today, from AI adoption to refresh cycles and scaling hybrid collaboration.
Interview Transcript
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not accurately reflect the conversation. Please view the video for the original.
Kieran Devlin
Hello and welcome to UC Today. My name is Kieran Devlin, and today’s session is the big UC update for Crestron. I’m delighted to be joined by Brad Hintze, VP of Global Marketing at Crestron. Brad, thanks for joining us.
Brad Hintze
Hey Kieran, great to see you.
Kieran Devlin
Let’s dive in. Before we get into Crestron, could you share a little about your professional background?
Brad Hintze
Sure. My career started in a few software startups, really focused on technology and marketing. One of the first was a software company building rich web applications—early Web 2.0—around the time Google Maps first let you click and drag inside a browser. That was exciting and introduced me to the idea of integrating technologies to create new possibilities.
From there, I joined another startup focused on web mashups, which was a lot of fun, and eventually moved into the professional integration space—Pro AV, UC, and IT—starting in SmartHome and then on to Crestron, where I now focus on commercial technology. My career has always centered on marketing and go-to-market strategy in the tech space.
Kieran Devlin
Terrific. And in your current role at Crestron, what aspects are you most passionate about?
Brad Hintze
I really enjoy product launches—messaging, positioning, and helping customers understand the outcomes a product can deliver. We often say every product should feel like a superpower for the person using it, so I love helping customers envision that.
I’m also passionate about training and being hands-on with our partners and customers. For example, next week I’ll be out meeting channel partners, and just this morning I was preparing presentations for some customer events. So for me, it’s messaging, positioning, and direct engagement with the people who use our technology.
Kieran Devlin
You’ve touched on it already, but what does a typical day—or maybe week—look like for you?
Brad Hintze
It’s definitely more of a week than a day. I spend time in executive meetings discussing trends, successes, and challenges across the company. I work with my team on campaigns and projects, collaborate with sales leadership on strategy, and stay close to the product teams as they develop what we bring to market.
Alongside that internal work, I’m also meeting with customers, press, and partners—conversations like this one. So it’s a mix of strategy, execution, and external engagement.
Kieran Devlin
Great. Let’s talk Crestron itself. How would you describe the company in a nutshell—your elevator pitch?
Brad Hintze
That’s always a challenge, because Crestron does so much. But ultimately, we develop leading technologies for content, collaboration, and control. Every organization needs to share information, connect people—whether in person or remote—and make spaces easy to use. That’s exactly what Crestron enables through technologies for distribution, collaboration, and control.
Kieran Devlin
That was concise and informative—I’d give it a 9.5 out of 10. Could you expand on Crestron’s history, global presence, and scale?
Brad Hintze
Crestron’s been around for more than 50 years, starting in New Jersey. In the early days, it was a range of engineering products, but we quickly focused on control—making technology simple to use. From things like remote controls for slide projectors, to centralizing VCRs for universities, the theme was always enabling easier access to technology.
From there, we moved into content distribution and video conferencing, investing heavily in solutions like digital media, HDMI switching, room scheduling touchscreens, and now intelligent video. Over the decades we’ve built a broad portfolio of collaboration and control technologies.
Today we’re truly global, with strong roots in New Jersey but centers of excellence in Dallas, Belgium, Australia, and Singapore, plus engineering resources in places like Portland. We combine a global footprint with local representation across many regions.
Kieran Devlin
Terrific. One of my favourite questions now—what’s unique about Crestron’s culture?
Brad Hintze
What struck me immediately is the passion. People here really care about what we do. When you live with the technology you sell, you feel a closer connection to it. I see it across teams—manufacturing, finance, engineering—everyone has that energy.
That stems from our founder, George Feldstein. He was brilliant, passionate, and put everything into building this company. That energy still pervades Crestron today.
Kieran Devlin
You mentioned enjoying the go-to-market side of your role. How does Crestron approach the market, and what can you tell us about your partner ecosystem?
Brad Hintze
We’ve expanded our approach over the years. We never sell directly—we always go through our integrator channel. Some integrators are very AV-centric, some focus on IT and AV together, but all play a key role.
Our strategy revolves around enabling content, collaboration, and control through those partners. We invest heavily in channel enablement—training, content, and tools. We also invest in field resources—sales and technical experts—who can go onsite with partners and customers to ensure success. We call this our “True Blue” commitment, and it’s a core part of our go-to-market model.
Kieran Devlin
Fantastic. Who would you say is the typical end customer buying through those partners?
Brad Hintze
Many are enterprise customers, including a significant portion of the Fortune 100 and 250. They value durability, ease of use, and scalability across meeting rooms.
Education is another big segment—major universities and colleges focused on enhancing the student and faculty experience. We also work extensively with government because of the security profile and reliability of our products.
And while less relevant to your audience, we also see Crestron technology in high-end residential projects.
Kieran Devlin
Let’s talk products. If you had to highlight the key technologies most relevant today, what would they be?
Brad Hintze
AirMedia is one—our wireless presentation and conferencing solution. It’s plug-and-play, secure, doesn’t require software or Wi-Fi, and makes sharing content effortless.
Another is our Automate VX and One Beyond multi-camera system. It uses visual AI to intelligently frame speakers and create a more engaging video experience. We’re continuing to advance that with AI to make deployment even simpler.
And of course, our control platform—an open ecosystem that integrates with leading technologies and offers a simple, consistent user experience. Our new design software lets customers create branded, beautiful HTML-powered interfaces with drag-and-drop ease.
Lastly, NVX—our AV-over-IP platform. We’ve shipped over a million units, more than any competitor. Customers love its scalability, security, and reliability, especially as demand for screens and content distribution grows.
Kieran Devlin
Excellent. How do you handle implementation and ongoing customer success after deployment?
Brad Hintze
That’s where our integrator relationships are key. They invest in great teams, training, and systems to deliver successful implementations.
Beyond that, we support with services like FlexCare, which provides frontline support for UC and Flex products. It complements the integrator’s services, ensuring customers always have reliable support and uptime.
Kieran Devlin
What topics are currently dominating your conversations with customers and partners?
Brad Hintze
AI is the big one. Customers are experimenting and asking how to think about it in the context of infrastructure. We believe our open ecosystem and APIs, plus integration with AI services like Microsoft Copilot and Zoom, put us in a strong position.
Another topic is refresh cycles. Five years post-pandemic, people are still defining the future of work. Hybrid is here to stay, so customers are asking: do we upgrade entire rooms, or just certain components? That ties into broader conversations about enabling a true culture of collaboration.
It’s a unique moment—people no longer need convincing about collaboration; they have strong opinions on how they want to do it. We can now sit at the table as partners, helping shape their culture of collaboration.
Kieran Devlin
That leads nicely into my next question. How does Crestron approach innovation—gathering feedback and generating new ideas?
Brad Hintze
A core value for us is “informed by partnership.” We work closely with both customers and integrators to gather insights. Our product and engineering teams are constantly out in the field listening, and we feed that directly into our roadmaps.
It’s an iterative process. A great example is when Microsoft approached us about putting scheduling panels outside conference rooms. We adapted our touchscreens for that need, and now it’s a thriving product line. Innovation for us is always a back-and-forth dialogue with the market.
Kieran Devlin
One final question. Looking beyond AI—because that’s the obvious answer—what do you see as the biggest opportunity in our industry right now?
Brad Hintze
I think the biggest opportunity is the convergence of content, collaboration, and control. Every space needs to let people share, connect, and use technology easily. We’ve historically solved that in ad hoc ways, but the real opportunity is scaling it—from five rooms to hundreds or thousands.
That requires leveraging our expertise in integration and delivering it consistently across entire organizations. It’s about showing customers how technology can shape culture and make them more effective. That’s a huge opportunity for our industry.
Kieran Devlin
Well said. Scaling from the smart office to the smart building—and potentially to global ecosystems of buildings—is an exciting vision, and it doesn’t feel far off.
Brad Hintze
Exactly. We’re closer than people think.
Kieran Devlin
Brad, thank you—it’s been a really enjoyable conversation.
Brad Hintze
Thank you, Kieran.
Kieran Devlin
And if you enjoyed this video, please give us a like and share on social media. We’ll see you next time. I’m Kieran Devlin with UC Today—thanks for watching.
