Crestron Home Favorites Extension

While the MMS integrates tightly with Crestron Home’s Media Player interface, there is no way to directly select MMS favorites without navigating several layers of menus. To complement that integration, there is an extension driver available from Control Programming.

Installation

On Crestron Home Version 3.008.0079 or Later, the driver will automatically appear as an addable device in the Pair Devices section of the Crestron Home configuration app.

Select Drivers
Select Media Player
Select Autonomic
Add the Favorites driver to each room where direct Favorites should be available and for each MMS player.
Configure the driver by entering the IP address and MMS player in the appropriate fields
1. The MMSPlayer name is configured on the System Tab of the MMS config page. By default, they are Player_A, Player_B, ect. Spaces must be replaced with underscores.
If the MMS is configured with a username and password for Control access, enter those credentials.
You can select where you want the Favorites Tile to be displayed, in the Room Page, Home Page, or both. If you are just using the extension for Quick Action functionality, it is not necessary to display the tile at all.

If necessary, the Favorites Extention can be manually loaded onto the processor in a number of ways.

Use the Side Loader from CPLLC
Use a SFTP browser to upload the pkg to the /user/ThirdPartyDrivers/Import/ folder

Installation Notes

You will need to add a copy of the extension for each room and player you wish to have the Favorites Tile available for.
It is also possible to configure the extension to apply to multiple rooms and appear on the Home Screen. This will be discussed further in a later section.
If using this extension solely for quick actions, you will only require one extension instance per MMS Player.

Best Practices for Configuring the Favorites Tile in Each Room

Without any further configuration, the favorites tile will recall favorites and playlists on the MMS, but it will not turn the room on or route the audio unless an Event Trigger is configured. Once configured, this will also simplify Quick Action programming.

To configure an appropriate Event Trigger, follow the steps below:

In the Crestron Home configuration app, select the Actions & Events button
Select a Room in which the favorites tile is displayed
Select the Favorite Tile from the list
Select “Selected”
Choose Media Function from the mode dropdown
Select the Same Room you choose in step 2
Select any of the Services from the same MMS for which the Favorites Tile is configured for
Repeat this process for each copy of the extension in each room

Best Practices for Configuring a Whole House Favorites Tile

A Favorites Tile can be added to the Whole House page and can be configured to automatically playback content in a preconfigured set of rooms.

To configure this, perform the following steps:

Add a copy of the Favorites extension to any room, select the “Show in Home Screen” option, and deselect the “Show on Room Screen” option
On the bottom of the screen, select the Actions & Events button
Select the room in which the Favorite Extension is located in the system (from step 1).
Select the Favorites Extension from the list
Select “Favorite Selected” or “Playlist Selected”
1. This configuration should be repeated for both options.
Choose Sequence from the mode dropdown
Select one of the rooms that should turn on when a Whole House Favorite is selected
Select Media Operations then Select Route
Choose any of the MMS Sources that match the MMS which is configured for the Whole House Favorites extension instance (the specific service that is chosen does not matter)
Repeat steps 7-9 for each room you want to be included in the Whole House Favorites group. The final setup should look something like the below image.

Creating a Quick Action to Play Content in one or more Rooms

Using the driver is as simple as selecting favorites from the driver’s submenu in the Quick Actions screen. If there are questions about how to add a favorite, visit https://autonomic.atlassian.net/l/c/iTfyhDkw. To get started, visit the Actions & Events section of the Crestron Home configuration app.

Select the room into which the Quick Action is to be added. For easy, global access put Quick Actions into the Whole House room
Select Quick Actions
Add a new Quick Action by pressing the + button or edit an existing Quick Action by selecting it from the list.
The Quick Action should be of type Sequence. Select that type from the Mode dropdown.
Select the room to which the action should be applied.
The order of operations is entirely up to the programmer and the homeowner but it is suggested to follow this order to avoid erroneous content being heard.
1. Select the favorite
2. Select the source in the room(s) you wish to play in
After selecting the room, select the Favorites submenu
Select the target favorite or playlist from the submenu
Navigate back to the root of the target room’s menu
Select Media Operations
Select Route
From the dropdown in the popup, select the appropriate provider from the appropriate MMS output. While the provider will be automatically reverted back to whatever the content is such that it doesn’t really matter which provider is selected, it’s important that the provider is from the same MMS output as is configured in the Favorites driver in the target room.
Visit the Crestron Home app to see the Quick Action button appear as configured.

Autonomic Support