Getting your workplace technology installed can be a challenge, but once it’s up and running providing ongoing support to your users can be an even bigger struggle. We talk to dozens of technology managers  weekly, and one issue that consistently comes up is the need to scale their support teams to support dozens to thousands of meeting spaces, many of which are in remote locations.

Tier 1 helpdesk support is on the front line of supporting frustrated users, and having to walk a user through procedures to remedy the problem themselves or spending time sending a physical person to a room is both wearisome and time-consuming.

To fix this, Crestron built Remote Control for Crestron XiO Cloud™ Service allowing your helpdesk team to view and control a touchscreen from anywhere in the world. 

What is Remote Control?

Remote Control is a direct screen mirror of what the user in the room is seeing on their Crestron touchscreen. That means whatever the user sees, your helpdesk team can see. Of course, viewing the screen alone can be helpful but it’s not enough, so the screen can also be fully controlled from the Crestron XiO Cloud interface – including the buttons on the side. Now if a user needs help starting a meeting or selecting the right source, you can do it for them so they can get their meeting started ASAP.

It doesn’t matter what is running on the screen – it could be your own custom user interface, it could be Microsoft Teams® or Zoom™ software, or it could be one of our scheduling partners – if it can be displayed on the touchscreen, it can be seen in Crestron XiO Cloud.

Powerful and privacy oriented

We know that when using technology like this, making sure your end users are comfortable is just as important as being able to help them. Because of that, we make sure that there’s never a chance that your end user’s screen could be watched without them being aware. Whenever a screen is being viewed in Crestron XiO Cloud, the in-room touchscreen displays a message in the upper right corner that the screen is being viewed – think of it like the green light next to your webcam telling you when it’s being used. Only users given the appropriate privileges in Crestron XIO cloud can use the functionality and to track the behavior, every time remote control is used – whether that’s viewing or controlling a screen - the timestamps are stored in the Crestron XiO Cloud activity logs. It’s power for your helpdesk balanced with peace of mind for your users.

Go further

The Remote Control feature enables your helpdesk team to go beyond break/fix responses. They can provide “white glove” service to users by starting their meetings or setting up their rooms for them. Your team can also deploy systems remotely by be able to virtually “be there” in front of the screen to see and enter the right information – like sign-in on Flex systems or pairing codes on scheduling applications.

Setup and Requirements

Remote control is available for the TSW-560, TSW-760, TSW-1060, TSS-7, and TSS-10 touchscreens as well as the Flex B-series and C-Series. As long as the touchscreen is on firmware 2.006.0063.001 or above, it can be viewed and controlled remotely from Crestron XiO Cloud. This firmware is included in Flex firmware 1.00.16.715b. Before anybody can use the remote control functionality, a Global Administrator in Crestron XiO Cloud needs to enable it for the account in the Account Settings tab.

Only users with Tech level of access to a group or above are able to use the remote control feature.

Making technology work for you