Back in September, Oliver Hall MD, was invited over to Crestron Masters in Florida, USA to do a workshop as part of his Diamond Certification. For those of you who aren't familiar with the Crestron accreditation scheme for their programmers ... this is a big deal!
Crestron pride themselves on their certified programmer program which is held in high respect in the industry due to the rigorous training, extensive experience, and stringent testing required before achieving "Crestron Certified" status. Once a programmer has achieved this status, they get invited to the exclusive and specialised “Masters Classes” which are held once a year in Europe and America and usual comprise of three days of training courses. These classes help programmers stay up to date with the latest that Crestron have to offer in both software and hardware. It also gives them the opportunity to network and share knowledge with like-minded programmers.
Once a programmer has attended three annual Masters Classes they can apply for their Silver designation, which is only issued upon passing an exam. To elevate to Gold status, a further three annual Master Classes must be attended followed by an additional exam. The next level, Platinum, is achieved by attending an additional three annual Masters Classes and a final exam. The final exam is a significant undertaking, taking up to three months to complete, delving into every aspect of Crestron’s technology. It can then be a nail biting few months while you wait for the submission to be rigorously evaluated.
Once Platinum level is achieved you then progress to the highest level possible ... Diamond where you are required to deliver a workshop to the delegates at Crestron Masters. Oliver worked with Toine C. Leerentveld (Sr. Group Product Manager, Control Solutions for Crestron) and Andrew Mossberg (Director, HumaneInterface) to deliver Test Driven Development and from all accounts it was very well received. AS well respected colleagues of Oliver, I asked Toine and Andrew what they thought of him. Toine says "I don't have to tell anyone that Oliver is an excellent Crestron programmer; the fact that he's a Diamond-certified Crestron programmer proves it. However, after knowing him for many years as a customer, he's proven that he's much more than that: a software architect, an XML advocate, a fervent TDD evangelist, and incredibly smart and funny. Most importantly, I'm happy to say that Oliver has become a true friend!" While Andrew commented "Not since the days of yore has there been a programmer who has burst upon the battlefield as well-prepared as Ollie Hall. His enemies fled in terror as he wielded his presentation of TDD which quickly turned the tides, foes into friends and rose him upon their shoulders to the lofty diamond throne at Masters 2022."
Just to put this in context, this puts Oliver amongst 28 CMCP-D programmers globally. Two (one of whom is Oliver) are in the UK, three in Canada, and the remainder in the USA. For us, as a Crestron provider, this is another of the elements that set Crestron apart from their competitors. Their technical institute is far beyond what other AV providers do – it means that programmers working on their systems are qualified and kept up to date with latest innovations. So when we install a system, you have the confidence that you are getting the best advice and programming possible.
