Crestron iPanel Brings Hard Buttons to iPad
By Julie Jacobson
If only the iPad had hard buttons, it could be a great home controller. Crestron delivers with the 13-button iPanel, which snaps over the iPad and communicates via the multipin connector.

Multitasking and hard buttons. When it comes to using the iPad as a home controller, those are the two big missing pieces.

Now Crestron is tackling the issue of hard buttons with the new iPanel, which snaps over the face of an iPad like a clam shell.

A total of 13 buttons grace the left and right sides of the iPanel: VOLUME UP/DOWN, MUTE, LIGHTS, HOME, GUIDE, INFO, EXIT, LEFT, RIGHT, UP, DOWN, SELECT.



The buttons look like the ones on Crestron’s flagship TPS-6X wireless touchpanel, and they function similarly. As for details about the iPanel, we don’t have many.

We know that power and communications occur through the the iPad’s multipin connector. The buttons tap into the iPad’s WiFi capabilities, communicating with a Crestron controller just like the TPS-6X or any other WiFi-enabled Crestron touchpanel.

But the screen does not have to be docked for the hard buttons to work. That’s because the case itself contains a multipin connector. When you dock the unit, you’re basically stacking connectors.

Click here to continue.