Controlling shades from ShowRunnerCLC™ is a paid feature that can be purchased either with the initial ShowRunnerCLC™ order or added after-the-fact as an additional charge. When shades control or integration is ordered for ShowRunnerCLC™, it is vital to ensure that the BOM includes any required hardware is also ordered.

Crestron Shade Controllers

Crestron shades are included in all ShowRunnerCLC™ orders, but hardware will not be fully defined in the configuration unless the required information is provided prior to configuration shipment. If the required information cannot be provided with the original order, it is recommended to order SR-SDC for additional after-order Crestron shades support.

ShowRunnerCLC™ provides native support for most Crestron shade controllers as well as integration with shades controlled from third-party Crestron processors via Ethernet Inter-Systems Communication (EISC). If integration with a Crestron shades controller or system that is not detailed below is required, reach out to Chief Integrations directly to see about potentially adding support to ShowRunnerCLC™.

Supported Hardware

ShowRunnerCLC™ includes support for the following Crestron shade controllers:

• C2N-SDC and C2N-SDC-DC
• CSC Series Controllers (discontinued)
• CSA-PWS10S-HUB-ENET (controlling QMT-series motors)
• DIN-2MC2
• Ethernet Inter-System Communications (Crestron-to-Crestron)

For any integrations over Ethernet, the lighting network must be configured such that the lighting control processor running ShowRunnerCLC™ can communicate with all required hardware.

Information Required

In order to fully define shades in the ShowRunnerCLC™ configuration, the following information must be provided by the Agent. Incomplete information will result in incomplete hardware definitions in the shipped ShowRunnerCLC™ configuration.

Non-EISC shades:

• (Required) Quantity of shade controllers
• (Required) Quantity and location of each shade motor to be controlled
  • For all controllers, we must know which shade motor (i.e. window and room) is connected to each output
  • For systems with multiple CSA-PSW10S-HUB-ENET, we must know which HUB is the Cresnet primary

EISC shades:

• (Required) Type of EISC integration (TCP or UDP)
• (Required) IP Address and IP-ID for the non-ShowRunnerCLC™ processor
• (Required) Joins to be used for shade control and feedback (see table below; not all features are required for all integrations)

Third-Party Shade Integrations

ShowRunnerCLC™ supports integrating with a wide range of common shade control manufacturers, but this integration is not included in basic ShowRunnerCLC™ orders and requires the SR-SDN additional feature. If integration with a shades manufacturer or system that is not detailed below is required, reach out to Chief Integrations directly to see about potentially adding support to ShowRunnerCLC™.

Common Integration Methods

While most third-party shade controllers have proprietary integration protocols specific to each manufacturer and model, there are common industry standards which dictate the wiring and hardware requirements to integrate third-party shades with ShowRunnerCLC™:

• Contact closure (Relays)
  • Shades are controlled by ShowRunnerCLC™-controlled contact closure relays
  • Typically requires two relays per shade motor or collection of shade motors to be controlled (one relay for "open" and one relay for "close")
  • No standard specified length limitation for wiring (individual shade manufacturers may specify cabling and distance limitations)
  • Relay control can be susceptible to voltage drop or EMF interference: it is highly recommended to locate the Crestron controlled relay as close as possible to the shades interface being controlled
• Serial RS-232
  • Shades are controlled by a ShowRunnerCLC™-controlled serial communications port through wiring which adheres to RS-232 specification
  • 50' maximum distance per specification
  • Point-to-point communication mandates a one-to-one relationship of Crestron RS-232 interfaces to shade RS-232 interfaces (i.e. there must be one RS-232 port available on the Crestron system for every RS-232 shade interface; depending on the shades design, a single shades interface may control many shades so it may be possible that a system with many shades only requires one RS-232 connection to the Crestron system)
• Serial RS-485
  • Shades are controlled by a ShowRunnerCLC™-controlled serial communications port through wiring which adheres to RS-485 specification
  • 4000' maximum distance per specification (individual shades manufacturers may specify lower cabling and distance limitations, and real-world conditions may reduce the actual maximum distance that can be achieved before system performance is noticeably impacted)
  • Multidrop communications allows for daisy-chain and star wiring topologies, up to 32 devices per Crestron RS-485 interface (shades manufacturers may specify lower device counts)
• TCP/IP communication (including HTTP/HTTPS, TelNet, etc.)
  • Shades are controlled by ShowRunnerCLC™ through the LAN port using standard Ethernet cabling and TCP/IP  communications protocols   
  • ShowRunnerCLC™ processor and shades interface must be able to communicate with each other, typically requiring either that the shades interface and lighting processor are  located on the same LAN/VLAN or that the building IT be involved to ensure that communications are possible between the two systems
  • Standard Ethernet wiring limitations apply

Below is a non-exhaustive table showing which pieces of Crestron hardware have interfaces for each kind of integration (all processors are capable of TCP/IP integration provided the network has been configured correctly):

Contact Closure (Relays)

ShowRunnerCLC™ can use output relays on Crestron hardware to control shades provided that the shades controller is capable of accepting a contact closure input for third-party control of the shades. All contact closure shade integrations are assumed to use two relays per shade zone with standard outputs as follows:

• Open: close relay 1
• Close: close relay 2
• Stop: close both relays simultaneously

Shade motors must be wired accordingly by the EC or the shades contractor (Chief Integrations technicians do not touch wiring). If the shades interfaces cannot be controlled this way, contact Chief Integrations to see about possibilities for support for shade controls using either a single relay or three or more relays per zone.

Hardware Requirements

• Crestron devices with output relays must be specified (refer to the above table for commonly specified hardware)
• Two Crestron output relays must be available for each zone of shades to be controlled
  • Depending on the shade hardware and the job requirements, it may be possible to combine multiple shades to be controlled together onto a single pair of Crestron relays
• It is recommended that shade interfaces be installed as close as possible to the Crestron relays controlling them to prevent issues from voltage drop or EMF interference in the wiring between the relay and the shade interface

Information Requirements

• (Required) Quantity and location of Crestron devices to be used for contact closure shade control
• (Required) Quantity and locations of shade zones to be controlled
• (Required) Information associating each shade zone with a relay pair
  • If C2N-IO or other in-field relay modules are being used, then we must know which shade(s) in which room(s) are controlled by each C2N-IO
  • If a processor or other in-panel modules are being used, then we must know which shade(s) in which room(s) are controlled by relays 1 & 2, which are controlled by relays 3 & 4, etc. for each module

Draper IntelliFlex I/O A\V Gateway

RS-232 or RS-485 integration supported

Lutron Sivoia QS (Quantum)

RS-232 or TelNet integration supported

MechoNet Network Interface (MNI)

Mecho Shade's MechoNet Network Interface (MNI) allows integrating control of MechoNet hardware with third-party systems such as ShowRunnerCLC™ through a variety of different means. ShowRunnerCLC™ currently only supports using RS-232 or contact closure integrations: reach out to Chief Integrations for pricing if RS-485 or IR integrations are required.

Hardware Requirements

Refer to the above table for general hardware compatibility. MNI-specific details are below depending on how shades are being integrated:

• For RS-232 integration:
  • One RS-232 port on the ShowRunnerCLC™ system must be available for each MNI to be integrated
  • Depending on how the MechoNet system is designed, it may be possible to control many shades through a single RS-232 integration provided that any additional MNI and controlled MechoNet hardware are networked together and configured on the MechoNet side
• For contact closure integration:
  • Contact closure integration utilizes the MNI switch input ports: it is not possible to use contact closure integration if Mecho switches are installed to control the shades
  • Two relays must be available for each Mecho motor to be controlled (it is possible to control multiple Mecho motors from a single relay pair provided that the MNI switch ports are wired in parallel)
• For RS-485 or IR integration, reach out to Chief Integrations for potentially adding these integrations

Information Requirements

Specific information requirements depend on which method of integration is required:

• (Required) Specify whether integration is being done through RS-232 or contact closures
• For RS-232 integration:
  • (Required) MechoNet devices must be addressed so that it is possible to control them per the SOO using their Zone, Group, Node addresses
    • MechoNet devices are assigned three-part Zone, Group, Node addresses similar to an IPv4 address with 3 parts instead of 4
    • e.g. a ZGN address of 128.151.253 represents a device in zone 128, group 151, and node 253
  • (Required) ZGN addresses must be provided for all shades to be controlled
  • (Required) location for each shade to be controlled so that they can be assigned to the correct areas in ShowRunnerCLC™
• For contact closure integration:
  • (Required) all information specified in the general contact closure section above
  • (Required) indicate which Crestron relays correspond to each motor on each MNI, and which shades are controlled by each motor

Mecho SolarTrac4

Only BACnet integration supported

Nice DMBM

Only RS-232 integration supported

Somfy Digital Network (SDN)

SDN RS-485

SDN PoE Gateway

SDN UAI+

Somfy URTSI II

RS-232 or RS-485 integration supported