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Glossary

The terms these pages and the app use, in plain words. Where a term had another name in earlier versions, the entry gives the old name once, so you can match an older screen or document to these pages.

The product​

Centro System Manager for Crestron​

Centro's management of a site's locations, running on a Crestron processor on site. The name is always written in full. Called System Manager, Centro Box or the box in earlier versions.

Processor​

A Crestron control processor. Centro System Manager for Crestron runs on one, and one running copy of it is "the processor" or "this processor": This processor on the System page is the one you're signed in to. You sign in with the processor's own usernames and passwords. Called this box in earlier versions.

Local processor​

A processor in a location, or one that serves locations: the Crestron Home or Crestron Custom processor that controls them and connects to Centro System Manager for Crestron. Called a room processor in earlier versions.

Slot​

One of the numbered program slots on a processor. The program is loaded into one slot. A licence is activated for a processor and a slot together, so moving the program to another slot needs the licence moved too.

Program (.cpz)​

The file that holds Centro System Manager for Crestron, in Crestron's program format. You load it into a slot to install the product, and load a newer one to upgrade it.

Setup​

Getting a site ready. Until it has been set up, Centro System Manager for Crestron opens a step-by-step wizard when an administrator first signs in: the site's name, the processor's clock, then six steps — licence, network and certificate, Crestron groups, locations, email and backup. The wizard never blocks you: every screen has a way forward, and Finish later leaves it.

Afterwards the same six steps are a checklist under Settings → Deployment → Setup. Everything works throughout, and a Setup incomplete banner shows to administrators until the steps are complete.

Demo mode​

A switch under Settings → Settings → General that replaces the real locations with 100 demo locations, for showing the product to someone without showing a real site. The real locations are hidden, not changed. Demo mode shows stays whatever the Stays switch says.

Locations and connections​

Location​

One place that Centro System Manager for Crestron controls, such as a bedroom, an apartment or an office. Each location has a name and can have a reference, a group and tags. Called a room in earlier versions. Two uses of the old word remain: the state "make up room", and "Crestron Home room", for the place as Crestron Home itself names it.

Group​

One name shared by several locations, typically a floor. A location has one group, or none. The site dashboard filters and groups by it, schedules and QR code prints can go to a group, and locations that share a group are shown together as a suite.

Tag​

A free label of your own on a location. A location can have several. The site dashboard filters by tags and its search finds them, and a schedule can go to every location with a tag. A tag isn't a group: the two are separate features, set in separate fields on the location. See Locations.

Connection​

Anything that calls in to Centro System Manager for Crestron, with the location it serves and whether it's trusted. A location's Crestron system connects through the Crestron Home driver or the Centro module, and that connection carries the location's state and commands. A touch screen is a connection too. Settings → System → Connections lists them, and the System page shows their health. Called a connector in earlier versions.

Crestron Home driver​

The Centro driver that runs on a Crestron Home processor and connects its Crestron Home rooms. It can be installed for you in one click, or you can load it by hand. The app also calls it "the Centro driver". In the Crestron Home setup app its model name is Centro Room Connector.

Crestron Custom​

A Crestron program written for a site, as distinct from Crestron Home. It connects through the Centro module. Called a custom Crestron program in earlier versions.

Centro module​

The part of a Crestron Custom program that calls in to Centro System Manager for Crestron.

Discovered devices​

The Crestron processors and touch screens found on the processor's network, in one table with a row for each device. Adopting one adds it to the System and Connections pages. Nothing is changed on the device.

Manual devices​

A Crestron processor or touch screen added by its IP address, under Settings → Deployment → Manual devices, because discovery can't find it — on another subnet, for example. It's then adopted like a discovered device, and its row on Discovered devices is tagged Added by hand.

Touch screen​

A Crestron touch screen in a location. It can be set up to show its location's controls and its Touch screen code. Called a Touchpanel or touch panel in earlier versions.

Standby​

Crestron's name for a touch screen whose display has switched off after its standby timeout. It's still on the network and wakes when someone touches it, but doesn't report to the processor meanwhile. A touch screen in standby shows Standby, not Offline, and raises no offline alert.

Signed in​

A badge on a touch screen or local processor: Centro System Manager for Crestron has signed in to it with its service account. It comes after Adopted and before Provisioned. Called Authenticated in earlier versions.

People and access​

Administrator​

Someone who signs in and can change settings as well as control locations. People sign in with their Crestron processor accounts, and Settings → Access → Administrators maps the processor's groups to the two roles, Administrator and Manager. The role was labelled Admin in earlier versions.

Manager​

Someone who signs in to watch and control locations, and changes no settings. What a Manager may do is set under Settings → Settings → General, and for stays under Settings → Settings → Stays. The Manager role isn't the Manager Licence. The role was labelled User in earlier versions.

User​

The person in the location, and nobody else: someone who controls their own location from the User App or a touch screen. A user never signs in to the admin app. Called a guest in earlier versions.

Service account​

A username and password that Centro System Manager for Crestron itself uses to sign in to another system, such as a Crestron Home processor it installs the driver on. People don't sign in with it.

Processor certificate​

The certificate shown to your browser. By default the processor makes its own, so each computer, tablet and phone warns once until you trust it. A site with its own certificate authority can use its own certificate instead. Inside the certificate, and on a phone that installs it, the name is still Centro Box Local CA.

API key​

What another system — a property management system, an integration or an AI assistant — signs in to the processor with. A key is made on Settings → Access → API keys, shown once, and can be edited, regenerated, revoked or deleted. What the key may do decides what it reaches: Read only, Read and control or permissions chosen one by one. A key never reaches settings or administration. An API key is incoming; a service account is outgoing. See API keys.

MCP endpoint​

The address on the processor that an AI assistant uses, through the Model Context Protocol (MCP), to read and control locations with an API key. It needs the API Licence, like every other use of a key.

User App access​

User App​

The page a user opens on their own phone to control their location. There's no app to install. It needs a User App Licence. Called the guest web app in earlier versions.

User App QR code​

The code a user scans to open the User App for their location. There are three kinds:

  • Fixed code — always the same, for a card left in the location. Called the Permanent code in earlier versions.
  • Session code — a new code every time it's printed, for check-in. The previous user's code stops working. Called the New-guest code in earlier versions.
  • Touch screen code — shown on the location's touch screen and changed every few minutes, so only someone in the location can scan it.

Stays​

Stay​

Who is staying in a location and when: the person's name, the arrival and departure dates, and whether they're checked in. A location shows its current stay and the next arrival. A stay's state is shown as Booked, Pre check-in, Checked in, Pre check-out or No current stay. See Stays.

Stays​

The feature, the switch that turns it on under Settings → Settings → General, and the settings page under Settings → Settings. Stays are off on a new processor. They're part of the Manager Licence and need no licence of their own. See Stays settings.

Stay source​

Where a site's stays come from, ticked under Where stays come from on Settings → Settings → Stays: Staff (entered by hand in the admin app), Stay API (sent by a property management system through its middleware) and Centro cloud (sent from the property management system Centro cloud is linked to, set up by LCD). A stay belongs to the source that sent it, and that source holds the location until the stay is checked out.

Property management system (PMS)​

The system a hotel or residence uses for its reservations. It can send its stays to the processor through the stay API, and be told the housekeeping status and the user's requests in return.

Stay API​

The part of the processor's API that a property management system's middleware calls, with an API key, to send reservations, check-ins and check-outs and to read what has changed.

Housekeeping status​

Whether a location is Clean, Dirty or In progress. Staff set it on the location's page, and the site's stay rules can set it, for example Dirty at check-out. The processor keeps the status itself, with or without a connection that takes it.

Alerts and notifications​

Alert​

Something the system raises, such as a fault or an error: a location offline, storage running low, a certificate about to run out. Alerts show in the app and can be emailed. Settings → Notifications → Alert rules sets when each is raised.

Notification​

A message sent from Crestron Home or from a Crestron Custom module, such as a request from the user.

Do not disturb and make up room​

The two requests a user can make from the location. Both are written out in full.

Schedules and history​

Schedules​

The feature, and the page, that send commands to locations at set times. One of them is a schedule.

History​

What has been kept over time: the 7 days of CPU and memory readings behind the graphs on the System page, and the record of each run of a schedule.

Licensing​

Manager Licence​

The licence for the site dashboard, location control, stays, schedules and location alerts. Called the Rooms licence in earlier versions.

User App Licence​

The licence for the User App, User App QR codes and touch screens set up to show a location. Called the Guest app licence in earlier versions.

API Licence​

The licence for API keys and the MCP endpoint. It has no trial, and works only beside a Manager Licence or a User App Licence. On its own it adds no support.

Enterprise​

The edition arranged with Centro for a particular customer.

Licence key​

The key that activates a licence on one processor. A key is tied to the processor's MAC address and slot, and keeps working on every release. To move a key to another processor or slot, contact LCD support. Support is included with each Manager Licence and User App Licence.

Maintenance​

Upgrade​

Loading a newer program, from Settings → Settings → Upgrade. A restore point is taken first. The same page takes a newer Crestron Home driver or User App on its own, with nothing restarted. Nothing is ever downgraded, and the licences keep working on every release.

Backup​

An encrypted file (.cbx) holding the site's locations, schedules and settings, protected by a passphrase. Restoring one replaces everything, which is how you move a site to new hardware.

Restore point​

A backup kept on the processor. One is taken before every upgrade and restore, and you can create one before changing something by hand. To roll back to a restore point undoes everything since.

Factory reset​

Erases the site from the processor and starts again as new, from the foot of Settings → Settings → Backup and restore. Locations, connections, schedules, settings, backups kept on the processor, logs, and a driver or User App uploaded on Upgrade go. The licence and the processor's addresses and ports stay. The program restarts and the setup wizard opens at the next sign-in.

Support bundle​

The zip file you download from Settings → Settings → Logs. It holds every log file kept, with the version and licence state, and is what you send when you ask for support.

Send logs to Centro​

A switch on Settings → Settings → Logs that sends a copy of the processor's log, and the errors the admin app and the User App report, to Centro's log server over the internet, so support can see a problem without visiting the site. It's on by default. Turn it off on a site that allows no outbound traffic.