TOA Works with Control Concepts to Make Their New AM-CF1 Control System Ready

In August of 2019 TOA Electronics, a professional audio product manufacturer, reached out to Control Concepts about a new audio collaboration product, the AM-CF1, they were soon to be launching to provide the most comfortable and natural web conferencing experience in huddle rooms and small to medium conference rooms. In addition to providing a high quality and practical audio solution, TOA Electronics wanted to ensure that their AM-CF1 was integration-friendly. With clients looking to pair their solution with third-party control, TOA Electronics hired Control Concepts to create Crestron, Extron, and AMX modules and drivers that would provide ease of implementation for programmers. Instead of needing to interpret and interface with a robust API, the availability of proven control modules reduces the effort and increases the efficiency of control system programming leading to enhanced product adoption.

TOA Electronics has a long history of providing professional audio gear with sophisticated control capabilities. Dan Shore, Engineering Manager of TOA Electronics (TOA’s USA division) says, “giving our customers the ability to interface with third party control systems is critical to the acceptance of these systems in our market. When the time came to launch a new product that required writing interfaces for several platforms, we interviewed several companies, including companies in Japan.  We were very impressed with Control Concepts approach to our projects, as well as the communication between the entire Control Concepts team, and the results have lived up to our expectations.”

Over the course of a couple of months senior developers David Glassman, Adam Hanson, and Jonathan Brenner worked together with TOA Electronics engineers to create a scope of work – including outlining the requirements and mapping out the game plan to efficiently and effectively provide a solution that met the perceived needs. The second phase of production was the development and implementation. Using the framework the team had built together the Control Concepts team was able to deliver and demonstrate the modules and drivers for approval from TOA.

The result? A collection of modules and drivers (Crestron, Extron, and AMX) for the TOA Electronics AM-CF1 that perform consistently and present the operation of the product in a manner that is intended by TOA Electronics and expected by their clients. Through the availability of modules and drivers, control system integration that had the potential to take an expert programmer a week’s worth of work, is now reduced to a few minutes of effort for a programmer of any skill level. Shauna Gordon, Jr. Marketing Manager at TOA Electronics, says “these modules help to improve the overall client experience, by simplifying the interface creation process for programmers – ultimately, refining installation time. The pre-developed interface of your choice, allows a wide audience of all technical levels, to easily leverage the power of our product – where only a select few could have previously done so before!” To see more of the TOA Electronics AM-CF1 and the Crestron, Extron, and AMX modules, check out the video below: