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Crestron Sues Big Savant Dealer
As Cyber Sound made the shift from Crestron to Savant earlier this year, president Jon Summer (right) told CE Pro: “We have Apple and we brand the heck out of it. Everyone is so sick of other automation manufacturer horror stories that it’s a breath of fresh air.”
The suit was filed on June 16 in the U.S. District Court of New Jersey, just as Crestron was filing a countersuit against competitor Savant Systems. The whole ordeal began when Savant sued Crestron last September for alleged antitrust and other violations. Crestron fired back last week with its own counterclaims, alleging that Savant interfered with contracts between Crestron and its business partners, including Cyber Sound.
Cyber Sound was at one time a $1.1 million customer of Crestron’s, but the integrator switched its high-end home control business to Savant in the past year.
Principal Jon Summer declined to comment for this article.
In its lawsuit, Crestron alleges that Cyber Sound breached its dealer agreement, which obliges the integrator to “exercise its best efforts to promote the use and sale of CRESTRON products.” (Read about "best efforts" clauses here.)
Instead, Crestron asserts, Cyber Sound used the Crestron brand to open doors, and then “flipped” several customers to Savant:
Cyber Sound’s strategy included, but was not limited to, using the popularity and brand recognition of Crestron to secure meetings with potential customers, at which point Cyber Sound would introduce Savant products and attempt to convince the customer, through misrepresentations and falsehoods, to switch to Savant.
One of those customers supposedly was Rod Cullum of Cullum Homes, a custom home builder in the area and according to Crestron “a loyal Crestron client for years.”
Allegedly, “after hearing Cyber Sound’s false and misleading statements regarding Crestron, Cullum decided to equip his newest development in Paradise Valley, consisting of thirty-two sites with homes at a starting price of over $1.5 million, with Savant systems.”
RELATED: Crestron Calls Savant Lawsuit a ‘Publicity Stunt’
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Crestron goes on to cite a number of “false and misleading statements” made by Cyber Sound employees, for example, that Crestron products were outdated and don’t work with Apple technology, and that “Crestron’s paranoia keeps them from succeeding.”
Crestron points to a particular Savant dealer conference during which Cyber Sound employees engaged in a “rant” against Crestron “intended to interfere with Crestron’s existing and prospective business relationships.”
Crestron makes other claims against Cyber Sound, including the misappropriation of trade secrets, the misuse of Crestron trademarks, and the failure to return proprietary works.
Savant is also named in the suit for the "continued coordination" of a smear campaign against Crestron, including an email sent by Cyber Sound to its customers extolling the virtues of Savant and besmirching Crestron.
Crestron claims:
Cyber Sound created this email in an effort to bolster Savant’s pending lawsuit filed against Crestron in the District of Massachusetts.
The substance and dissemination of this email—issued on May 10, 2011—reflects calculated and coordinated skullduggery. The email represents nothing more than an after-thefact attempt to create evidence to support Savant’s baseless claims that Crestron requires exclusivity in its dealer relationships.
RELATED | Savant vs. Crestron
Crestron Calls Savant Lawsuit a ‘Publicity Stunt’
Crestron Files Countersuit Against Savant Systems (6/17/2011)
Savant vs. Crestron: Inside the Legal Documents (6/3/2011)
Savant vs. Crestron: Get the Court Documents Here (6/3/2011 - CE Pro Plus)
How Cyber Sound Leverages Apple to Thrive in Down Market (4/6/2011)
Savant Lays out Claims Against Crestron in Court Documents (9/25/2010)
Savant Sues Crestron for Alleged Antitrust Violations (9/22/2010)
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Article Topics
News · Home Automation and Control · Control Systems · Legal · Savant · Crestron · Savant V Crestron · Lawsuit · Cyber Sound ·About the Author
85 Comments (displayed in order by date/time)
Crestron didn’t start with court stuff-Savant did. Seems to me that if you get punched in the nose you’ve got two choices-slink away or punch back. I think most of us were raised to punch back!
As for innovation, show me someone who has done more innovation in the AV space than Crestron? It will be interesting to see how this all pans out but I’m willing to bet that the one that started this fight was throwing stones from a glass house.
Apologies to “The Truth” for temporarily closing the latest comment, as we evaluate our policies for posting comments.
I’m confused, didn’t savant sue crestron.
So crestron is actually put on the defensive then cannot retaliate. Please explain your logic.
As far as cyber sound goes, they made a fortune of off selling crestron and bad mouthed everybody else in the process.
Imagine if a ford dealer called ford and said “hey thanks for all the years but were selling chevy now too and were going to tell everybody that ford sucks”.
The only bully in this is cyber sound who have left hundreds maybe thousands of their loyal clients with crestron systems that will need to be serviced and programmed in the years to come. I’m sure though that cyber will be happy to sell them a copy of the programming for a small fee.
Well if crestron wins in the savant case atleast cyber will have control4 to sell.
If crestron wins in the cyber case, creative sound, theater x and many other cepros= happy
We compete in Arizona and Cyber Sound has done exactly what Crestron is claiming. To save their failing builder relations due to programming and installation issues Crestron had to become the sacrificial lamb. Think about it, how easy is it to say that product A is the source of all their (Cyber) issues rather than dealing with the their own installation, programming, and operational issues…easier pill to swallow than losing face to a client or builder. Which also leaves the door open for them to go back to old clients for a swap over (Smart but very greasy) So the lamb has been killed, now they have to find a replacement control system which could have been AMX, Control 4, or anyone. Savant and the reps were willing to play the game. They worked a deal with Savant and the rep for an exclusive deal with Cyber and have been blocking any new dealers from being able to use the Savant line under the guise of production issues while continuing to bash the Crestron line (i feel bad for all Cybers old Crestron customers). Arizona dealers call the rep and try becoming a Savant dealer today…..good luck. Crestron’s real issue is the over saturation of the market with dealers.
My comment keeps being pulled. Touchy subject. Maybe i should have put “allegedly” before my comment
Truth, we just need a little time to clarify our commenting policy. Thanks for your patience.
Sorry! I should have clarified….
I do not have any sort of issues with manufacturers suing each other or defending themselves from one another. The control side of the industry is a relatively small, quirky pond that’s still finding its roots.
I take issue with Creston going after a dealer in court rather than in marketplace. There are mountains of ways to permanently correct their problem with this dealer & deal with Savant at the same time…
- Cut the dealer off
- Help bolster that dealer’s competitors while bringing them on to Crestron
- Remove said dealer from their current clients using Crestron products in their homes
- Etc. Etc.
To go the route they did is potentially going to open a Pandora’s Box all across the industry. MFGs should work for their dealers…. NOT the other way around. If they felt their company wasn’t being represented well… pull the damn line, contact their users in the area to let them know, and then warm lead their replacement dealer into those new homes while offering an incentive to the end user &/or dealer to work together. Maybe make the large developer a dealer for all anyone would care.
To me, that would be simply done and with class. Meanwhile Cyber is left to find a new whale to sell in to. That can be a tougher thing to deal with in this economy than any court room.
Sorry for the book!
I am totally against a manufacturer suing a dealer over that dealers opinion about their product.
Even if that dealer is stupid enough to think that Savant is similar or lol better than Crestron. I get it.. some dealers are done selling current technology. They just want to make big sales and hang and bang their way thru life.
I would be REALLY careful with any dealer agreements in the future, thats for sure!
Yeah.. this is scary for sure.
This is really starting to stink of desperation on Crestron’s Part..they always are a deal of the day company but now this is looking pretty desperate. Management must be pretty paranoid, with good reason with Ipads, cheaper automation solutions etc. Crestron has seen their best day in residential i would guess. If they were public i’d be short selling.
Crestron is giving savant a taste of their own medicine and you call that desperate? How do you feel about savant and the coincidental timing of their whine suit against cresteon?
Crestron is done! For those of us who have delt with Crestron and now have the pleasure of dealing with Savant it’s obvious. It is no easy task for a company like Cyber to switch control systems so do the math. Savant is light years ahead of Crestron. Crestron is in panic mode and showing there true colors. Since when is ok to sue somebody because they don’t want to sell your inferior product?
“Savant is light years ahead of Crestron”
I almost fell out of my chair laughing at that one! The funny thing is Savant wouldn’t even make a silly statement like that. They might infer that they have a similar competitive offering but not even Bob Madonna thinks he is light years (or even light days) ahead of Crestron. You truly must know nothing of this industry to even begin to think that is the case.
Savant started the courtroom nonsense(on the eve of CEDIA 2010 nonetheless…. uh pulicity stunt maybe?)and Crestron simply responded. End of story.
Wow! Sounds like a company (Crestron), who previously had next to null in serious competitors, has absolutely NO clue or idea on how to actually compete against one or two.
This makes Crestron look incompetent, pathetic, petty, and ill-equipped to offer something better in the market place besides “We’re Crestron”. Maybe that worked through the 90’s & early 2000’s. Unfortunately for them, the game of competition is a fierce one.
It’s always a fun show to watch a bully react to getting punched in the mouth. Instead of working at being better in their market space by marketing, pricing, innovation, dealer relationships, etc. they’ve chosen to sit & cry in court.
Crestron = Monster to me at this point.
PS: I didn’t put my real email in-case they decide to sue. ;P