In my office, there was a bit of discussion about this. Extron's president has made a point of publicly stating what he doesn't like hearing and putting it out for anyone to make their own judgement on, but doing so from the Extron website with his rebuttal as the main reading point.
If this is the only picture that is presented, then you better believe that the competitor is going to look foolish.
This is also not the first bit of venom spit out by Extron towards Crestron in the last year. Extron was very happy to point out that Crestron's 'new' 12x8 RGB switchers, which were priced the same as Extron's were by no means at the same level in quality as the Extron product. Crestron didn't send them an email, but this came pretty much entirely unprovoked from Extron. Crestron responded by completely removing all Extron interface modules from their website and getting rid of Extron as an Integrated Partner.
The crossover between Crestron's, AMX's, and now Extron's technologies is going to happen, but it is sad to see the venom that is going on between the companies. AMX seems to have avoided this, but I imagine they may have some discussions that they choose not to air so publicly themselves.
I don't think this has anything to do with the product being 'free'. On a massive installation (25+ rooms I believe) is the only time that Crestron charges a fee, and it's something like $1,000 flat - which may easily be less than .2% of the contract. A freebie for many installers who may want the job.
But, the fact that Crestron and AMX come up with some of these ideas, which may otherwise not be out in the market at all, and then use their specific designs to promote and sell their specific industry product is definitely intellectual property which may be devalued, or take business away from one another and the legal system really is the only way to decide if wrongdoing has actually occurred.
I wish it didn't happen, and I think there is enough business out there for everyone to do very well, but there's no doubt, that if Extron continues to complain about the competition doing things, then the competition isn't going to sit on it's butt and allow them to be made fools of, and will continue to play hardball right back.
I think the letter is a poor decision by Crestron, but the Extron ridiculing it so publicly may prove to be a very poor decision on their part as the courts don't guarantee them to be in 'the right' on this. Crestron did not seem to be sending a 'cease and desist' order, but a simple letter addressing concerns. I think that Monster goes after anyone for any reason, at any time... This little spat is almost exclusively between two (very much) rival companies, so this is a long way off from the bully vs. mom & pop stuff we see from Monster.
