Most New York offices should pick the conferencing platform (Microsoft Teams Rooms or Zoom Rooms) based on which service the company already licenses for daily chat and calling, since Crestron Flex certified hardware runs either software natively on the same room-size tiers. The hardware decision — which Flex kit fits a given room — matters more than the platform argument, because Crestron builds its huddle, medium, large, and custom room kits to support both Microsoft Teams Rooms and Zoom Rooms software on the same chassis options. The remaining decisions are room size, scheduling panel integration, and whether Lutron lighting and shade scenes tie into the same touch panel.
Microsoft Teams Rooms or Zoom Rooms: does the hardware actually differ?
Largely no. Crestron's current Flex lineup is organized by room size and seat count rather than by conferencing platform. According to Crestron's own documentation, a huddle space seating up to four people can run either "Microsoft Teams Rooms" or "Zoom Rooms software" on the same UC-B30, UC-B31, UC-BX30, or UC-BX31 series hardware, and the same pattern holds for medium rooms (UC-M50, UC-MX50, UC-B70 series, up to eight people) and large rooms (UC-M70, UC-MX70, UC-B70 series, up to ten people) — see Overview. Custom meeting rooms of any size use the UC-C100 or UC-CX100 integrator kit series under either platform as well.
That means the real decision an office makes is not "which hardware is better for Zoom versus Teams" — it's which conferencing software the company's IT department already standardizes on for licensing, identity, and calendar integration. If your organization runs Microsoft 365 and Teams for daily collaboration, a Teams Rooms system keeps calendar invites and one-touch join consistent with what staff already use. If the company is on Zoom, the equivalent Flex hardware runs Zoom Rooms software instead.
How does room size map to a Crestron Flex hardware tier?
Crestron's documentation divides Flex solutions into five categories: private space/desktop (single person), huddle space (up to four), medium meeting room (up to eight), large meeting room (up to ten), and custom meeting room (any size), each with its own hardware series — see Overview. A large-room example is the UC-B70-A-T, which pairs a 10-inch tabletop touch screen with the Crestron Videobar 70 — a quad-camera, 24-microphone all-in-one bar built for medium-to-large rooms — according to Crestron's UC-B70-A-T product page. That product page also notes the system supports up to two video displays and ships with a PoE injector, which is a planning detail worth confirming against your room's display count before ordering.
For a fully custom front-of-room build — matching your own cameras, speakers, and displays rather than a packaged videobar — Crestron's UC-C100 series integrator kit is the relevant hardware family. Crestron's discontinued UC-C100-T is listed as an earlier-generation custom-room integrator kit for Microsoft Teams Rooms on Crestron's own catalog page, which flags it directly: "Discontinued." A new office fit-out should ask its integrator which current custom-room kit replaces it rather than specifying the retired model.
Every Flex certified kit also enrolls in Crestron's XiO Cloud service, which the manufacturer describes as an IoT cloud-based provisioning service that lets installers and IT managers deploy and manage many devices, push system alerts, and pair control devices to the room's UC engine. That's a meaningful difference from BYOD or consumer conferencing bars, which generally don't give an IT team the same centralized fleet view across every conference room on a floor.
What do door-side scheduling panels add, and how do they fit a Teams or Zoom decision?
Crestron's touch screen line ships with a long list of preinstalled room-scheduling applications that can be selected at setup, including a native Microsoft Teams Scheduling Panels application and a combined Zoom Rooms conferencing control and Zoom room scheduling application, alongside third-party options like Robin, EMS Software, and Teem — according to Crestron's Application Selection documentation. The touch screen runs only one app at a time, selected during setup, so the scheduling panel choice should match whichever calendar and room-booking system the office already standardizes on — and that choice is generally independent of whether the room itself runs Teams Rooms or Zoom Rooms for the actual call.
How does Lutron lighting and shade control layer onto the same touch panel?
Crestron's own Flex documentation notes that these room solutions let a user start a meeting with one touch and "control room lighting, shades, thermostats, and other equipment with the same control device," but it adds an important caveat: room control capability requires additional equipment and commissioning provided by a Crestron authorized integrator or programmer, with additional costs likely — see Overview. In practice, that means lighting and shade scenes don't arrive bundled with a Flex kit out of the box; they're a separate design and programming scope layered on top.
Where the lighting system is Lutron rather than Crestron's own, Crestron documents a defined integration path: a Lutron HomeWorks QS, HomeWorks QSX, RadioRA 2, or RadioRA 3 system can be paired with a Crestron control processor, discovered on the local network, and imported so that Lutron areas, scenes, lights, shades, and fans appear as native Crestron rooms and scenes — according to Crestron's Lutron integration documentation. That same documentation notes that both processors need to sit on the same network and switch to discover each other, and that only one Lutron system can be paired to a given Crestron processor — both are useful constraints to raise with your integrator during design, before conference room wiring and the rack are finalized.
For offices evaluating lighting control separately from the AV platform decision, Cave Group's commercial page outlines how Lutron and Crestron lighting control is specified for lobbies, offices, and conference rooms as its own scope.
What should an integrator document and hand over after commissioning?
Whichever platform a room runs, ask your integrator to confirm, in writing, which current (non-discontinued) Flex hardware series was installed, how the room is enrolled in XiO Cloud for remote monitoring and firmware management, which scheduling application is configured on the touch panel and why, and — if lighting is in scope — how the Lutron system was paired to the Crestron processor and which areas and scenes were imported. These are reasonable documentation requests for any commercial AV handover, not just a Teams-versus-Zoom decision.
Frequently asked questions
Does Crestron Flex hardware differ between Microsoft Teams Rooms and Zoom Rooms?
Largely no. Crestron organizes its Flex lineup by room size — huddle, medium, large, and custom — and the same hardware series within each tier is offered for both Microsoft Teams Rooms and Zoom Rooms software, so the platform choice mainly comes down to which service your office already licenses.
What does a large Crestron Flex room kit like the UC-B70-A-T include?
The UC-B70-A-T pairs a 10-inch tabletop touch screen with the Crestron Videobar 70, an all-in-one unit with a quad-camera setup and a 24-microphone array, and supports up to two video displays; it is built for medium-to-large rooms running Microsoft Teams Rooms.
Is the UC-C100-T a good choice for a new custom conference room build?
No. Crestron's own catalog lists the UC-C100-T Microsoft Teams Rooms integrator kit as discontinued, so it should be treated as an earlier-generation product. A new installation should use the current custom-room kit your Crestron integrator recommends instead.
Can a door-side scheduling panel run Zoom and the room itself run something else?
The scheduling application on a Crestron touch screen is selected separately from the room's conferencing software, and Crestron's touch screens ship with both a Microsoft Teams Scheduling Panels app and a combined Zoom Rooms control and scheduling app available, so the scheduling panel choice should follow your calendar/booking system rather than the in-room conferencing platform.
Does adding Lutron lighting control to a conference room cost extra on top of the Flex kit?
Yes. Crestron's documentation is explicit that room control of lighting, shades, and thermostats from the same touch panel requires additional equipment and commissioning from a Crestron authorized integrator, which is scoped and quoted separately from the base Flex conferencing kit.