Extron hasn’t had a complete answer to either Crestron’s DMPS-300 Series or AMX’s Enova line — until today! Extron hasn’t officially announced it, but I found the DTP CrossPoint 84 Series on the company’s website and immediately called Casey Hall, Extron’s vice president of sales and marketing. Although the official announcement isn’t until Thursday, it’s real.

When I asked Casey to comment on this switcher being positioned against the Crestron and AMX models, he wouldn’t mention them by name, but did say this: “It’s an 8×4 matrix with built-in scaling that blows away anything currently on the market.” Well, let’s look at it:

The DTP CrossPoint 84 is housed only in a 2U rack-mount enclosure but, like the DMPS and Enova, is billed as a complete AV system in one box: an 8×4 matrix switcher (two DTP inputs and six HDMI inputs, plus two HDMI outputs and two independently scaled DTP outputs) that has 4K inputs and outputs, two built-in independent scalers, integrated DTP and XTP transmitters and receivers, a mono or stereo 100-watt amp with an integrated audio DSP. And, it’s HDBaseT-capable (even though Extron doesn’t specifically say HDBaseT, I confirmed it was) so signals can output up to 330 feet (100 meters) over a single CATx cable.

With this, I think the company’s one-upped Crestron and AMX. Here’s why: First, as the DTP CrossPoint 84 has integrated DTP and XTP transmitters AND receivers. The second advantage is obvious — it’s 4K capable. The third may not seem like a big deal, but integrators will agree that it being only 2U high, is an advantage.

From what I have seen, the DTP CrossPoint 84 is the AV industry’s first digital media switcher that includes a 4K matrix. The DTP twisted pair inputs and outputs are compatible with any of Extron’s digital twisted pair transmitters and receivers and, of course, can also be used to connect to any display with an HDBaseT input (e.g., Christie, Panasonic, Epson, Barco, etc) or tie into a centralized, facility-wide XTP System to add local room-based AV systems.

Extron told me that that each scaler is paired to one of the two DTP outputs and because everything can be scaled, you get virtually instantaneous switching. Also, they’re configured with Extron EDID Minder, Key Minder and SpeedSwitch.

Extron labels its DSP as “professional-grade.” Apparently, it has the exact same 64-bit ProDSP as the DMP 128 digital matrix processors and that means that integrators can customize system designs and mixes including a configurable EQ, filters, dynamics and matrix mixing options. Casey told me that if a large number of microphones or speaker destinations are needed, the DTP CrossPoint 84 has a unique digital audio expansion port links the internal DSP to a DMP 128 for additional inputs and outputs, or to add AEC to a conferencing system. Or, the DTP CrossPoint 84 can be linked into a DMP 128 on a Dante network. In addition, there’s a built-in mono or stereo 100-watt amplifier that’s the exact same one as their ENERGY STAR qualified XTRA Series.

Extron says it will be available in May. Here are all the detailed specs.