Summary: At InfoComm 2026, NCS visited Crestron to explore the technology behind the transformation of Spotify Camp Nou, home of FC Barcelona. From an intelligent eight-camera boardroom powered by Automate VX and Collab Compute to flexible DM NAX audio throughout the Pitch Club, Crestron is bringing content, collaboration, and control together to help the stadium transition from 22 match days to a year-round destination for meetings, hospitality, corporate events, and more.
At InfoComm, NCS stopped by Crestron to see how the company is putting its theme of “engineering a culture of collaboration” into practice by bringing content, collaboration, and control together across connected spaces.
For this stop on our InfoComm Booth Tour & Interview Series, Brad Hintze, EVP of Global Success and Marketing at Crestron, walked us through one of the company’s most ambitious projects: the technology-fueled transformation of Spotify Camp Nou and Espai Barça, home of FC Barcelona.
The project demonstrates what can happen when audiovisual technology is designed not around a single use case, but around how a space may need to change throughout the day, throughout an event, and throughout the year.
For FC Barcelona, that means creating an unforgettable experience on match day while giving the stadium the flexibility to become something entirely different when there is no match taking place.
From 22 Match Days to a Year-Round Destination
Spotify Camp Nou may be known first as the home of FC Barcelona, but the vision behind Espai Barça extends far beyond football.
Throughout the stadium, Crestron technology is being deployed across more than 200 spaces. Those environments have different purposes and different requirements, but the underlying goal is consistent: make each space flexible enough to support multiple experiences while keeping the technology simple to operate.
Crestron describes the transformation as moving from 22 match days to 365 revenue days, with spaces capable of shifting from game-day environments to conferences, tours, community events, press engagements, corporate gatherings, and other uses.
That ability to repurpose space is important for a venue of this scale. A premium hospitality area that creates energy before a match may need to become a corporate presentation space the following morning. A boardroom may need to support high-level meetings with participants joining from around the world. Other spaces may need to transition between entertainment, collaboration, presentations, and special events.
Instead of building separate technology environments for each scenario, Crestron is creating a common foundation built around content, collaboration, and control.
Intelligent Collaboration in the Spotify Camp Nou Boardroom
One of the marquee spaces Brad highlighted was the boardroom, where many of the important decisions surrounding FC Barcelona, the league, and Espai Barça can take place.
For a room with that level of visibility, a standard camera at the front of the room would not deliver the experience users expect.
The boardroom instead uses an eight-camera system driven by Crestron’s Automate VX Multi-Camera Speaker Tracking Solution.
Automate VX uses intelligent speaker tracking and camera framing to determine which participant should be shown during a meeting. Rather than requiring someone to manually manage camera views, the system can automatically follow the conversation and provide remote participants with a more natural perspective of what is happening inside the room.
With eight cameras positioned around the space, the system can frame the appropriate speaker while still providing views that help remote participants understand the conversation and interactions taking place around the table.
At the center of the collaboration experience is the new Crestron Collab Compute.
Collab Compute is Crestron’s UC engine for modern meeting spaces, providing the computing foundation for Microsoft Teams Rooms or Zoom Rooms environments. It is designed to connect with professional cameras, audio systems, displays, and room controls, allowing organizations to build a collaboration environment around the requirements of the room rather than being limited to a fixed configuration.
In the Spotify Camp Nou boardroom, Collab Compute and Automate VX work together to create a more intelligent video experience suited for a large, high-profile meeting environment.
Networked Audio Designed for the Meeting
Audio in the boardroom is also built around a networked architecture.
The system uses the new DM NAX Intelligent Audio Processor (DM-NAX-AP-100) along with Crestron Saros DM NAX PoE in-ceiling speakers.
The DM-NAX-AP-100 serves as the audio-processing hub, bringing conferencing audio onto the network and working with compatible microphones and speakers as part of the room system.
Using networked, PoE-powered audio components can also simplify how devices are deployed and managed. Instead of treating every audio component as an isolated piece of equipment, the system becomes part of the broader network environment.
For a venue with technology spread throughout hundreds of spaces, that approach becomes especially valuable. IT and AV teams need visibility into system performance without physically checking every device whenever there is a question or issue.
The result is sophisticated technology behind the scenes with a much simpler experience for the people actually using the room.
DM NAX Brings Flexible Audio to the Pitch Club
The next stop on the tour was one of Spotify Camp Nou’s most distinctive hospitality environments: the Pitch Club.
On match days, the Pitch Club is designed to create an experience that guests are unlikely to forget. Large two-way mirrors provide views of the players as they make their way toward the pitch, while video, music, live feeds, and other content contribute to the atmosphere throughout the space.
Audio is a major part of creating that experience.
The Pitch Club uses Crestron DM NAX Audio-over-IP technology to distribute audio throughout the environment. Because audio is available across the network, the team has much more flexibility in determining what plays, where it plays, and how the experience changes for a particular event.
One match day may call for a live DJ. Another may use a curated playlist or another audio source. Different areas can be configured around the experience FC Barcelona wants to create instead of being locked into a single audio configuration.
Crestron’s DM NAX platform is designed to bring audio sources, processing, amplification, and speakers together across an IP network, making it easier to scale and reconfigure audio throughout complex environments.
Giving Guests Control with Bluetooth Audio
Brad also demonstrated an interesting example of how that flexibility can extend all the way to the guest.
In one of the hospitality suites, Crestron uses the DM-NAX-BTIO-100-1G Bluetooth Audio-over-IP Wall Plate.
The device allows a guest to connect a Bluetooth-enabled device and bring their own audio onto the DM NAX network.
For a hospitality environment, that creates another level of personalization. Instead of every event having to use the same centrally selected audio source, a suite or designated space can be given control over its own experience.
The technology remains connected to the larger Crestron ecosystem, but the interaction for the guest can be as familiar as pairing a phone and selecting a playlist.
Turning the Pitch Club into a Corporate Event Space
The technology becomes even more interesting once the match is over.
On a non-match day, the same Pitch Club can transition from a premium sports hospitality environment into a corporate event or collaboration space.
Instead of live match feeds and entertainment, displays can present PowerPoint presentations, corporate branding, event content, or other media. The space can also support collaboration calls when remote participants need to join the event.
The audio environment can change with it.
What was a high-energy music system on match day can become presentation or conferencing audio for a corporate gathering without requiring the venue to rebuild the room around an entirely different AV system.
That is the larger idea behind Crestron’s approach to Spotify Camp Nou: the technology adapts to the space instead of limiting what the space can become.
Making Complex Technology Easier to Operate
Flexibility alone would not be enough if every change required a large technical crew.
One of the priorities Brad highlighted was giving FC Barcelona powerful capabilities without creating an environment that is difficult to use or support.
A room may contain advanced video processing, networked audio, multiple displays, collaboration technology, control systems, and several different content sources, but those systems need to work together as one environment.
Crestron’s centralized approach allows spaces to be configured for different events while reducing the amount of manual intervention required from the technology team.
Crestron’s broader Spotify Camp Nou deployment illustrates the scale of that challenge. The stadium incorporates more than 2,000 networked devices managed through the XiO Cloud platform, along with more than 1,000 Crestron speakers and centralized control technology.
For venue operators, the goal is not simply adding more technology. It is making a large technology ecosystem easier to monitor, manage, and use.
Content, Collaboration, and Control Working Together
Spotify Camp Nou is an unusually large example, but the principles behind the project apply to many of the environments organizations are building today.
Conference rooms need to support both in-person and remote participants. Training rooms may need to move between instruction, presentations, and collaboration. Hospitality spaces may host clients one day and company meetings the next. Multipurpose rooms are expected to adapt to completely different audiences and activities.
Crestron’s work at Espai Barça shows how a common technology platform can support those changing requirements.
Content can be routed where it is needed. Collaboration systems can connect people inside and outside the room. Audio can change by event, zone, or user. Control brings those systems together so people do not need to understand every component operating behind the scenes.
For Spotify Camp Nou, that flexibility is helping turn one of the world’s most recognizable sports venues into a destination designed to deliver experiences throughout the entire year.
Looking at ways to create more flexible conference rooms, hospitality spaces, training environments, or other connected AV spaces? Contact NCS to discuss an audiovisual solution designed around the way your space needs to work.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What is Crestron Automate VX?
Crestron Automate VX is a multi-camera speaker tracking solution designed for larger and more sophisticated collaboration spaces. The system automatically determines which cameras and views should be used as people speak, creating a more natural experience for remote meeting participants without requiring someone to manually operate the cameras.
At Spotify Camp Nou, Automate VX helps power an eight-camera system in the boardroom.
What is Crestron Collab Compute?
Crestron Collab Compute is a UC computing platform designed to serve as the foundation for modern collaboration spaces. It supports Microsoft Teams Rooms and Zoom Rooms configurations and can connect with professional cameras, displays, audio systems, touch screens, and other room technology.
For organizations, that provides more flexibility to design collaboration systems around the size and requirements of the room.
What is Crestron DM NAX?
DM NAX is Crestron’s Audio-over-IP platform for distributing and managing audio across a network. It can connect audio sources, processors, amplifiers, speakers, and edge devices so audio can be routed between different rooms and zones.
At Spotify Camp Nou, DM NAX helps support environments such as the Pitch Club, where the audio experience can change between live match days, hospitality events, corporate gatherings, presentations, and other uses.
