Universal Remote Control Expanding Into Whole-House Control at CEDIA
While much of the custom market is heading to CEDIA Expo this month with iPad apps to integrate with the Apple ecosystem, Universal Remote Control is shifting gears and launching its Total Control whole-house control system with 14 new products. The IP-based system is said to manage lighting control, energy monitoring through the TED 5000 (The Energy Detective), multiple zones of audio and networked surveillance cameras, regardless of protocol.
According to URC marketing director Jon Sienkiewicz, Apple’s incursion into control apps wasn’t the impetus for the company’s change of direction. Total Control has been in the lab for the past 18 months, he said. “Our older remote control system was reaching a dead end,” he told us. “Everything is moving toward some type of network connectivity, and in order for us to stay abreast of that and be able to jump onto the network and still provide support for legacy products, we felt it was important to go to a controller-based system.” In making a major commitment to the networking technology, he said, “We think IP-based networking will be with us for a very long time.”
Total Control offloads the smarts of a remote control from the handheld device to a whole-house controller called the MRX-10, a rack-mountable unit that provides two-way communication to remotes and keypads. The MRX-10 stores and issues commands and macros for all IP, IR, RS-232, relay and sensor-controlled devices in one system, Sienkiewicz said. Remote controls and keypads throughout the house send signals that trigger macros stored in the controller, he said, saying the centralized system allows more flexibility for installers and enables them to program multiple remotes at one time. In the past, changing a step in a macro involved programming each remote separately, Sienkiewicz said. A simple change could involve a tedious process when dealing with 10 or 15 individual remotes in a large home. “With the new system, installers make the change once and the MRX-10 will reprogram all the remotes automatically,” he said.
The MS780, a new Total Control RF remote, is the company’s first to use an OLED screen, which provides sharp detail and energy efficiency, Sienkiewicz said. The MS 780 runs on double AA batteries and “should last in excess of 6 months,” he said. The Total Control multi-zone amplifier sets itself apart with CD-quality audio, he said. “As it streams to multiple zones, it doesn’t compress the audio, offering full CD quality,” he said. Sending uncompressed audio risks bandwidth limitations where the audio tries to take over the home network, he said, but the company used filtering and smart power-over-Ethernet switches that serve as traffic managers in the system. The new line also includes a streaming network player that delivers Sirius XM, Internet radio, Pandora and Rhapsody, he said. The company is also launching three IP cameras and an iPod dock.
URC is also leveraging the technology to applications outside of the home. Sienkiewicz noted that the new hard-button in-wall keypad has two sets of buttons for music and lighting in residential installations but can be easily adapted to the education market. Buttons used for lighting and audio functions can be labeled projector up or down or podium mic for the education market, he said.