pretty much every piece of home entertainment electronics you buy these days comes with it’s own remote control, and largely we take these for granted. When the collection of equipment builds up though, you end up with a large number of remotes that are all doing a very similar job with very similar buttons, but dedicated to each piece of equipment. To overcome the problem of multiple remotes, a number of manufacturers have produced programmable remotes, and these fall into three categories:
- Multi-device remote
- Programmable system remote
- Tablet App + Interfaces
The Multi-device remote (e.g. Arcam CR100 left) is a remote control unit that can change personality to suit the equipment being controlled. typically it has a series of buttons (labelled CD, DVD, Amp, TV, Sat etc.) that choses the personality of the remote, and effectively turns it into the remote control for that device. This gets rid of the large pile of remote controls on the coffee table, but adds little else of value.
The Programmable system remote (e.g. Harmony 1100 – right)on the other hand does a whole lot more, and is typically organised around activities: For example there may be a “Watch Sat” button which contains a macro which switches the TV on, switches the satellite receiver on, switches the AV amplifier on, sets the TV to the correct HDMI input, sets the Amp to the Satellite input, and then sets the remote control controls to drive the satellite receiver, with the volume control driving the amplifier. In our opinion, this is far more useful: you don’t have to remember which inputs are used, or which pieces of equipment need to be turned on, as the remote remembers this for you, and sets everything appropriately. These devices vary in sophistication from the Logitech Harmony remotes at one end to the fully-featured System remotes such as those made by Nevo, RTI or URC at the other
The Incursion of networks and digital streaming of media into Home Entertainment has added a whole new dimension to control, as many pieces of equipment are connected to the home network, and can be controlled from this network via IP messages. Add to this the ubiquitous nature of iOS and Android tablet devices as an interface, and the possibility exists for a hugely sophisticated control system that can bring control and information to your fingertips.
There are a range of IP based control interfaces that are able to provide control of pretty much anything that can be controlled to a tablet computer, and some really great Apps that can be downloaded to provide the interface (e.g. DemoPad Control for the iPad – Above). We use the DemoPad App to provide a slick and user friendly interface to control a wide range of systems, and can customise the interface to precisely drive what we want in the way we want. It means that not only does the system perform superbly, but it is simple and easy to control too.