Too Many Remote Controls?
By Mark Fielder President of Domus Technologies

These days, not only do we take remote controls for granted, we have a love/hate relationship with them. As we add more equipment to our entertainment systems (Plasma, DVD, CD changer, surround receiver, TIVO, Xbox, etc.) we collect more and more remote controls. Figuring out which remote does what you want to do becomes a challenge, assuming you can find the right remote.

This problem is so common that many of us have tried a “Universal Remote”, a single remote that replaces all of the individual ones. The funny thing is we still aren’t satisfied. Although we now have only one remote, it still isn’t easy to use.

The Mother In-Law Test What do you want from the perfect remote control? Imagine having your mother in-law visit to baby sit the kids. Without lessons on how to do it, she picks up your remote and turns on everything needed for them to watch a DVD. When the children need a break, she pauses the movie. No frustration. One remote.

How can you achieve this nirvana? Why don’t those universal remote controls work the way you want? There are really three reasons: control modes, macros, and “state”. They all rely on each other to make the universal remote idea work correctly.
Control Modes: Typical universal remotes have a button that changes the mode of the remote so it can only control one component at a time. For example, you change to the TV Mode to turn the TV “on” and “change inputs”, you change to DVD Mode to make the DVD “play”, you change to the A/V Receiver Mode to control the “volume”, and now you’re frustrated!

The ideal remote control is smart enough to know which component is needed for each action. When you push the DVD button, the DVD, TV, and Receiver will all turn on, and the “Play” button will play the DVD, not the VCR, and “Volume Up” will turn up the volume on the A/V Receiver not the TV. It is almost like the remote control is reading your mind and knows which component to control and when.

Macros: With most universal remote controls you have the ability to program them to send out a string of commands turning on each piece of equipment. However, you need to keep pointing that remote until the string of commands is finished. If you put the remote down too fast, your equipment fails to start, and now you’re frustrated!

The ideal remote control sends a single, short command. This way, once the button is pressed, the remote can be set down. To make this happen, the remote must talk to a Home Controller that interprets this button press and sends out commands to the appropriate A/V components.

State: The key for the “Control Mode” and “Macros” to work is that something has to know which piece of equipment is on and which is off. Imagine if your universal remote tries to turn on your TV, but your TV is already on. The TV turns off, and now you’re frustrated!

There are two ways around this problem. First, make sure all of your components have discrete commands. This means there is a separate “power on” and “power off” command. Not all A/V components have discrete power commands. The real solution is to know the “state” of each individual component. A Home Controller is the brain that knows which component is on or off.

Ideal remote control: So what is the ideal remote control? The solution is a remote control talking to a Home Controller. The Home Controller listens for remote control signals, determines what commands need to be sent, and sends them. Combining a remote with a Home Controller can bring back the joy of having a simple remote control. Done right, there is no need to have a pile of remote controls, just one remote talking to a Home Controller. It works. In fact, it passes the Mother In-Law test.

By Mark Fielder President of Domus Technologies Mark@DomusTechnologies.com www.DomusTechnologies.com 775-337-1219 See us at the Truckee Home & Building Show