Wireless Connectivity

The Future of Controllers for Home Systems

Written by Anonymous on 12:17 AM

People like having a single, simple all-in-one remote control instead of the fleet of individual handsets cluttering up their coffee table, particularly if they can customise it to suit their own system and needs. There’s a range of such units around to suit your client’s budget and particular requirements, from GBP5.00 three-device replacement TV controllers, to GBP100,000 bespoke home control systems with fingerprint recognition and automated gun turrets.

Back in the day...

Times have changed for control system manufacturers. Many of the companies now involved in home control systems, such as AMX and Crestron, started life building equipment to control tape/slide presentations (remember tape? slides?) that involved mechanical or relay-driven control. Some equipment had proprietary wired control interfaces, and infrared came later. The first touchscreens I sold were GBP4000 monochrome Crestron units the size of a shoebox and weighing slightly less than my car. They were infrared only, and they were fantastic. They made a real difference to the home cinema owners who used them, and these clients thought they were good value. See? A good remote control makes all the difference!

Control today

Does this matter? Sure. People need reassurance and their expectations managed. For example, when you check into your hotel, and you push the button for the lift, and the button doesn’t light up, you don’t know if the lift is broken, or if the light is broken. A lack of feedback causes stress.

Of course there are devices from companies such as Xantech, Niles and others, to get around some of this, and manage the issues of infrared. That’s not the same however, as it being guaranteeable and reliable. We’re all aware that CI customers are demanding. There’s an inverse proportionality between wealth and patience. They need stuff to work, and to 'know' that it is working. This means that most CI companies prefer to use wired control connections such as RS232 (wired serial control) and radio-frequency interfaces that don’t have to worry about line-of-sight, and offer possibilities for two-way communications for proper feedback. Great. As well as AMX, Crestron, Control4 and the like, companies such as Philips, RTI, Universal Electronics, Universal Remote and many others offer capable RF remote controls, with an interface box that handles the variety of IR, RS232, etc and contact closure commands to and from the devices. So far so good.



It isn’t as simple as that

The problem until recently was that things hadn’t really moved on. Wired serial control, such as RS232 was common in commercial products such as plasma displays, but not in consumer electronic music and television systems. Furthermore, outside the world of AV, most equipment used proprietary control - whether for lighting, temperature control equipment, security systems, gates and shutters or datacomms. Custom installers like you or I couldn’t 'get into' such systems to control them from a unified remote control.

As well as this, there were a couple of other issues. The first was that the remote control units themselves were by no means simple to program and, even supposing you did the training, and could make them work, you couldn’t always make them look the part. I’ve been in this industry for about 20 years and I have certainly seen some dog's dinners. I made some of them myself years ago. You know how you wander past family restaurants on a foreign holiday and you look at the typographical offences that pass for their illustrated menus? 'Steak, chips and beans'. Four words. Four typefaces. Four font sizes. Some heinous clip art. Different colours, randomly selected, with a bit of drop shadow for effect. It makes me shudder. Desk-top publishing has a lot to answer for. If I ruled the world you would only be able to use Helvetica until you’d passed some design proficiency test. Anyway, why the rant? Pretty much all the remote programming tools out there allow you to make things look how you want. And it means that those companies who don’t have the graphic design and programming skills in-house often give their customers an expensive, ugly, all-in-one remote control that is more confusing than the plethora of handsets it replaced. That isn’t good.

Secondly, much of the kit we use is changing. A good part of it, such as flatpanel displays or DVD players, is getting commoditised. RS232 control interfaces are expensive. They’re inflexible, and only reliable when the controller is within a few metres of the device in question. Moreover much of the newer entertainment equipment is coming from companies such as Apple or Sonos, who have their roots in the world of computers.

Enter IP control

Everything today is a computer in disguise, and communications in the world of computers happen over TCP/IP - the language of Ethernet and the Internet. This does not have distance restrictions or require expensive connectors, and it supports lots of capable devices, such as little web tablets from Nokia and others. Control over IP (Internet Protocol) has been a great solution for all players in the market - whether they manufacture air conditioning equipment, or hotel TVs. And the possibilities are endless. You can transport content over IP as well as control information, whether it be music, IPTV, or web pages. Wired or wireless. This really is the lingua franca.


Of course many control system manufacturers have embraced some of this, if only for the transport of their own commands over Wi-Fi networks. What it does mean though is that there are many more companies and individuals capable of competing in this space - it is no longer just people like you or me who’ve put in the time to learn the various proprietary systems. Many hardware manufacturers publish APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) that allow easy integration from whatever control system you want, which helps them build their market, and ring-fence their support workload to the API itself.

New school

This means that in the future, pretty much all the kit you’ll want to operate will offer some kind of IP control. It is cheap and easy, and could work with people’s home networks, whether wired or wireless. Is this a good thing? I think so. But there are concerns. At a technical level, this could give rise to security issues. 'Whaddya mean my TV has a virus?' We’ve already seen 'denial of coffee' attacks on some crazy Internet-connected coffee machines! You’ll need to make sure that your systems include bullet-proof Ethernet and robust wireless networks that you can service remotely. Now, more than ever, you need a geek on staff.

These things shouldn’t be your greatest concern, however. What should be, is if you were behind the curve when the hi-fi retail business started to suffer, and it took you a while to get into custom installation. You’d better pay attention - companies from the IT world are moving into our space. They’re doing it quicker (XBox 360 was launched over a year before PS3), cheaper (Sonos beats all the hi-fi-based music servers), and better (Kaleidescape gives you a better quality experience than your typical high-end DVD changer). And don’t forget Apple. Do you sell a simpler interface than an iPod? Have you seen how good Apple TV is, for a couple of hundred quid?

So these guys aren’t going to hang around when it comes to designing a compelling universal controller. And there’ll be a lot of IT-capable newer installers who can get the kit to work, but may not have the graphic design skills to avoid the 'Costa-del-Sol restaurant' menu design. So what? They’ll just download some low-cost software to put on a web tablet or similar - just take a look at the airremote product I’m involved with for an example of this. Or check out other iPhone/iPod touch applications, such as those from Living Control, Speakercraft and RemoteBuddy.


Don’t just sit there - do something!

Your company can benefit from these changes if it looks at things positively. You can use these controllers as part of a larger control system as an effective, lightweight handset for secondary rooms that otherwise 'couldn’t afford' such a thing. Or you can supply an IP-IR interface and use them in simpler one-room systems. Or you can explore all that is possible over IP - direct communication with lighting controllers, IPTV boxes, security systems and media libraries such as iTunes. Welcome to the future.

By Steve Moore

Steve Moore created SMC, Digital Plumbers and FREE. He was the founding chairman of CEDIA UK and has recently founded airremote Ltd.