Transforming the remote control
By Steven B. Zaboji
Founder and President, Balaton Marketing, Inc. Sterling, Virginia
The succession of science and technology, especially the slide from analog to digital, has touched the core of our culture. Television gave us a window on the world that rivals centuries of the published word.
Television has emerged from its fuzzy black and white pictures that were broadcast by three or four networks in the 1950s, to crystal clear HD images, some in 3D along with 5.1 channels of dynamic full-range surround sound, to today’s content sourced from hundreds of channels available from cable, satellite or terrestrial broadcasts. Content is also available from DVD/Blu-ray discs and Internet streaming from firms like Apple TV and Netflix, and the home-spun variety found on You-Tube. Good or bad, it’s one huge smörgåsbord for entertainment.
It has taken 60 or so years to bring television to its current state of the art, and arguably it could be said that the most dramatic advancements in television can be attributed to the digital revolution’s progression of the past ten years.
While the transition from analog to digital broadcasts grabbed our attention, a little technical appendage called the remote control also had a lot to do with television's ultimate growth.
Early entertainment remotes were tethered to the TV by wire. Later, control came by emitting high frequency sound which ultimately morphed into infrared (IR) signals that consist of commands between light and radio waves.
Organize IR commands with a computer and you have something very powerful. Today’s elaborate home entertainment systems are designed by professionals who program and install control systems by Crestron, Control 4 and any number
of others. They do this to eliminate the pile of remote controls that come with all the components of a home theater.
There are simpler systems that the average do-it-yourselfer can buy and program. Digitech’s Harmony and Universal Remote Control’s products are good examples of programmable remote controls for modest projects (and in some cases, not so modest).
Perhaps simpler yet, a new control protocol combines digital processing, IR commands, WiFi and an App (available on the iPhone App Store) with Apple’s ubiquitous iPhone or iTouch, transforming them into powerful remote controls.
Pictured is a product called RedEye ($189) by www.thinkflood.com. RedEye docks an iPhone or iTouch and keeps it charged; when removed, it will remotely, via WiFi and apps, control devices that see the flood of IR ema nating from the base of the dock.
Another unit, the RedEye Mini ($50) – resembling a little stick – plugs into the headphone jack of an iPhone or iTouch and transforms it into a remote control by emitting IR commands to devices in the same room. How cool is that?
So if you have a coffee table full of remote controls (brimming with what are often called “the buttons from hell”), don’t despair. Check out these small yet powerful products for an easier approach to remote control.
About the writer: Steven Zaboji is a veteran of the audio-video industry, having started as a sales rep for major retailers. He founded Balaton Marketing in 1972 and currently represents some 14 product lines relating to home entertainment systems. Z
aboji is also the founder and CEO of an e-publishing company called Virtual Representative. He is writing a book about his experiences in the industry and on his love of flying to be called “Business on a Wing.”
Contact Zaboji at www.balatonmarketing.com or at his e-publishing company, www.virtual-representative.com.
