Distributor BMB Electronics brings to ISE the new Universal Remote Control's MX-810 and MX-980 Remotes. These easy-to-use and fully programmable remotes provide professional installers (and users) with dedicated, custom control.

The MX-810 is for single room use for Home Theatres or AV systems, where each room in a home can have its own remote. The MX-980 is for Whole House, Multi-room integration use and features more sophisticated programming options.    

Both models feature big, bright, active matrix Colour LCD's which are larger and more vivid than comparable remotes, and a broad array of attractive, icon graphics that are readable at a glance.

It also provides access to a vast array of custom control solutions - all available free of charge at www.universalremote.com.

Both remotes are PC-powered devices and are programmable by any Windows-compatible computer with a USB port.

Featuring RF addressability, a bright, colour LCD display and the readiness for programming, custom installers can put any command on any LCD page, and fully personalize the screen's icons for every user. The RF capability also eliminates the need to point the remote at whatever it is activating, or even remain in the line of sight of any equipment.  They can both control components up to 100 feet away from locations throughout a home (even components concealed in cabinets or behind doors).

The MX-810 and MX-980 are both fully compatible with URC's own MSC-400 Master System Controller.

Go BMB Electronics

Pace Micro Technology pays £68m to buy-out Philips' set-top box and connectivity solutions business.

The Philips business unit, based mainly in France with 335 staff, supplies satellite, cable, terrestrial and internet television set-top boxes, sells 8.5m boxes worldwide a year.

UK-based Pace says the buyout will makes it one of the world's top three set-top box companies and boost annual revenues to more than 1 billion US dollars.

Now the part that most press missed is that--under this all-share deal--Philips will take a 22.5% stake in Pace. Philips becomes Pace Micros's largest shareholder, even surpassing founder David Hood.

So is Pace Micro buying out Philips or is Philips taking over Pace Micro? In either case, the sum of the parts is greater than the whole…

Go Pace Micro

Control4’s HC-500 is a high performance home automation controller with extensive I/O connections for device control and in-built media server.

In addition to managing the home cinema, the Home Controller HC-500 can control multi-room music, lighting, temperature, security and many other home automation sub-systems.  “The combination of improved processing, high-definition screen graphics and expansion capabilities as well as the new industrial design makes this a core part of the platform for the digital home.” says Will West, CEO.

The Home Controller HC-500 offers multiple infrared and serial connections and video sensing for easy home cinema integration. HC-500 covers a range of standards-based communication including Ethernet, WiFi, and ZigBee mesh networking.

Additional features include:

• HD on-screen display provides an intuitive graphical user interface
• New box design means unit can be on display with other AV kit
• Audio encoding/decoding for full support of analogue/digital audio
• Expansion capabilities via 2 USB ports and 1 Ethernet jack
• 160GB storage
• Backwards compatibility with all Control4 products

Go Control4 HC-500

Home Theater expertise conjures up expected images of audio & video gurus but the Home Lighting Control association believes clients dont have a complete home theater unless it incorporates lighting control. Their work is supported by installers who notice that clients who install lighting for home theater often ask for that control to be extended across the full house.

HCLA wants to publicly underline the role of lighting in home systems:

1. Lighting control brings home the experience and excitement of a commercial cinema.
2. Lighting control adds convenience and simplicity as it can be controlled along with A/V functions from a single programmable remote control.
3. Lighting Control provides added safety and convenience
4. Lighting Control saves energy and money. Using dimmer control, users can save significant amounts of energy while providing ambience and extending bulb life. (Dimming 50% saves 40% of energy, dimming 25% saves 20%.)

Since 2006, more than two dozen leading companies, organizations and integrators have united to spearhead the HCLA initiative to raise the awareness, value and benefits of lighting control systems for the home. In that time, lighting control has significantly increased market share and was cited in USA in the latest CEA State of the Builder Survey with the largest increase of any home technology.

Theres not much involvement in Europe as the association is only a year old but were sure theyd like to hear from industry folks that would like assist their future efforts in Europe.

Go HLCA

The latest version of its proprietary Kaleidescape Entertainment Appliance Operating System (KEAOS 3.5) provides Kaleidescape owners more ways to enjoy their movies and music throughout their homes.

New features include the ability to auto synchronise music from a Kaleidescape System to iTunes on a PC, an iPod or other digital music player (via Kaleidescape Conductor, a Windows program); a classical music interface that lets users easily personalise their classical music listening experience; greater data safety in the event of disk drive failure; and new options for sharing personalised movie scripts and favourite scenes with other Kaleidescape users.

Classical music collectors tend to organise their classical collections differently than other varieties of music, as classical music is composer-oriented. The Classical Composers collection lists all of the composers of the classical music found on a Kaleidescape System and enables the user to view bios of composer, as well as the works by each composer present.  Classical Works displays all classical compositions on the System and provides a means to see and play any or all performances of a specific work.

Go KEAOS 3.5

Savant Systems showed their ROSIE coffee table touch panel controller (CTTPC for short, just kidding) at CEDIA in USA. The table with touch screen supports all the Savant suite of In-wall Touch panels plus some new interactive multimedia. For example, it works with iTunes, digital cameras, webcams, business card readers, and other digital devices.

In fact, it looks and sounds a lot like the Microsoft Surface (a 30” display in a table-like form factor that can simultaneously recognize dozens of movements such as touch, gestures—as well as recognize any unique objects with a custom ID tag.) Hey, not bad company…

You have to give Savant credit if you are playing in that league. In both cases, it’s so cool to have a new form factor.  Check out Savant’s application photos on their web site: kitchen, bedroom (oh la la) and living room.

Go ROSIE Coffee Table