UEI’s NevoS70 Touchscreen Remote Adds Z-Wave and 802.11g Support

The NevoSL from Universal Electronics Inc. (UEI) is a nice little remote that communicates two-way via WiFi. The WiFi streams metadata and content to the unit's touchscreen, and is used to send IR commands to A/V gear through a WiFi base station.

But WiFi is a terribly ineffective way to control A/V gear. It consumes too much power, and it takes too long to wake up -- you definitely don't want a lag between the time you press the MUTE button and the time your TV goes quiet.

That's why UEI has added Z-Wave communications to the Nevo line with the new NevoS70 remote. A low-rate, low-power protocol, Z-Wave is used to transmit commands from the remote to a new Z-Wave enabled base station, the NC-50.

The NC-50 has six ports that can be used for IR and serial commands, and/or power sensing. Power sensors have pass-through capabilities for IR communications, so users can use a single port for both sensing and IR control. The previous base station supported only IR commands.



The Z-Wave capabilities are currently limited. "Right now the only thing we're using Z-Wave for is controlling devices through the base station," says Patrick Serrato, product evangelist for UEI.

The NevoS70 does not communicate directly with Z-Wave-enabled light switches, for example. Nor does it receive metadata via Z-Wave.

Instead, WiFi is used to transmit content to the remote. UEI upgraded the NevoS70 to 802.11g from the inferior 802.11b used in the NevoSL. Furthermore, the S70 provides richer support for IP-enabled products.

It has a built-in Web browser so it supports Flash, HTML and other IP formats. Users can surf the Web and communicate directly with browser-based devices such as IP cameras, automation systems and media servers.

"If you're using Panasonic IP cameras, you can touch an image and the camera will center to that spot," Serrato says.

The NevoS70 retails for $1,199. The NC-50 base station is $299.