ZigBee Remote Controls from RTI Get 2-Way Feedback this Month

The two-way control systems from Remote Technologies Inc. should start shipping this month according to Pete Baker, VP of sales and marketing.

Indeed, I saw the products up and running at his home recently, where his ZigBee remotes and IP controllers communicated with an Escient Fireball music server, Sonance iPort music distribution system and Aprilaire thermostats.

He also uses these controllers to check the current weather report.

"In the morning, when I want to know what to wear, I check out the weather," he says.

Some of RTI's beefier products like in-wall touchscreens and Web tablets have supported two-way communications with Escient and a handful of other subsystems via IP … sort of.

Control has been one-way from the device to the subsystem. Feedback was provided via composite video (on the K4 in-wall touchscreen) or a Web page (on RTI's other Web-capable controllers).

However, this is the first time that RTI has enabled native two-way communications. In the case of IP-controllable subsystems like Escient media servers, RTI's Web-capable controllers will communicate with those systems directly via the home network -- how two-way is supposed to be.

The handheld ZigBee-enabled remotes will communicate two-way via central processors like the XP-8.

That unit has eight RS-232 ports which until now supported only one-way communications. So, for example, you could control a Lutron lighting system, but you couldn't get feedback from Lutron.

Now the sources connect to the hub via RS-232 and provide feedback via ZigBee RF. (No, you cannot use the RTI products to communicate two-way with ZigBee products from other companies, such is the nature of ZigBee at this point.)

Two-Way Roll-Out This Month

The two-way capabilities will be available through a free firmware update.

In the initial release this month, two-way drivers will be provided for Aprilaire, Panasonic IP cameras, B&K music distribution, Sonance iPort, Escient Fireball and Vision servers, Vantage and Lutron lighting control, and Denon, Integra, Marantz and Yamaha receivers.

There are others, as well -- approximately two dozen for starters, according to Baker.

And the company will continue to add support for other products.

RTI announced the XP-8 ZigBee controller in January 2007 – and since then has included an asterisk with every mention of "two-way RS-232 ports."

It wasn't until the fall of 2008, however, that the company demonstrated two-way capabilities, thanks in part to interface templates from GUIfx.

So what has taken RTI for delivery on its promise of two-way?

"Building the foundation," says Baker.

Now that the foundation is nearly built, RTI can proceed on its quest to evolve into a whole-house control company from its roots as a provider of handheld remotes.