If your customers love AMX, but not the price or the button configuration of its touchscreens, they can use Philips Pronto remote controls instead.

Former AMX dealer Brian Anderson of Axis Control has created Emulinx for Pronto – software that basically turns a relatively affordable Pronto into an AMX touchscreen.

In a demo at the Philips booth during CEDIA Expo 2009, Axis demonstrated the emulation software pitting a Pronto TSU9800 Web-enabled touchscreen against an AMX Modero touchpanel.

Sure enough, the two touchscreens tracked each other perfectly.

Anderson said he got the idea last year at CEDIA when he visited the Philips booth with a friend who was a heavy Pronto user.

"I didn't really understand how powerful ProntoScript is," he says of the Pronto JavaScript programming environment.

Emulinx is not necessarily plug-and-play but Anderson says, "If you can program AMX and you…

If you can use iPhone's App Store, you can use the new Toolbox store from Universal Remote Control.

A leader in remote control technology, URC is now offering dealers the chance to share their home-grown applications on the company's dealer-only Web site, urccontrolroom.com.

Dealers have been developing their own URC templates, sounds, integration modules, animations and applications for years. And they may never recoup the costs of developing these apps. Now they can sell them to other URC dealers for any price.

URC keeps a small percentage of the sale to operate the store.

Marketing director Jon Sienkewicz says that apps will range from free to $500 or more, "and I suspect many will be in the $0.99 to $9.99 range."

The company will also offer hardware, including replacement batteries, charger bases and cables. All financial transactions are being handled through PayPal.

As with the original app store, URC's Toolbox will…

Universal Remote Control (URC) is coming out with the KP-4000 in-wall touchscreen and it looks cool.

The company will be showing the product, but not demonstrating all of its capabilities, at CEDIA Expo 2009.

URC, a leader in remote-control technologies, is not making any formal announcements on the KP-4000, but marketing director Jon Sienkewicz gave CE Pro a few details about the product.

The nice form factor not withstanding, the key thing about the touchscreen is that it is URC's first product with two-way RS-232 and IP communications. The company is rapidly developing drivers for two-way A/V components, cameras, thermostats, lighting and other home control products. So not only can you operate your A/V gear with this thing, you can check on the baby cam, change the temperature in…

Remote Technologies Inc. (RTI) is coming out with a slick new ZigBee-compatible touchscreen that can mount on the wall, sit on the coffee table, and perform numerous feats of remote control-ness.

The forthcoming ST-7 features two-way wireless via ZigBee RF technology. It also includes wireless Ethernet and an IP intercom.



A seven-inch widescreen capacitive LCD touchscreen combines multitouch capacitive touchscreen and an integrated trackball.

We don't have all the details yet, but presumably the ST-7 will be compatible with other ZigBee-enabled products in the RTI lineup.

The universal remote control will be demonstrated at CEDIA Expo 2009.

Universal Remote Control (URC)’s CEDIA training sessions will be “packed”… literally. The company will be holding 16 separate training classes, giving away $250,000 worth of prizes, and holding its Top Gun Installation Contest in Atlanta during the CEDIA Expo from Sept. 9-13.

The first 2,000 attendees will receive an upscale OGIO backpack from URC that includes an audio sleeve and water bottle pocket. The company’s sessions all take place in Training Room A412 at the Georgia World Congress Center.

Among the courses taking place are:

• Universal Remote Control Lighting: Native, Simple, Scalable
• High-End Control at Down-to-Earth Pricing
• Ultra-Fast Text-based Programming: MX-900 and More!
• Deliver Rock-Solid, Lightning Fast Networks
• Introduction to CCP: The Whole House Approach to Programming
• Intermediate CCP: Programming the 2-way Remotes and More
• Advanced Programming in CCP

Other sessions include a one-on-one session with URC’s Eric Johnson and his product development team, and programming tips from Hank Eisengrein.

The Top Gun contest, which takes place on Thursday,…

Remote Technologies Inc. (RTI) will finally have the opportunity to demonstrate real, shipping products that support two-way ZigBee wireless technology at CEDIA 2009.

Several compatible remotes and controllers will be on display, ready to buy.

RTI expects to ship all these products by September 2009.

The RK3-V is the second generation of RTI's RK3 in-wall controller. The two-way device can display text and graphics with vivid detail via a new full VGA display -- 4 times the resolution of its predecessor. MSRP: $999

RK3-V now; RK3 then

Worthington Distribution is one of those rare distributors that helps dealers create affordable integrated solutions by mixing and matching products from a variety of vendors.

At CEDIA 2008, the company will highlight several new products that communicate using two-way RF mesh networking technology from Z-Wave.

Worthington demonstrates how low-cost remotes and touchscreens can be used to operate lights, thermostats, motorized drapes and other wireless devices in the home.

IES Touch Screen

Z-Wave RF mesh networking technology runs throughout Worthington's display.

Controlling much of the Z-Wave gear is a new two-way interactive touchscreen, the EasyTouch-S Touch Screen from IES. Worthington has customized the touchscreen in-house with a graphical interface designed to make programming a snap, according to Barry Hampe of Worthington Distribution's technical support group.

The installer simply names devices, rooms, scenes and schedules, and then types in the Z-Wave node for each device. The…

Control4 is going squarely after the makers of RF universal remotes with its most affordable control system yet – the $499 HC-200.

Like most RF remotes in that price range, the HC-200 includes an RF hub and a handheld remote – both utilizing ZigBee wireless technology, a hallmark of Control4 solutions.

Unlike other similar solutions, though, Control4's product is also a whole-house controller that can operate lights, thermostats, matrix switchers, amps, security systems and other products from Control4 and partners.

Likewise, the hub can communicate two ways with other Control4 interfaces including touchscreens and keypads.

Of course, the big thing that Control4 has that RTI, URC, Logitech (Harmony), UEI and other remote providers don't have is a TV interface. Using the HC-200 remote, users can access their music library, browse movies in a connected DVD changer, set the thermostats, and perform other home-control feats via the TV interface.

The system can also…

The Philips Pronto TSU9600 universal remote and home controller can now be an in-wall touchscreen thanks to the new PB-PWD9600 docking station from Polar Bear Solutions.

Slide the controller into the dock and press it gently into the wall for a flush-mount look. When docked, the remote charges via a 12 VDC power supply.

But the dock isn't just a pretty place to store and charge your Pronto. When you eject your control via a smooth release mechanism, you can still use the dock to control your home.

The station includes four buttons linked to hardwired I/Os for integration. The buttons can be used, for example to trigger macros on a home automation system, or control the local lights.

"The base provides the best of both worlds -- an attractive in-wall solution that becomes a handy portable unit," says Tom Morgan, chief technology officer of Worthington Distribution.

Worthington (CEDIA booth…

Universal Remote Control is getting into the wireless lighting control business – and not just any lighting controls, but specially modified products from Lutron.

The lighting products – modeled after Lutron's Maestro wireless – are controlled natively from current URC wireless remotes. "Every one who bought a universal remote after January (2008) can control these lights," says Mitch Klein, director of research and market development. "The major point is that it is native. Any dealer who knows how to program a URC remote can basically drag in lighting, just like a DVD."

Klein says that URC "looked really long and hard" at other RF technologies like ZigBee and Z-Wave, but decided on the Lutron partnership.

"Why make an interim change?" Klein says. "We have a reliable, robust narrowband remote [line]."

Unlike ZigBee and Z-Wave, Lutron's wireless technology is a one-way solution, which means that…