Despite the industry push for seamless cross-product compatibility and communication, IR learning remains a huge part of an integrator’s job. For the most part, it’s a fairly cut and dry process, but there are times when devices simply refuse to cooperate—when uncovering the necessary IR codes feels like finding a needle in a haystack.
Bob Cushman, a home systems integrator in the Twin Cities area, recently encountered an IR language barrier when trying to integrate an Xfinity X1 setup box with a homeowner’s existing RTI home control system.
“The RTI remote was unable to learn the X1 codes. I called other dealers for help, and even had Level 4 Comcast technicians come to the job and even they couldn’t get the X1 box to talk with RTI. With no other options, I spent hours scouring the Internet for answers,” he recalls. “That’s when I stumbled upon Global Caché and its Control Tower database, which had the Xfinity X1 codes available. I quickly searched for and found the right codes, downloaded them, and they worked!”
Cushman, who after 30 years working as a programmer, installer, and salesperson for other A/V companies, recently opened his own integration business, Cushman Technical Services, was so impressed with Global Caché’s free access to the online database, that he immediately contacted Global Caché to become a dealer of its products.
“I figured that if their database is this good, just imagine how good their products are,” says Cushman.

One of the biggest reasons Control Tower “is just that good” and wins over dealers like Cushman is its cloud-based infrastructure. “Most companies that provide IR codes put them on a chip; we saw issues with this like maintenance and expense,” says Global Caché vice president of business development Robin Ford. “IR codes change so frequently, so having them available via the cloud to our dealers, partners, end-users, and integrator, allows us to provide a database that’s always fresh, relevant, and dynamic.”
Also essential of the vitality of the Control Tower database, notes Ford, is daily maintenance, quarterly updates, and quality control by a team of technicians. “Our goal was never to have more IR codes than anyone else, but to have the best maintained database, with as few redundancies as possible, as well as easy access.”
Introduced at CEDIA 2014 with more than 138,000 codes, the Control Tower has grown to include more than 200,000 IR codes from hundreds of manufacturers. Users are able to download as many as five code sets a day, free of charge, whether they are in the office or at the job site.
Global Caché partners can upgrade their accounts to use Control Tower code sets for integration with thei products and Global Caché products.
“Control Tower is particularly useful for the dealer who is out in the field and struggling to learn IR codes, just as Bob Cushman was,” says Ford. “It’s amazing how big of a problem it can be and how it can impact a job by adding cost and delaying the schedule. It’s been our goal all along for Control Tower to prevent these problems.”

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