You know, after proposing countless bids and building many projects there has always been one item that’s most difficult to grasp. The remote control.
No matter what you have always remember you could expect to pay up to 10% on the cost of a remote. This is one area of your project that you never want to skimp on. If you can’t control your components then it doesn’t matter how much money you spend, your system will still be unusable. Remember that a good rule of thumb is to take your current system budget and set aside at least 10% for your control system. Control can cost anywhere from $300 to $300,000. There are practically no limits to what you are able to control with a professionally programmed unit. The only limits are your finances. I once knew a home owner in Los Angeles that wanted to watch the sunrise and the sunset….from the same bed…..and didn’t care about the cost.
So we rotated his house using a control system called Crestron. We arranged with the builder to control a rotating system that would slowly rotate the bedroom section of his home on a 24 hour clock.
Anything is possible, but without the proper control it’s impossible. Imagine picking up a $300 Logitech remote one day and it just decided not to work. That’s a very common problem with the batteries of the popular Logitech remotes and one of many reasons why professional audio/video distribution companies stopped carrying Logitech remotes.
The good thing is that same control company that rotated that home is now creating a consumer oriented control system called Crestron Prodigy. While it won’t be expandable into the multi-million dollar systems that Crestron is known for, Crestron Prodigy will be very much able to handle small lighting, HVAC, whole house audio and of course your home theater.
Your other options for professional remote control systems are RTI and Universal Remote. Both very credible systems with two very different ways of doing things. At 360 Home Cinema we program Crestron Prodigy, RTI and Universal Remote for your Atlanta, Buford or Alpharetta area home theater and would be more than happy to explain the differences in more detail if you’d like. Just give us a call at 866.645.9157.
