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Submitted by Admin on Fri, 03/04/2011 - 3:13pm
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| Promote or Perish! | |
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| In this issue, we focus on how to effectively promote your business. In an improving but still difficult economic environment, it's more important than ever to stand out from the crowd. We've put our columnists to work on delivering ideas and advice to help you get the word out about your business, and we think they've come up with some good stuff. We hope this issue helps you take a fresh look at how to best reach out to your marketplace. Please keep your feedback and suggestions coming at editor [at] universalremote [dot] com. And make sure to tell your coworkers to sign up to receive their own copies! Just direct them to www.universalremote.com/newsletter. We hope to see you at EHX: The CE Pro Event this month for our first live Total Control trainings! There's more about what's on tap in Orlando (we hear there'll be some green beer for St. Patrick's Day) in this issue. - Your friends at URC |
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| Total Control Training at EHX! | |||||
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 On Thursday, March 17, join us for a full day of Total Control programming training–from design, specification and applications, to installation and programming. (Note: Thursday is the ONLY day URC will deliver Total Control programming training.) On Friday, March 18, we'll offer a full day of training for our universal programming platform: CCP. From intro to advanced, from the MX-880 to the MX-6000, this is your day to get up to speed on all things CCP! On Saturday, March 19, we'll offer Total Control training on design, specification and applications. (Note again, however, that there will be NO programming training on Saturday.) Check out our full EHX training schedule here. (Note: You must be logged into the URC Control Room to view.) EHX coincides with St. Patrick's Day this year, so why not celebrate with the CE Pro All Star Band? Comprised of industry members from the manufacturing and dealer communities, including our own Mitch Klein on the bass, as well as folks from CE Pro and CEDIA, the band will hit the stage at 6:00 pm on Thursday, March 17. We hope to see you in Orlando! On the show floor, be sure to visit our booth, 629E.
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| Electronic House Wants to Feature Your Installations! | |||||
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 We'll let EH Editor Lisa Montgomery take it from here: "One of the easiest and most effective ways to market your company is by having your work published in a magazine or website. Electronic House wants to simplify that process for you. We publish hundreds of projects every year, so take a few minutes to tell us about yours. Who knows? We might even choose it as a Home of the Month and feature it prominently as a six-page story!" Here's the questionnaire:
We hope your business can take advantage of this excellent opportunity. And, of course, we hope that URC products will be prominent components of the installations you submit!
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| Happy Birthday – to Us! | |||||
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 We can proudly state that our circulation has surpassed that of some of the more familiar industry publications. This is gratifying, but means nothing unless we're achieving our goal of keeping you informed. To that end, we strongly encourage you to editor [at] universalremote [dot] com (write to us). What would you like to read in this newsletter? How can we improve it? Has the newsletter helped you in any way? There's not enough space to thank all of the folks who produce this newsletter every month, but it would be a sin not to name a few. Big thanks go out to our regular contributors, including Hank Eisengrein, Glenn Gentilin and Joe Salvatore, regular columnists who haven't missed an issue. A special nod goes to top industry journalists Julie Jacobson, Jeremy Glowacki and John Sciacca, who have willingly shared their expertise and insight. This newsletter wouldn't happen every month if not for Nick Cofino, URC's graphic artist and the guy responsible for layout, art direction, production and distribution. And most of all, a very special thanks to Joe Paone, URC's public relations guru, who reads and edits each and every word that appears herein. Thank you for reading. One year down, 99 to go. Please make sure that all of your employees receive Control the Universe. If you've missed an issue, every one is archived and available online here. Jon Sienkiewicz Publisher Control the Universe
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| URC's a Finalist for Three CEA TechHome Mark of Excellence Awards! | |||||
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Click here to view a full list of the finalists.
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| Fill your Pronto Void with URC | |||||
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| Dealer Spotlight: Talk of the Town | |||||
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 One of its approaches is to hold regular events with its various suppliers, says Sergio Rodrigues, Talk of the Town's eSales and Marketing Manager. "We normally do at least one event every quarter, up to six throughout the year," says Sergio. Each event is unique, and the company's effort to target attendees is different for each event. For example, Talk of the Town held a typical "friends and family" event with McIntosh back in November. An event early this year with Denon was striking in its outside-the-box thinking, merging home theater with fashion. Rebecca Minkoff, a leader in casual luxury handbags, accessories, and apparel for women, had just launched a men's line called Ben Minkoff. Talk of the Town promoted the event with the tagline, "Experience the new sound of fashion," and invited professionals from the fashion industry to attend. Meanwhile, the dealer courted AV enthusiasts with an encouragement to "Come celebrate Denon's 100th anniversary." All told, Talk of the Town used various mailing lists (its own, Minkoff's and Denon's) to get the word out. Both Minkoff and Denon products were showcased throughout the store, and two types of people who rarely mingle were in the same room. "The event was terrific because it introduced new people to the store," says Sergio. "We reached some people who might not have been aware of us before. It was great for building awareness, getting our name out, bringing in a new kind of clientele." While in-store events have been successful for Talk of the Town, Sergio says the most effective promotion you can do these days is to maintain a robust online presence. "Everybody is on the 'net, and they are searching. It doesn't matter who you are, or what you do: The Internet is now the go-to resource for consumers. They are going online and looking up info before they go out and buy. As a company, we've made a big investment in SEO (search engine optimization)."  Talk of the Town is also on Twitter and Facebook, and employs a dedicated social marketing person. "It helps us especially when we are setting up for an event," says Sergio. "Social media is how everybody communicates nowadays. It lets people know what we're doing." Don't forget print, adds Sergio. "It's still necessary," he says. Talk of the Town has even moved beyond print advertising to custom-publish its own quarterly magazine called LED (for Lifestyle, Entertainment, and Design). "Custom publishing gives us a lot of flexibility," says Sergio. "We control the magazine from cover to cover. We are able to target the content effectively, and we have full control over both its quality as well as what content goes into it. And we've been able to bring in many of our vendors as both contributors and advertisers." LED is not entirely a heavy consumer pitch. "Our magazine has general content like travel stories, movie reviews and some celebrity gossip. We have articles about new product trends like 3D TV. And then there are design stories where we go in and dissect an entire media room, or inform the consumer of what the planning stages are for a home theater or media room." Because of the magazine's quarterly nature, Talk of the Town can build articles around big dates on the calendar. In a recent edition, for example, LED featured a section called Touchdown, which Sergio says provided a "playbook" for having a perfect Super Bowl party. "It goes into cool recipes, how to host a party, and then it angles toward the AV side–how to set up a system so they can entertain," says Sergio. Of course, the best way to get a great system is obvious: Consult the professionals at Talk of the Town! Sergio's ultimate advice to his fellow dealers when it comes to promotion: "You have to think outside the box." Talk of the Town certainly is! URC would like to thank Talk of the Town for allowing us to shoot several of our recent videos at its Allendale showroom!
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| Product of the Month: The MX-880 | |||||
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 Available in both 418MHz and 433MHz (MX-880i) versions, the MX-880 is a snap to program using our CCP software. The MX-880's built-in automatic motion sensing capability backlights the remote's screen and buttons whenever the customer picks it up. Because of the remote's included rechargeable battery and AC adapter, your customer will never need to replace AA or AAA batteries in this device. If you're using the MX-880 in your installs, thank you! If you're not, what are you waiting for?
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| URC Team Member of the Month: Joe Salvatore | |||||
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Joe Salvatore, URC Technical Support Manager
URC Technical Support Manager If you've ever had a tech support question for us, there's a decent chance Joe Salvatore has been involved in getting you an answer. As our technical support manager, Joe loves tackling problems and serving URC dealers. In addition to his many daily duties, he's also the author of our monthly Tech Tips column. Because of all this and more, "Joe Sal" is our well-deserving URC Team Member of the Month! Joe joined URC in May 2005 as a technical support rep, and immediately began wearing more than one hat. For example, he also assisted our repair department, fixing broken remote controls. A quick study, Joe was promoted to URC tech support team lead in 2006, and to URC tech support manager in 2007. That's not all: Joe also assists URC's marketing department, which is led by Jon Sienkiewicz. Joe reflects on his proudest accomplishment–his five years at URC–by celebrating his peers. "These days, you'll be hard pressed to find any company with so many young and talented individuals who can say they have a long-term home for certain," Joe says. "Here, I am one of many!" Although he's no longer an agent on active live queue tech support duties, Joe still receives plenty of real-time inquiries from customers he's served in the past, as well as requests for help from internal clients. "I enjoy it; it keeps my skills sharp," he says. His main focus these days is to ensure that URC is properly staffed and equipped to handle all technical support requests. "We want to make sure that every single inquiry gets responded to," says Joe. When asked what he likes most about working at URC, Joe replies, "There's never a dull moment. We're continuously challenged and stimulated, which allows us to exercise our skills and grow. For a maniacal multi-tasker like myself, the opportunities are endless!" The most challenging aspect of tech support, he says, is reaching a resolution over the phone without being onsite. "Often, we'll get calls regarding a previously unknown issue, or something that involves several other products from other manufacturers, and how they're being integrated specifically for a given environment," he says. "That brings up our second most challenging aspect: Keeping up with all the different products and technologies that pop up on the market, and their compatibility with our products. Every install is unique in its entirety, so the potential for 'first time' incidents is always present when there are so many variables (pun not intended) at play." Although URC tech support handles plenty of repeat issues, Joe says the department prides itself on handling each call as a unique situation. "We are continuously striving to be the best tech support department in the industry, and we will always do our best to resolve your issue," he explains. "We'll sometimes ask basic questions to better assist you, so don't get offended. We know that you're knowledgeable. We ask those basic pertinent questions so we can understand what's been done on your end, so that we're best equipped to assist you. It's a two-way street, too: We learn a lot from our customers!" Anyone who's ever worked in tech support can share memorable stories; Joe is no exception. "I once had an installer who swore he was encountering RFI due to supernatural forces," he recalls. "He was especially convinced when the homeowner told him that the previous occupant of the house had passed away in the very room where the setup was. Although the police station was one mile away, and it was a very well-populated area with local broadcast towers nearby, I just couldn't sway him otherwise!" Joe's tremendous work ethic could be due to the fact that he has been part of the labor force since the age of 13. "My first job was washing dishes and scrubbing floors at the local bakery," he says. "Through college, I worked for a general contractor and was assigned to the demo crew after continuously making a mess when painting or taping drywall. Immediately prior to URC, I was store manager of a fine wine shop." Joe attended Five Towns College in Dix Hills, N.Y., for audio engineering. He resides in Westchester County, N.Y., where most of his immediate family also resides. Joe's hobbies include playing guitar, performing, music production, traveling and spending time with his family. Joe's URC family celebrates his dedication, passion and skill in strengthening the lines of communication between URC and its dealers. That's why he's our March 2011 URC Team Member of the Month!
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| Looking Ahead... | |||||
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 And coming up: What you'll see in our next issue won't be a cutesy reference to spring, cabin fever or tulips. In April, we'll talk Profit, Profitability, increasing Profit from every job, and other similar topics that we hope you'll, well, Profit from. Thank you for loyally supporting URC. You can help make us better by telling us how we can help you better. Write to me at editor [at] universalremote [dot] com.
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"So THAT'S what the 'Glee' button does!" |
Play Our Caption Contest! Control the Universe readers, it's time again to have some fun with our Caption Contest! We'll select the funniest, most creative caption and feature the winner in next month's issue. Bonus: The winner of our caption contest will receive a gift card... and, if you're interested, we'll feature your business in our April issue (like we did in our February issue for our inaugural winner Rick Henderson). The fine print with all the necessary legalese is here. OK, on to the fun: What should the caption for this photo be? Email your caption to editor [at] universalremote [dot] com! |
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 Your Business
By Glenn Gentilin
URC Regional Product Specialist
With more and more types of businesses changing their business models to include A/V installation, it's more important than ever for your voice to be heard in the marketplace. Word-of-mouth has driven the custom installation industry for many years, but your business can no longer depend on word-of-mouth alone to remain viable. These days, you must market yourself to attract new customers, as well as to inspire your existing clients to return to you for additional work. But where do you start? Here are 10 suggestions for promoting your company:
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 Hank's Tip of the Month
By Hank Eisengrein
URC Regional Training Manager, East
Before I begin, congratulations to everyone at URC on the start of our second year of the monthly URC newsletter! Now to the business at hand: Let's discuss the topic of social networking, and how it can boost your business. Most company websites now feature icons that link to their ever-expanding array of online content; URC has three of these icons (to our Twitter, YouTube and Facebook presences) at the bottom right corner on our public website. These social networking links are growing in importance. This year, we are witnessing a real revolution in the Middle East that's resulting in major changes around the world. It can be argued that it was started, and continues to be enabled, by social networking. Of course, you don't need to set yourself (or any employees) on fire to start a social networking revolution for your company. But Facebook, Twitter and YouTube can truly drive more customers to your company. Twitter. A series of short tweets can bring attention to something new or exciting that your company has done. Your tweets won't have the worldwide impact of Lady Gaga's, but you'll be surprised how many of your clients will want to hear what you have to tweet. You learn new things every day, so when you find a clever solution to a customer's problem, now you can quickly broadcast it to your entire customer base via Twitter. When a key supplier like URC has an important announcement or a new product introduction, tweet about it to update your customers. YouTube. Upload short yet effective videos of your showroom and clients' homes, along with interviews from satisfied clients about their projects. Use these videos on your website and YouTube to promote specific services or products from your company. Do a little work upfront, and in a few months you'll build your own video library that both current and prospective clients can view. Looking for some ideas? Think about the things that customers ask you to explain when you meet for a system proposal. Address each of these topics on video, from payment to products, and then use those videos to close more sales. The price of high-quality video cameras has dropped to a level where you can buy one for your business and use it to produce a new video at least every month. Check out the URC YouTube videos (including some that even feature me!) and inspire your staff to create your own content. Want a funny spin? Try Xtranormal to make animated videos. Facebook. I attended a dinner party last month and the hostess talked for over 30 minutes about her Facebook activity. Your Facebook page can include information about your recent jobs, and the ability for customers to leave feedback on your Facebook page can help build a loyal "following" for your company. Remember: Your social networking presences need fresh content on a regular basis to keep things interesting, and to highlight new services and new products from your company. Encourage all of your customers to follow you on the different social media services to see how your business is growing. Exclusive social networking offers to clients can help grow your following. These can be promotions that fit the time of the year. They can encourage expansion of existing systems or updates to older installations you've completed. For just a few hours of updating a month, your business can benefit from social networking. I encourage you to look at the different aspects of our own URC newsletter and use those ideas to build your own series of information to keep customers informed.
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 Be Social
By Cindy Davis
Principal and Founder, customCEsocial
Let's hear from our dear friend and longtime consumer electronics industry expert Cindy Davis on the business aspect of using social media networks to help engage your customers. The principal and founder of customCEsocial, Cindy can help you directly to improve your presentation to customers online. This is the first of a series from Cindy that will run in this newsletter. Her contact info is at the bottom of this article. – Hank Eisengrein Thanks, Hank! Everything you mention in your column this month is right-on. There are many tools and content available to help you grow your business through social media, including the great content that URC provides for you to share with your customers. If you've already started using social media to help grow your business, take another look at what Hank is saying–it's solid advice. It's assumed that everyone is using social media to help grow their business, but that's not the case. If you just haven't had the time to get started with social media yet, read on. I want to talk to the CE dealer/integrator social media holdouts. I'm giving you a big "pass" and letting you know you don't need to go into a 12-step program to start. Stick with me on just saying you will start. Why? Because there is an ark-load of people using social media for just about everything, and you could be missing some customers. When I talk with most small businesses, I hear the same three reasons for not using social media for promotion: "I don't have the time," "Facebook is for sharing photos from weekend parties," and "I'm not a writer and don't know what to post." They're all valid reasons. It does take time and, yes, lots of people post photos from weekend parties. As for the last point: It's easier than you might think to post relevant content. I'll be discussing numerous aspects of a social media plan in the coming months, but this month, let's focus on time management. Many social media experts say that starting a social media presence and not keeping up with it is worse than not starting one at all. Really? Maybe that's because they want your recurring revenue business. If you have a Sony-sized business, then posting infrequently wouldn't be a good idea. I would certainly rather see everyone have a full strategic plan tied to ROI, but if you haven't started to engage in social media, then looking at it as this huge endeavor can engage the emergency brakes and you'll never get in gear. As a small business owner, I believe in working in the real world. So try to keep it simple, but also try to keep it consistent. You should commit a specific half-hour every day (or a few hours one day of the week) to work on your social media outreach. Put it on your calendar and stick to it. For me, it's like going to the gym: If I don't work out first thing in the morning, I'll have every good excuse not to do it at the end of the day. Maybe your best time to work on social media is first thing in the morning. Maybe your best time is 10:00 p.m., after the hustle of the day has calmed and you can post an update from your day. The important thing is to commit to a schedule. And if you "fall off the wagon," don't abandon it–just get back to it. Next month, I'll examine the variety of social media networks available to you, which ones you should be using, and how. Feel free to contact me for some practical advice. Just click to reach me on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or cindy [at] customcesocial [dot] com (email). You can also reach me on the telly at 617-281-0736 (but please don't text me–we all have our hang-ups!). See you next month!
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 Tech Tips
By Joe Salvatore
URC Technical Support Manager
Here's the last thing you ever want your client to say: "He was a really good installer and did a great job, but I just can't remember his name. I had his card, but I lost it." You take pride in your level of service, so brag about it! With times continuing to be tight, promotion is more important than ever, because I'm sure you wouldn't mind a referral or two. One great way to accomplish this is to leave your mark–literally–on your installs for promotional purposes. I can promise you that nine out of 10 times, your customer will not have your contact info handy when someone asks who installed his or her home theater system. So leave your mark and stay in the forefront of your customers' minds by "branding" your install. Following are a couple of easy ways to do so. (I know many of you already do these things, and I commend you for it! This info is for those installation pros who don't.)
For further support on this tech tip, please email us at techsupport [at] universalremote [dot] com. Know of any other ways to brand your installs? What methods do you use? We'd love to hear about them at editor [at] universalremote [dot] com!
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 Mitch's Musings
By Mitchell Klein
URC Director of Business Development
I write the following with authority and experience: You don't need paid advertising to market your firm. Sure, it'd be nice to have a million bucks to spend on a national TV ad during the Super Bowl. (Heck, it'd be nice to have even a couple of thousand to run an ad in your local glossy magazine, right?) But even if you did, I'd still advise you to hang onto that money. Send me that $1 million and I'll get you far more publicity and sales leads... and still have just a little under $1 million left over for me to add to my retirement fund. Your company marketing initiative needs to be a carefully laid out plan, with all the parts and pieces integrated and built upon each other. Spending your hard-earned cash on paid advertising is really not a good place to start (though for sure it can be a solid ingredient in your plan). I can go on at great length about this topic (hit me up next time you see me), but for the purposes of this newsletter, here are a few very low-cost, easy-to-use tactics that should be a part of your master marketing plan. A solid website. This is your public persona, like it or not! No matter what you say or do, your website will likely be the first place potential clients go to get a feel for who you are and what you can do for them. You DO have a website, of course!?!? If not, you can create your own website with a wide variety of online services such as Go Daddy, Intuit, or Web.com, just to name a few. Or hire a firm to do it for you... just insist that you can add to and edit the site on your own. Some things to keep in mind with regards to your website:
Of course, everything ties together. Whatever you do on your website will be announced on your social sites; you'll embed YouTube videos on your website, and so on. I have so many more ideas, all easily implementable at very little-to-no cost. All you need is the desire and a few inexpensive tools. What are you waiting for? I'll teach a session on this very subject at the 2011 CEDIA EXPO. Just another great reason to make the trek to Indianapolis this September!
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 Cable Conversation
By Bill Baker
URC Vice President, National Accounts
Today's cable TV operator is facing competition from satellite, telephone and internet companies, all of whom are promising to deliver an entertainment experience similar to, or exactly like, cable TV. In my view, the key for cable in dealing with this increased competition is to step up its marketing push. Cable operators already spend a ton of money and resources on marketing, but they need to raise the intensity of their efforts even further. They must develop centrally-orchestrated and comprehensive year-long marketing plans. And they must spend aggressively in an investment mode, giving primary emphasis to forceful consumer advertising that increases awareness and penetration on a broad scale. Cable operators also should offer regular, high-impact quarterly events and sales promotions in order to heighten awareness and demand for cable TV and, in the process, further bolster cable TV's image, which is constantly under attack. Finally, cable operators should establish and develop ongoing training programs for their customer contact staff. We're here to help: Operators can use URC's resources (URC University, CD Tutorials, webinars) to keep their staff current on new technologies, and remote control products and features. By doing all of these things, cable operators will provide consumers a better, more positive sense of what cable TV really is, and what it can offer. And that will lead to easier sales, more upgrades, and increased retention.
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 In The Classroom
By John Martin
URC Online Training Manager, Training Administrator
Why is it that, when a class, seminar or even a webinar has the word "sales" in its title, it's as if 12 feet of snow just dropped and everyone disappears? Here's my take. It comes down to two things: ego and fear. Ego. Some salespeople and installers alike who've been around for a decade or longer might feel they don't need to attend any sales webinars. "I already know this stuff," they reason, "and I've been doing it for a long time." That's possibly the worst excuse I've ever heard. Anyone still in business who actually uses this logic is very lucky to still be in business. Ego should never get in the way of you taking a class, either live or webinar, with the word "sales" in the title. There is always, always something to learn that can only aid you and help increase your sales. Sure, some of it might be a rehash, but there might be one small nugget of information that sends your business through the roof. Fear. Why do people fear the word "sales"? It's pretty obvious, in my view. They either have no idea what they are doing, probably because they weren't properly trained, or they're afraid of being pushy, because they themselves don't like pushy salespeople. This is very foolish. Sales is necessary, especially now. Without sales, your business fails, period! Don't be afraid of sales. You don't need to be pushy in order to make a sale. You just need to be confident in what you're selling. We here at URC hold live trainings and webinars that deal with sales all the time. But we're surprised and disappointed to see that the attendance for these events is low when compared with our technical training events. We're here to help. Our business thrives only if your business thrives. Taking a sales class again is not going to hurt you. It's going to help you. So let go of your ego and confront your fear about sales. It'll make you a better salesperson and it will put more money in your pocket. That's the simple truth. Give sales training a chance and reap the benefits. You'll feel more motivated to go after those sales that others might shy away from. You'll keep your ears open, listen to what your clients are telling you, and feed off of it. You'll keep your mind open to what others have to say. You'll feel confident in what you are selling. And I can guarantee that your sales will go up, regardless of what the economy is doing. So join us for our next sales-oriented trainings (see our calendar here). We promise that it'll put a positive charge into your business!
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 Strictly Commercial
By Jamie Finnegan
URC North American Sales Manager, Commercial Division
This month's theme of "promote or perish" applies just as much to commercial integration as it does to residential integration. With that in mind, allow me to share my thoughts from the commercial side. In today's business world, we are all dealing with overwhelming pressure to work harder with less. It is imperative, then, that we don't take our eye off the ball. I know from experience that it's an insidious trap to focus too much "in the business" and not enough "on the business." Because revenue is more directly quantifiable to production rather than promotion, resource allocation to the promotional aspect of the business loses its importance with many dealers. We entered the commercial market last year with eyes wide open. We knew that the last thing commercial integrators needed was another control company offering the same old, same old. Our differentiator as a company has always been our value proposition, which has served us well for many years on the residential side of the business. We offer highly cost-effective products that are relatively easy to program and deploy; for example, our KP-4000 In-Wall Color Touchpad has an MSRP of only $599. Our highly flexible core control products hit the sweet spot for bread-and-butter commercial applications, and our CCP software empowers our dealers to deploy in a very efficient manner. To top it all off, our educational programs are second to none. The end result of our value proposition is that it directly translates into increased profitability for our dealers. By enabling improved fiscal solvency and speed of deployment for our dealers, it opens the door wide open for them to properly balance their resources for both production and promotion. As our economy's slow yet steady improvement continues, now is the time for both dealers and manufacturers to be opportunistic. Promotion is more important than ever in order to take advantage of the opportunities that are emerging. Together, URC and its commercial dealers can revolutionize commercial control. It all starts with freeing up–and using–those newly-found promotional dollars.
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 URC Tool Box App of the Month |
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| Animated GIFs for Onkyo, Denon, Sony, Rotel, JVC, URC... and Your Own Company |
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| Crank up the look and feel of your color remotes with these animated GIFs from one of our more popular sellers, schuyler333! Located in the Graphics Tool Box, these tools give you the opportunity to provide compelling, eye-popping buttons to your customers. The developer will even create custom GIFs for you! Interested? Search for "schuyler333" on the URC Tool Box and click the link "Show all tools posted by schuyler333" located to the right of any of this seller's tools, under Seller Profile. To access these and many more apps in the URC Tool Box, log on to the URC Control Room. Haven't checked out the Tool Box yet? What are you waiting for? Do it today! Just log onto the URC Control Room and click "URC Tool Box" on the left side of the home page.
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| URC Complete Control Partner of the Month: Grace Digital | ||||
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| What's Hot | ||||
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| International News | ||||
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URC's Scott Srolis, Lars Granoe and Jim Novak at ISE 2011.
"UK and European distributor BMB featured the new Total Control product line from URC, a move which transforms the company from providing handheld and wall-mounted control to a provider of whole-house systems. Scott Srolis from URC gave EI the lowdown and explains that the company has gradually been moving to the position for some time, but the rollout of the Total Control line enables URC to offer solutions that deliver whole house audio, automation, climate control, IP-based surveillance and more. With Total Control, it doesn't matter what protocols that control, devices and subsystems natively speak – IP, IR, RS-232, Relay or Sensor – any device can communicate with any other device. URC says Total Control enables integrators to build highly-functional, user-friendly whole house control experiences. Helping to deliver the package is the Advanced Network System Controller, the MRX-10. This is the link from the user's smart device and the control system. The rack-mountable MRX-10 stores and issues all macros and commands for all IP, IR, RS-232, Relay and Sensor controlled devices in one whole house system. It can also route macro steps to IR, RS-232, Relays and Sensors to up to eight MRX-1 Network Base Stations on the network. The MRX-10 provides two-way communication with Total Control remotes and keypads, and is expandable via LAN and MRX series sub-base stations."  As always, we appreciate the coverage from our industry press around the world! Our UK and Europe master distributor, BMB Electronics, kindly sent us some photos from both the URC ISE booth, and from the URC ISE reception at Granada Restaurant in Amsterdam, where much tapas and good cheer was shared with URC customers from throughout Europe!   
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www.universalremote.com
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