Philips boosts remote control offerings with groundbreaking technologies

Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Sep 07, 2006 - Philips Home Control has this year emphasized its role as a leader in the remote control market with the development of several pioneering technologies. Thanks to Philips innovations, it is now easier than ever for consumers to manage their home entertainment systems and other consumer devices from a distance in a straightforward, simplified fashion – truly delivering on the Philips brand promise of “Sense and Simplicity”.

Consumers are constantly having more and more types of home entertainment content made available to them, through an increasing number of sources. Philips believes that navigating through all this content should be as easy as selecting channels on a television. That’s why the company developed an advanced thumbwheel technology which – unlike pressing a button – makes it simple for users to scroll through large amounts of audio/video content like long playlists, with variable speed.

Together with ease of use, users also want the freedom to fully control their home entertainment equipment from wherever they are in the house. To address this need, Philips developed a two-way radio frequency technology (2-way RF) that sends back information from the equipment to the remote control. This solution lets users navigate through content directly on the screen of the remote, allowing them to view and select content from a different room.

Looking to the future, Philips has also been very proactive in developing the next generation of home control devices that are designed around the user. Imagine being able to control your television by simply pushing a button on the remote and saying “drama” to list all the drama channels, or by speaking the name of the channel you want to switch to. With Philips specialized voice remote technology, this is becoming reality.

Philips has also made it much easier to set up its universal remote controls to work with a large variety of components. In the past, setting up a universal remote control often resulted in frequent calls to customers’ helpdesks, tying up unnecessary resources. Thanks to an optimized database structure and improved user interaction – which allow for a faster set-up – Philips universal remotes are enabling customers to cut down on their helpdesk calls. The first application of this technology can be found in the new remote of Kabel Deutschland.

“Home entertainment equipment is becoming increasingly complex, and more and more of these different components are linked in a home network,” said Jean-Paul Abrams, Global Commercial Manager, Home Control, Philips Consumer Electronics. “Consumers are looking for solutions that are easy and intuitive to set-up, straightforward to control, and work as expected. Our innovations in home controls make it possible for them to realize their needs.”