Universal Remote

My First Weekend with the URC MX-5000

2009-11-09T11:31:00.004-05:00

By Charles Thompson
President, Sell-Through Solutions, Inc.

When the Universal Remote Control (URC) MX-5000 Network Wand was on its way to my home, I was thinking, wow, $1200 for a universal remote control. What could it possibly do to justify its cost? I sat and looked at all the gear that the MX-5000 would soon command. The Pioneer Kuro plasma TV. The Shanling tube CD player. The DIRECTV HD DVR. The PlayStation 3. The Pioneer Elite receiver.

Then it dawned on me. Most of that stuff just sits there in the rack, regarding me impassively with unblinking red and blue LEDs. It had been more than a year since I even touched the DVR.

On the other hand, during any home entertainment session, a good universal remote gets a spirited workout: adjusting settings and navigating menus; recording and playing back shows; channel surfing; skipping commercials and Monday Night Football's dreadful halftime highlights; on-the-fly volume adjustments to allow commentary during bad SyFy channel movies; skipping back to replay all those "what the hell was that" moments from "Fringe;" cranking both guitar solos in "Comfortably Numb;" muting those repulsive Geico commercials with the money and the eyeballs and the maddening song.

A remote in my system has to be tough enough to withstand well over 100 button presses a day, and smart enough to flawlessly engage a complex series of commands (a macro) with a single button push. With more than 28 years in the A/V business, you can imagine the Who's Who of fancy remotes that have paraded through my system. Several years ago, I bought URC's stellar MX-700, then upgraded to the MX-850, and never looked back. Both remotes are hard-button types which, after trying a variety of touchscreen remotes, I strongly prefer. So it was with some trepidation that I considered replacing my beloved MX-850 with the MX-5000, which not only sports a touchscreen interface (mixed with hard buttons), but a touchscreen interface on steroids. The MX-5000 is the first handheld universal remote that features haptic touch feedback: when you touch a button on the smooth glass touchscreen, it actually feels like a button, with a satisfying vibration pushback. The MX-5000 also features:

A big, fully customizable, 320 x 240-pixel brilliant color screen, with fluid, animated page transitions.

Wi-Fi capability for control of companion networked devices, and for accessing Internet info such as weather, news, stocks, and sports.

Complete control and display of iPod functions (with the optional PSX-2 Personal Server).

Native lighting control-just add dimmers and/or switches, and program right from the remote.

2-way Wi-Fi operation and display of Wi-Fi-enabled receivers from Denon, Yamaha, Integra, and more. Control and view AM/FM/Sirius Radio stations, volume, etc. from the MX-5000 screen.

PC Server application that converts any PC with iTunes or Windows Media Player into a music server controllable by the MX-5000, complete with album art and other metadata on the color touchscreen.

The remote ships with no setup software, as URC insists that the device be programmed by a professional System Integrator who has been trained on URC's Complete Control Program (CCP) software. And, rightfully so, because the software has a challenging learning curve. Not for nothing does URC maintain a massive installer training initiative, with professional in-house instructors augmented by a comprehensive training website. I took advantage of all of the above, attending two of URC's excellent, self-paced MX-5000 installer training modules before I even cracked the manual. Once inside the manual, I tried my usual practice of skipping around to the good parts, and quickly discovered that, to make the most of the MX-5000, I would need to read the whole 96-page thing. You read it right, 96 pages. Still want to program this remote yourself?

After playing with the MX-850 software for years, I found that the MX-5000 version ain't your daddy's remote programming software. It does a lot more, simply because the remote itself does a lot more. This is the longest review I've ever written, and it would be twice this long if I provided more than a sideways glance at the bottomless capabilities and customizations of the MX-5000.

Anyone familiar with the Microsoft Office 2007 suite will recognize the CCP software's easy-to-navigate Ribbon interface. You hit the Program tab to start programming (logical!), and the Ribbon steps you through the programming steps sequentially. First, you add all your gear, and it's extremely likely that URC already has all your remote codes in its database. So that step is simple. Then you put all the buttons exactly where you want them, size them, and make them look like anything you wish. The software comes with a ton of beautiful buttons, from hi-res TV station icons, to the logos of all the popular brands of gear, to blank buttons in myriad colors. You can make your own buttons in Photoshop, Microsoft Paint, etc., which I did, because my Photoshop kung fu is strong, and my homemade buttons look badass. And every button label can say whatever you want it to say, in a variety of fonts, font colors, and font sizes. I made all my channel number buttons real big, so my aging eyes won't have to squint.

Of course, the MX-5000 can learn remote commands, in the unlikely event that you have a remote control that isn't in the database. The software also steps you through setting up optional RF control (for controlling equipment beyond the line of sight), and connecting the MX-5000 to your Wi-Fi network. After all that, you program macros. A macro lets the remote perform a slew of commands with a single button push. You could, for example, push a macro button you call "Play Blu-ray": the curtains part, the lighting dims, the screen lowers, the receiver turns on (or switches to Blu-ray), the TV turns on (or switches to the appropriate HDMI input), the Blu-ray player begins to play. You can create macros for All System On and All System Off. You can create macros for pretty much any sequence of commands you can imagine, and assign them to any button you please.

If you're an end-user reading this, you should be thankful that URC only allows the MX-5000 to be programmed by a pro. You may be a genius, but you'd still be messing with this thing three sleepless days later, and one of your friends would have to drive you to the Cuckoo's Nest. Nine out of ten users will be stumped trying to sync the remote to a Vista or Windows 7 computer (there's an easy little tweak that I guarantee you don't know), effectively grounding them before they even get out of the gate. If you're a pro (ostensibly, like me), you may be alarmed that my first complete MX-5000 programming took six hours. But, that was with all the reading and the two online classes, and the additional reading (because I may be just a little dense), and the rookie programming mistakes. I could do the job a second time in less than two hours from scratch, and the third time, maybe 90 minutes. And here's the beauty part: As an installer, you can archive everything-devices, buttons, layouts, etc. So, if I wanted to program another MX-5000 with the same gear, it would take mere minutes. For System Integrators who sell favorite system combos often, this feature is a godsend.

I finally got the MX-5000 programmed, and I'm ready to use it. First, how does $1200 feel in your hand? As Larry David would say: pretty, pretty, pretty good. Actually, amazing. If you've used one of URC's remotes before, you know that this company gets ergonomics in a big way. The MX-5000 gets ergonomics, squared. The whole presentation is very Bang & Olufsen, very Museum of Modern Art Industrial Design Award. The svelte form factor somehow hits the perfect balance between the male and female hand. Thank goodness it's almost impossible to wear the finish off a URC remote, because you'll be fondling this thing a lot.

The hard buttons have a superb feel, and their shapes are nicely differentiated, so you can learn to feel your way around them in a darkened theater, without looking at the remote. Not that finding buttons is gonna be a problem. The display is simply beautiful, and I mean iPhone-beautiful, not remote control-beautiful. The button icon I made for "CD" is a photo of my tube CD player, which is a pretty complex-looking piece of work. On the MX-5000's color touchscreen, you can actually tell what it is! The color touchscreen and the backlit hard buttons "wake up" instantly when you pick up the remote, and time out at a duration of your choosing. The default settings are bright enough that the remote's screen looks like a mini-HDTV when you pick it up, and it's even bright enough to easily see outdoors. Of course, all this color and brightness take a toll on power consumption. My completely-unlit MX-850 could go for months on four AAA batteries. The MX-5000 might get you through two full evenings of entertainment before it needs to go into its charging cradle. You'll just get into the habit of charging it every night, especially when you see how artful it looks, poised in that gloss black cradle.

Each of the hard buttons is brilliantly backlit in classy white light, and they don't use that crude, Pong-looking lettering. These buttons are absolutely hi-res and high-end. The main hard button on the remote ("Select") feels so enticing, I keep thinking up excuses to press it. The lighting, and lighting timeout, for the hard buttons-and for the touchscreen-are fully customizable from the remote (so you don't have to be a pro to do it).

The haptic touchscreen feedback alone is enough to make me kick all other remotes to the curb. It feels so massively cool and provides such satisfying feedback to your commands, you'll even start to think that the vaunted iPod Touch buttons are crude by comparison. For the first time, someone has solved my primary gripe with touchscreens: that you actually know, immediately and without a doubt, when you nailed the button. Of course, it was impossible to solve my secondary gripe with touchscreens: they only look flawless until you touch them. After that, well…more than cats and dogs, more than snakes-humans are just plain greasy creatures. You can wash your hands until sunup, but after just a few minutes of operating a touchscreen, it looks like you first mainlined Kentucky Fried Chicken with a chaser of Orville Redenbacher Movie Theater Butter. So, keep the supplied cleaning cloth nearby.

URC moved the hard buttons around, so my favorites (Guide, Info, Play, Pause, Stop, Skip, Record) don't line up with my old MX-850, and they don't quite line up with remotes from DIRECTV, TiVo, or Dish. Also, to make the remote more petite, you don't get hard buttons for the number keypad anymore. Those go up to a page on the touchscreen. At first, this was all highly frustrating. It reminded me of last month, when I decided, after 11 years, that the fung shui of my office dictated I move my phone from the left side of the desk to the right. For two weeks I swung and missed at the phantom phone on the left. Now, it's second-nature to reach to the right, and I've similarly already gotten used to the new button placements on the MX-5000. And, with the number keypad on the touchscreen, it gives me way more opportunities to play with the intoxicating haptic feedback buttons.

This review goes on forever, doesn't it? And I've only scratched the surface of what this remote can do. Right now, I'm checking the weather via Wi-Fi on the MX-5000 touchscreen in five cities simultaneously with one button push. I installed a URC MRF-260 RF receiver, so now I don't have to aim the remote anymore. I have an iPod Touch, so I may just get into controlling that as well. (The MX-5000 actually adds some secret iPod controls that even the iPod doesn't have!) Of course, I gotta try that PC media control, seeing as it's free and all.

When you invest in the one device that you'll interface with more than all other devices combined, in my opinion, you need to really, really dig it. I dig the MX-5000 the most. Is it worth $1200?

And then some.

Copy What?

2009-10-20T09:33:00.003-04:00

A few days ago I was asked about the legality of sharing or selling MX-6000 templates that contain images from professional sports teams. Today I'd like to share the answer with you, because I suspect the same question has come up with many installers from time to time.

First off: these days the terms "copyright" and "copy protection" tend to get used interchangeably, even though they are very different things. In fact, they actually have very different goals. Copy protection is a physical or electronic means of attempting to stop you from ever making a duplicate of some form of media. Copyright is a legal status, establishing someone as the owner of a piece of media that they created. Copyright doesn't protect you as the licensee of a piece of media you've purchased—it protects the rights of the creator of that media from unauthorized distribution.

Many people think that media must have some form of copyright marking on it to be covered by copyright. That's not true. A few decades ago, the law was changed so that the act of creating media automatically grants you the copyright to that media. You don't have to file any papers or pay any fees. If you produce a creative work, you are now the owner of that work, by law. Feel free to slap a name, date, and copyright symbol on there if you want. But you don't have to do that. You can file for a copyright, which makes defending yourself in court and/or receiving damages for violation much, much easier should you ever need to do so, but again, it's not required.

Here's a little primer on how copyright applies to programming control systems:

Unless you have written permission, distributing someone else's copyrighted material, even for free, is a violation of copyright law. And in the case of remote programming, there's really no way to separate the programming from the graphics.

As an example, imagine if someone copied images of Mickey Mouse, framed them, then sold the result for $50. They might assert that they are selling the frame, but giving away the image of Mickey Mouse. In this case, the copyrighted image still adds value to the sales proposition, even if it is not explicitly paid for. So the seller is in violation of the law.

However, in that same example, you can't even give away the copied images of Mickey Mouse. The reason is that copyright law grants the copyright holder the right to establish the price for their work. If, for example, the holder establishes a price of $10 for the image of Mickey Mouse, then you give away that image, you have caused material damage to the copyright holder, even though you did not profit yourself.

And the final factor in this is when the copyright holder establishes a price of zero for the work: even then, copyright law grants the copyright holder the sole right to determine how their work is distributed. Even when the original image is free, you can't give away copies of Mickey Mouse because, legally, you are using someone else's property in a manner they have not authorized. If this weren't the law, any non-profit organization could use images of Mickey Mouse to try to get people to believe there was a connection between their cause and the owners of the Mickey Mouse copyright.

So clearly, you can get in big trouble for including copyrighted images in your remote programming. The exceptions to this are when you're the copyright holder, or have written permission from the copyright holder. But be careful here too: if you strap on your telephoto lens and head out to the football stadium to take your own photos of your favorite team, remember that you're photographing something that's already protected by copyright. The team logos, the design of their uniforms, and even their specific color schemes are often protected by copyright. Just being the photographer doesn't automatically grant you the rights to sell your own photos, believe it or not!

If you want to use custom images in your programming, I suggest getting a membership to one of the online stock photo sites, such as Fotolia.com. Sites like that let you inexpensively purchase the right to use a photo in your work, keeping your legal footing solid and your profits in your pocket, right where they belong.

Outside the Box (or circle, in this case)

2009-06-12T10:15:00.002-04:00

The MX-6000 has a feature that no previous URC remote has included: the combination 5-way and scroll wheel. I love the scroll wheel for page flipping (that feature is included in all the default MX-6000 templates). It’s also used extensively in some of the two-way modules for the MX-6000. The other day I was reading through the posts on the URC Control Room forum and came across a question about how to reduce the sensitivity of the scroll wheel on the MX-6000.

I replied that yes, there’s an easy way to reduce the sensitivity using variables. I gave the following example for the macro I use in my left scroll function:

IF (Variable(ScrollLeft),True)
.….Jump (Page-)
.….VAR (ScrollLeft = FALSE)
..ELSE
.….VAR (ScrollLeft = TRUE)

This works pretty well because it requires two scroll events to occur before issuing the Page- jump command. I patted myself on the back, posted the solution, and casually mentioned that you could make the scroll wheel even less sensitive by using the same technique, but nesting multiple variables and IF statements. I didn’t bother to explain how, because thinking about it gave me a Slurpee headache. I figured that anyone dedicated enough would figure out what I meant. They could have the headache instead of me.

I consider myself to be a fairly skilled MX-6000 programmer. Working for URC doesn’t hurt in that regard. But stop to consider the engineering team that designs Formula-1 race cars. Those are really smart folks, but I doubt a single one of them could qualify for a Formula-1 race if they had to sit behind the wheel themselves. Sure, they can probably out-drive you or me, but their specialty is in making the car. Driving it is a whole other art, and that’s where professional drivers shine.

Recognizing this, I mentioned my little Scroll Sensitivity solution to my good friend Bracken Baker over at tripleBsoftware. He’s a really polite guy, so instead of breaking out in a round of belly-busting guffaws, he kindly said, “Yeah, that’ll work.” But then, as I expected he would, he quickly showed me a sample of code with a multi-variable solution that made my solution look clunky.

I very nearly posted that solution to URC Control Room, but then Bracken said, “WAIT!!”

Spend enough time around brilliant engineers and you’ll learn that “WAIT” means My brain just told me there’s a better solution, but it hasn’t told me what words to use to describe it yet! But before he could get the new idea fully typed, he jumped in again with, “HOLD ON!!” With our previous example, I’m sure you understand that “HOLD ON” means I’ve got an even BETTER idea! So I held… uh… on.

Bracken’s mind went through several iterations of the problem, considering angles I’d never have thought of. He wanted the solution to work well and be dead-simple to implement. Before I knew it, he came up with a way that any MX-6000 programmer can adjust the sensitivity of the MX-6000 scroll wheel without using any variables at all!

Bracken’s solution takes advantage of the often-misunderstood Toggle feature. It’s just downright genius, so I wanted to share it with you here:

TOGGLE
.….TEXT (hold)
.….JUMP (Page-)

The beauty of this solution is that the TEXT step doesn’t really do anything except “waste” a step of the Toggle command. Specifically, it tells the left scroll function to display the text “hold.” But since there’s no button text on the scroll wheel, “hold” never appears. However, while not displaying anything, the remote is also waiting for the user to continue moving the scroll wheel. It’s only when the wheel has moved enough times to step through all the toggle steps that the remote finally issues the “Jump (Page-)” command.

So in three lines of code, Bracken accomplished what took me five lines, plus I had to create and name the macro in the first place.

But it gets better. Because if I wanted my solution to reduce the sensitivity of the wheel any further, I had to nest IF’s and add more variables, putting me right back in SlurpeeTown. But Bracken’s solution is elegant: just keep adding TEXT statements until you reach the level of sensitivity you want. Here’s the same macro, made four times less sensitive:

TOGGLE
.….TEXT (hold)
.….TEXT (hold)
.….TEXT (hold)
.….TEXT (hold)
.….JUMP (Page-)

See how that works? Each TEXT command adds a tiny delay, then the Toggle function waits for the scroll wheel to continue moving before finally landing on the JUMP command, which actually issues the page flip.

So there you have it—a super-simple way to make the MX-6000 scroll wheel precisely as sensitive as you want it to be. Once you understand the technique, it’s easy to see ways to do things like give audio feedback to the wheel (add a “tick” sound after the jump) or turn it into an absolute volume control (add discrete RS-232 volume commands to each step of the Toggle control), or a thousand other cool ideas. It’s a whole new way of thinking of the scroll wheel!

My thanks again to Bracken for helping me out and coming up with this cool technique. It’s the Formula-1 drivers like him that prevent us regular-old programmers from having Brain Freeze on an everyday basis.

The Best Connections – Part II

2009-06-06T21:39:00.010-04:00

In my last entry I talked about the unexpected professional benefits that friendships can bring into your life. Over the course of your life, you’ve probably known a lot more people than you know right now. So I’d like to talk a bit about the benefits of reconnecting with long lost friends.

Ever since I was in junior high I’ve had a hobby of writing horror/thrillers and science fiction. I never imagined myself becoming the next Stephen King or Dean Koontz. I never even imagined that my job would ever be writing novels. But I always dreamed that one day I’d be able to walk into a book store or log on to Amazon.com, see something I wrote, and quietly whisper to myself, “That’s mine. I did that.” Beyond that, I always hoped that someday something I’d written would be adapted to the big screen. And that’s where I left my hobby, my dream, because like everyone else, I’ve got bills to pay.

Recently URC created a page on Facebook. I wasn’t a Facebook user at the time, and I admit that like many of you, I snickered when I heard what we were doing. Social networking? What was that? It seemed goofy to me. But the guy at URC who came up with the idea asked us to check out Facebook so we’d know what it was all about. Maybe we might want to create our own page there. I did.

Now I just wish I had been the person who came up with the idea.

Within days of joining Facebook, I reconnected with dozens of friends I’d lost contact with. I didn’t know where to start, but that was okay, because mostly they found me. People I never thought would remember me came calling with open arms. I learned of a high school reunion I would otherwise have missed. I told everyone my ups and downs, what I’ve done for all these years, and what I’m up to now.

And I learned their stories too. Some of them, it turns out, use some of the software I helped design or wrote the manuals for in my positions at previous jobs. Some even use the very products I help to design for URC. Once again, I got to feel like a rock star for half an hour. A few of my old friends remembered my writing from school and asked if I’d ever finished any of those book ideas I’d always talked about. So I told them about the books I’ve completed and some that are still in the oven.

One friend asked where she could buy a copy of a novel I mentioned, so I sent her a copy. She read the novel and enjoyed it. And then she said she’d told a close friend about the book, and he wanted to read it too. So she asked if I would mind if she shared the book with him. I agreed because hey, I love it when anyone reads my writing. (Shameless plug: Search the Books section on Amazon.com for “Dale Crawford The Price,” or check out the first 35 pages at http://www.lulu.com/browse/preview.php?fCID=6561409. I’d love to hear your thoughts!)

An amazing opportunity came about due to that long-lost friend asking about my novel. It turns out that her good friend just so happened to be an executive at a major film studio. He wasn’t just wanting to read the book… he wanted to consider it. So there I was, mailing off a requested copy of my novel to a person whose in-box I could otherwise never have seen without breaking and entering.

I’m not getting too worked up about where things might go from here, of course—the studio probably discards a hundred novels like mine a day. But it was pretty exciting for me to know it was even being read by someone at that level! If everything worked out the best it could, the sale of the movie rights wouldn’t mean a career change for a first-time author. I’d still be right here designing remote controls, and loving it! But I’d have the opportunity to do something else I’ve dreamed of since childhood: I could walk by a movie poster, smile, and know inside, “I did that!”

But that’s just a dream. That same Facebook page has allowed me to help one friend find a job in this tough economy. Another of my friends is now a client of an installer I know. But I never set out to “market” to anyone or to “expand my contact list.” No, all I did was say, “hello world,” in a medium that was new to me. I’m still amazed at how much the world has said in reply.

So go check out URC’s Facebook page. Friend it. Start your networking circle there, then maybe expand to LinkedIn or some of the other more “serious” social networking sites. It’s a digital world out there, and if you’re not participating in the social aspect of it, you’re missing a big part of what’s going on.

But more importantly, it will build and rebuild the best connections. It will open you up to new opportunities—probably ones you will never realize exist until you hop on the social networking bandwagon.

The Best Connections – Part I

2009-06-01T11:05:00.005-04:00

I’m not writing today about HDMI or $200 per-foot component cables, so you may wonder for a while if what I’ve got to say relates to your job. But bear with me—it does.

One year as my wedding anniversary approached, my wife knew that I was tired of the coffee table clutter. I was a home theater geek, so she started looking in that direction for an anniversary gift. Her gift to me was my first PC-programmable universal remote. It was the same green-backlit, grayscale touch screen that most of you once programmed professionally and eventually abandoned in frustration because programming took so long per client that you couldn’t make any money selling them.

But I was a hobbyist, so I stuck with it, determined to make my remote do things it was simply never designed to do. Eventually I was proud of what I’d accomplished, so I uploaded my file to a popular web site. It was there that my work caught the attention of Eric Johnson, a guy who was well known in our industry, but unknown to hobbyists like me. Eric contracted me for some graphics work from time to time, but mostly we just struck up a friendship. At the time, I didn’t expect that friendship to ever affect me professionally.

The files I had posted online elicited a lot of commentary on the forums, so around that time I coined a term to describe home theater components that fail to offer the discrete IR codes installers need for good automation. I wanted the term to imply an insult, so I came up with “Toggle-Only Actuated Device,” or “TOAD.” Eric Johnson picked up the term and used it in his trainings, presentations, and documentation. Due to his frequent use of the term, I succeeded at one of my geeky lifetime goals as a writer: I “invented” a word that has come into relatively common use.

That’s something I probably would have never accomplished without my friendship with Eric Johnson. And that’s a connection that paid off in more ways than one. Back then I was working as a technical writer and user interface designer for a struggling firm that finally hit their last hurdle and had to shut my department down. The layoff notices were a big shock in a tough economy. But later that day, by pure chance, I got a call from Eric at Universal Remote Control asking if I would come aboard full time. Amazingly, even after an unexpected layoff, I didn’t go a single day without a paycheck. Now I am part of a team that designs the products your clients use every day. To a geek like me, that’s pretty close to being a rock star.

Inventing a new word or designing consumer electronics may not be line items on your bucket list, but they are both very big things to me. I probably would have accomplished neither of them without putting forth the effort to maintain my friendships. The fulfillment of both goals came out of left field when I least expected them.

The point in all of this is probably obvious by now. Yes, the Federal Reserve says the economy is starting to improve. But that doesn’t mean we won’t see good days and bad days going forward. The quality of your tomorrows, quite often, is a direct reflection of the connections you make today.

You give your best to your clients. Be sure to also give your best to your friends, your family, and to yourself. The payoff comes in the enrichment of your life. Sure, you expect that personally, but you'll be amazed at how much those personal connections can mean professionally as well.

A Genuine Smile

2009-04-06T09:27:00.004-04:00

I admit that I was born a pessimist, and have to willfully look for the bright side of things most of the time. So as the U.S.A. has navigated our way through some challenging economic times recently, it would probably stand to reason that I would be one of the first to see the trend as a terrifying one.

But I don't. Quite the opposite, in fact.

Probably the oldest folk saying I can remember learning is the truism, "Every dark cloud has a silver lining." For me, that has always been a very important sentence, because it's often the thing that helps me realize that my natural pessimism is a flawed point of view. It helps me look for what's right in the world, not just what I think needs to be fixed. Right now there are plenty of things we'd all like to see fixed in our economy, and there's no shortage of ideas about the right way to go about it.

But I posit that real change doesn't usually come in the form of a government bail-out or new laws or regulations. Yes, those things affect us, but generally, they tend to come in the form of news that we hear is going to improve our world, but we never actually feel the impact as the real effects slowly trickle into our daily lives. But as I've learned to do, I've noticed a silver lining in the economic challenges we're currently seeing. And it's a silver lining that I really, really like.

If you pay attention, you'll notice that suddenly, the cashier at your local grocery is smiling at you more. The guy behind the counter at the local tire and lube shop seems genuinely happy to have your business. And your local fast food burger joint takes a lot more care to get your order correct the first time. I'm sure part of it is simple: these people are thankful to have their jobs, and that makes them happier. But the business owners who train and manage these employees are also taking the time to make customer service their number one priority. And it's a welcome turnaround for something that's been in decay for a couple of decades now.

I'm no MBA, but my perception over the last thirty years has been that somewhere along the way, the business community figured out how to factor great customer service into the cost of doing business. And for many businesses, great customer service probably cost a lot more than "pretty good" customer service. So the old adage "The customer is always right" slowly died off, replaced with a spreadsheet and an actuarial table that indicated how often, and in what circumstances, it was okay to be nicer than profit allowed. If you're staring at the bottom line, I imagine that spreadsheet is your best friend. But when the guy behind the counter would lose his job if he exchanged your faulty MP3 player one day after the store's 30-day return policy, those formulas for factoring customer service don't look very much like customer service at all.

But a funny thing has happened now that times are a little tougher. A genuine smile is now worth more than the value in "Column J," and helping you to your car carries your goodwill all the way home and back again these days. Just take a look around you and you'll see it. Customer Service is back. The real kind. The kind of service that comes from someone who knows that you truly are the reason they get to come to work every day. People are thankful for their jobs, and they're thankful to you for your business. If we're all lucky, as the economy turns around (and there's very good evidence to suggest the tide has already turned), we'll all remember how far those smiles go, and how valuable those customers are.

I got lucky on this one. I just happened to notice the change one day, before my natural pessimism managed to form an opinion about it. But if you haven't already noticed, take a look around. I think it will make you smile. But if by chance I'm wrong, and your corner of the world hasn't yet seen a return to heartfelt customer service, don't fret. If it's in you, it will soon be all around you. Just spend an extra five minutes with a client who seems a little confused today, or take the time to mail out the product manuals you forgot to leave with that customer last week, and include a thank-you note for their business.

Great customer service starts small, with just a smile. But it grows fast, it grows powerfully, and it takes on a life of its own that will improve your workday, your customer's day and, oh yes... your bottom line. It's funny how that works.

You CAN Take it With You, Part II

2009-02-03T09:08:00.004-05:00

When I started at URC several years ago, my first task was to design and administer URC Control Room. It has a far better architect now, and a far better administrator. Though URC Control Room was my baby, it's grown into the internet equivalent of a teenager. I say teenager instead of adult because I know of some great upcoming features that I can't talk about yet. Yes, it's really cool to to see the site blossom under the guidance of its new "parents."

But because my email address was on about twenty thousand registration confirmation emails, I still regularly get questions about the site. Again, like a teenager there are things about my own creation that I no longer understand. So I'm happy to answer the questions I can, and I forward the rest to the new team.

One question I used to get from time to time was, "I'm changing jobs. Can I still log on to URC Control Room?"

And the answer to that is, "Yes. Resoundingly, yes."

You may have noticed when you signed up that memberships to URC Control Room are personal. Heck, the registration form even has a section for your personal cell phone, if you're willing to share it. When your company received a registration code from your rep or distributor, it came with instructions that the code was to be used by each team member, to create his or her own personal account. In fact, there's no such thing as a company account on URC Control Room.

Why? Because you're a custom installation professional, and URC Control Room is your place. If you change jobs or if your company falls on bad times, that doesn't change the fact that you're trained in URC custom installation and programming. Your account belongs to you. That's why the site rules forbid anyone from sharing their login information.

So don't forget that if you decide on a change of venue, or if that decision is made for you by outside forces, you are most welcome here in URC Control Room. We've got a constantly growing curriculum of web-based training to keep you current during any down time. We've got the software tools you need to stay in practice. And we've got a community of like-minded people to share ideas with.

So if I didn't say it personally when you created your URC Control Room account, I'll say it now: Welcome aboard! We hope you stay a while. Make this your home away from home. Or... work away from work. Or... work away from home.

Something like that, anyway.

You CAN Take it With You

2009-01-30T16:36:00.003-05:00

If you've been following developments at URC lately, you probably already know that we recently issued a Live Update to Complete Control Program (CCP) that adds support for the MX-980. It's no longer a secret that CCP is URC's "one stop" editing platform for future remotes, but now it's clear that over time we'll be adding some of the current models to the new editor.

So even if your shop isn't an MX-6000 shop, now's definitely the time to start getting accustomed to the streamlined way CCP does things. Don't worry... it's not an alien environment or anything. In fact, the same Program Menu workflow you learned in MX-Editor is still in place here—it just looks a wee bit different. And the changes are all there for good reason: we took a lot of care to find ways to make it easier for you to do your job faster. Hey, we're no spring chickens here. We know that taking steps to make you more profitable is the way we earn your business.

So here's another little time-saving tip you might not have thought of. Every installer gets stuck on a job site one time or another without a laptop and the faces the client who suddenly has a list of changes he wants on the control system. So now you've got to roll the truck back to the office, make the changes or grab the laptop, and head back out to tweak the customer's remote. In these economic times, I'm betting the customer didn't want to pay for that, either. Am I right?

Well, did you know that you can load CCP onto a USB flash drive and take it with you wherever you go? That's right. And what's more... it's easy. No registry keys to edit, no special codes to input. All you have to do is navigate to C:\Program Files\Universal Remote Control, Inc and find the Complete Control Program folder. Make a copy of that folder on your thumb drive. You're done. Now CCP is always ready, right there in your pocket.

To run CCP, just go into the Complete Control Program on your thumb drive and double click the CCP.exe icon. (Your computer may just show "CCP" if known file extensions are turned off.) To make it a teenie bit easier to run CCP from your thumb drive, you can also go into the Complete Control Program folder on your thumb drive and create a shortcut to CCP.exe, then copy that shortcut to the root of your thumb drive. But you don't have to.

As long as you've got a USB cable handy, you're ready to go. URC remotes use the standard mini USB connector, so even if you don't have a cable, there's a fair chance your client does. The same cable they use for their MP3 player, digital camera, or cell phone will usually work with the remote. If the connector fits correctly in the remote, it's the right cable! For the MSC-400, the cable is identical to the USB cables used for nearly all modern USB printers, scanners, or USB hubs. There's a really good chance the client has one.

Oh, but what about drivers, you ask! Don't worry, they're right there in your pocket too. Directly inside the Complete Control Program folder, there are folders for each of the devices that CCP currently supports. Inside that folder is a folder called Drivers, and you can find Windows XP and Vista drivers there. The Found New Hardware wizard will bug you for these drivers when you plug in the remote. So if you're on a client site and need to use someone else's computer, you have everything you need to edit their file.

And most important, don't forget that your client's file is right there on the remote. You can upload the file directly into CCP and start editing right away. Just be sure to save a copy back to your thumb drive when you're done so you can archive the client's most recent file when you get back to the office. (And no, CCP won't be installed on your client's computer. It stays completely on the thumb drive. Only the tiny drivers for the remote remain on the client's PC.)

Of course, coming prepared is always best. But in the real world, sometimes you get thrown a curve ball. Keeping a handy copy of CCP in your pocket can help you avoid that unprofitable truck roll on those days when the client's mind is going in a different direction than the one for which he called you.

Things to be Happy About: 2008

2008-12-29T16:56:00.020-05:00

Enough of the bad news already! Stop paying so much attention to the national media and "if it bleeds, it leads" mentality that so pervades everything we see, read and hear. To help further the happy view that "any day I wake up is a great day" I am proud to present my rose colored glasses view of the world.

Here are the Mitch Klein Top Ten Things to be happy about 2008:

10) Good news! The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) — the massive particle accelerator straddling the Swiss-French border — didn't destroy the world! The contraption didn't really work either. Maybe THAT was the good news?
9) iPhone 3G and the newest software release that actually makes the iPhone a pretty decent phone.
8) Chicago Cubs made it an even 100 years in a row without a championship ring. Nothing like keeping a streak alive!
7) Another Indiana Jones film. One of the most entertaining film trilogies lives on. Who said anything about the importance of storylines and acting anyway?
6) HDTV hits the mainstream. Now EVERYBODY has one. Let's make sure everybody soon gets two. Or Three. Or how about that front projector system for the REAL big screen experience?
5) Oil prices drop to new lows. Those $4 gallon prices really did WAKE UP AMERICA and as long as we continue to press for green, efficiency, and energy alternatives, these low prices will help us all get to work in the morning. Let's keep innovating...
4) A new President was elected, and proved Americans really can share a positive view of the future. Even though it took 8 years to find it.
3) Quality TV gets a lift from AMC (Mad Men) and FX (The Shield), proving to the world that compelling programming is not only possible on commercial television, it's achievable! Networks, pay attention: we're on to you! We know that reality shows are just an uncreative and lazy way for you to grab advertising money.
2) Boston Celtics return to greatness. Remember when basketball was a team sport? It's Baaaack...
1) URC launched our first 2-way touchscreen remote. Now what could be better? How about even more cool stuff in 2009....

Do you have any to add to this list? I'd love to read them! Please comment below!

Meanwhile, stay tuned. More things to be happy about will be appearing here shortly. And to all a happy & healthy New Year!

This Year and Next

2008-12-24T12:33:00.004-05:00

SPOILER ALERT: I get sappy at Christmas. If you don't want to read anything positive and cheerful, turn back now, because the next four paragraphs will either make you smile or gag. Whichever path you choose, I wish you the very best.

Wow... another year has come and gone. It seems like only yesterday I was preparing for the holidays with the cool little secret about URC's two-way MX-6000 stowed quietly away in my desk. It's always cool to watch the evolution of a product as it makes it way to market. It's even nicer when all that hard work pays off with a product that installers immediately see the value of, and are eager to spec into their jobs.

There's no doubt that this year saw more than its fair share of challenges. It would be pretentious to ignore the economic environment we find ourselves in today. However, as all cycles do, these challenging times will also come to an end, and before we know it, we'll all be up to our ears in the jobs that "had to wait" when times didn't look so cheery. So as I look forward now to 2009, I'm keeping a bright eye on the potential for a better year. This year the United States had a historical presidential election, the iPhone changed the way we all think about software distribution, and HDTV finally took center stage in the average American home. Some of these events are more important than others, and there are many more I won't list here, but the important point is that this has actually been a pretty amazing year if you really look at it.

In the coming year URC has some cool things in store. Some of them you know about already; others you don't. I find myself thankful to be a part of this great team, who so tirelessly dedicate themselves to providing the best solutions for installers. I wish I could pull back the curtain and show the whole world how much my co-workers put into bringing you these products, but alas, doing so would tip our hand regarding what's heading your way next. So let it suffice to say that as this year comes to a close, I am proud and honored to live in this great land, and to be one of the people who helps bring some really cool products to installers and their clients.

Thanks to all of you who specify and install URC products. And a very happy holiday to each and every one of you. As I tug back the edge of the curtain just a tiny little bit, the one thing I can reveal is that things are happy back here. I sincerely wish all of you the same happiness, and even greater prosperity for the coming year.

Hey Buddy... Can You Spare a Paint Brush?

2008-12-12T09:10:00.004-05:00

Since I'm the guy who does most of the graphics for URC's graphical remotes, I get a lot of emails asking me questions about... well... graphics. Besides the number one question ("Will you draw this or that for me?"—to which my answer is nearly always, "I'll put you in my queue, and your number should come up sometime around February, 2047), the second most common question I get is, "What program do you recommend for making my own graphics for my client's remotes?"

The answer to that one is tricky. You see, my personal choice for a graphics editor is a little-known, seldom used graphics program that was designed and built for the sole purpose of creating the user interfaces for web sites. Web sites and touch screens have a lot in common. Primarily, what appears to be a single image in both is really composed of bits and pieces of smaller images, arranged nicely to create the illusion of a seamless user interface. So I use Fireworks by Adobe to design nearly all of the graphics you see on URC remotes. (Yeah, I've got a few tricks up my sleeve with other programs, but Fireworks covers the groundwork for me.)

The other reason I use Fireworks is that it was originally published by Macromedia, who was purchased, lock, stock, and barrel, by Adobe a few years back. The only reason this is relevant is that before I came to work at Universal Remote Control, I was a multimedia designer and technical writer for... you guessed it... Macromedia. And since I was the lead technical writer for the documentation for Fireworks, I know that program inside out, upside down, and other directions normally only described in boy-band pop songs. It kind of gives me an unfair advantage.

So here's the kicker. I don't recommend that you use Fireworks for your graphics editing needs. "Wait... What?" I hear you say. Yeah, really. Fireworks is dandy for creating graphics. It has some wonderful features that make bulk graphics go much, much smoother, even than the far-more-capable PhotoShop (also by Adobe). But for the average installer, you don't need to create 500 device icons in a similar style. You probably only need to create one or two. Most installers maybe need to edit a couple of buttons per client. And so for them, they need a graphics program that is designed to edit graphics, not to create them from scratch.

The good news is that PhotoShop is already here for that very purpose. The bad news is that PhotoShop, depending on which configuration you get, can cost you a grand or more. That's a big pill to swallow for turning a blue button green and cropping a client's family photo to use as a background once a month. Especially in this economy.

But don't worry... I've got your back.

See, being somewhat of a design nerd, I keep track of what's going on in the design world (or at least, in the software-for-design world). And have I got some good news for you. It turns out that PhotoShop has some arch rivals, kind of like Windows has Linux as its nemesis. And like Linux, some of those arch rivals are free. Even better, some of them are available on the web. As in, a fairly worthy competitor to PhotoShop, but it runs inside your web browser. You don't even have to install anything. How's that for free? That's like "extra free" if you ask me!

Enter Sumo Paint.

Now if you've ever run any web applications before, you're probably thinking okay, this is going to be slow. And if you've ever run any graphics software, you're really thinking at least I'll have time to drink my coffee. Well, you'd better skip the foam on your latte this morning, because Sumo Paint isn't slow. Honestly, I don't know how they do it. I've got stand-alone graphics packages that run much slower and are far less capable than this web app.

Is Sumo Paint a feature-for-feature PhotoShop killer? Absolutely not. But does it offer 100% of what nearly any casual graphics editor would need? You bet. And did I mention it's free?

So if you're one of the many installers who has an occasional need to edit graphics, but no particular desire to unload ten Benjamins to do it, get yourself over to SumoPaint.com and get cracking. It's always best to get in some practice with any graphics software before the day when you really have to make that blue button green before the client's wife gets home at 5:45. It's graphics software—they all work differently, so you'll need some time to learn the ropes. But that small investment in your skill set can turn into a big payoff on job after job.

Just in case anyone asks: No, neither I nor URC are affiliated with the makers of Sumo Paint. And no, I'm not switching from my beloved Fireworks. I'm still in the graphics creation business, so I basically need the computer equivalent of an art studio. Most likely, that's not you. Most likely, you don't need a studio at all. That would be overkill, and a waste of your time to learn to use it. But from time to time, the thing that's going to impress your client is that one little graphical tweak. For that, you could really use a paint brush.

No problem! Borrow one of mine. It's called Sumo Paint. You don't even have to wash it out when you're done.

The Extra Mile

2008-12-01T09:37:00.003-05:00

A wise man once said to me, "You may think you're in the business of satisfying customers, but you're not. You're in the business of earning referrals. When your clients send friends and family to you, you've done far more than satisfy them."

Whenever I share that advice, I tend to bring up one particular story: A few years ago I got involved with a one-man software house called tripleBsoftware. By involved, I mean "the guy let me have a free copy of his software because I work for Universal Remote, so I spent some nights and weekends creating some graphics for a new user interface for him."

Some of you may know tripleBsoftware's cool DMX-3000 software. It lets MX-3000 owners append their MX-3000 files with an onscreen menu of all the DVDs in their changers. Users can select a DVD just by touching its cover art. In the latest version, users can read a synopsis of the DVD, search for titles with an index, or easily select individual discs from a multi-disc set. When you see it in action, it's hard to remember that you're looking at an MX-3000 file. Yet there it is, all Mac-OSX-looking, right there on the remote.

The software is for sale of course, but the amazing thing is that the author didn't create it to make money. No, he had a good friend who owned several DVD changers and a huge library of DVDs. So the guy who owns tripleBsoftware told his buddy he'd help him out and write a little utility for choosing DVDs on the MX-3000. Version 2.0 of DMX-3000 is ready to launch any day now. When it does, you owe it to yourself to go take a look at it. The work involved in setting it up for your clients is probably too time consuming to be profitable for most installs, but that's not the point. The point is seeing this incredible functionality on a device that was never designed for this level of interactivity.

There are ten thousand shortcuts the developer could have taken that would have still resulted in a usable program for his friend. But instead, he went the extra mile and created something that, as one of the designers of the MX-3000, I would have never thought possible. But it turns out it is possible. So much so that when people visit my home, I sometimes tell them to pick up the remote and choose a movie without telling them how. Sure, they look puzzled at first, but I smile and say, "Just give it a shot."

No one has ever failed to find a movie they wanted and get it playing. And none of them has ever failed to ask how this magic is possible. We end up talking about the MX-3000, Universal Remote Control, my job, and usually, DMX-3000. Several friends are now MX-3000 users. I know at least one of them also uses DMX-3000.

But you don't have to spend hundreds of hours to go the extra mile for your clients. Much of the time, the extra mile is just a few extra steps. And in the current economic situation, those few extra steps can be the difference between having your clients refer friends and family to you, or not. That's advertising you can't buy. It's good will you can't invent. And it's pride you can't beat.

So when a job has you frustrated because the homeowner is finicky or some blunder has you over budget, never forget that even the most challenging job could be the one that lands you your next five clients. Get the slack out of those cables before you zip-tie them. Carefully straighten the components on the shelf if they're not rack-mounted. Add some Favorite Channel macros for the client's kids. The things that make your client's neighbors pick up the phone and call you are often not the things you put on the job spec sheet. No... the things that make for referrals are those extra steps, one at a time, that made the job human, and made the client trust that with you, his money was well-spent.

One at a time, those extra steps are what make up the extra mile.

Hook Ups

2008-11-20T11:48:00.002-05:00

Announcing a brand new FORUM on The URC Control Room that’s been created especially for Custom Installation professionals who’ve been laid off, squeezed out or otherwise left between gigs.

It’s called Hook Ups, and it’s a special Forum where custom installation professionals can network and exchange information about employment opportunities. Login to The URC Control Room and check it out.

Need a gig, full time or part time? Interested in a freelance assignment? Maybe you're looking to contract on a project or two?

Are you a retailer (maybe a user?) with a remote you need programmed? Do you want help with an installation; perhaps you want to contract a project, or hire from a pool of talented URC programmers?

We’ve Got Your back
Let’s face facts: things are getting tough out there, and some big retailers are closing up shop. URC wants to do its part to help YOU stay in the industry—and help you hook up with a company that may need that special programming or installation talent you possess.

Here’s what you CANNOT do: 1) No ragging on employers—neither former nor current. 2) No employment agencies or resume scams allowed—we will delete such posts immediately. This is a person-to-person forum—no commercial agencies allowed. 3) If you have a job now, keep it! This forum is not for people looking for a change of scenery—it’s for folks who’ve gotten squeezed out by the economy. Thanks for cooperating.

Defending the Installer

2008-11-10T15:43:00.000-05:00

I own a Volvo. I’m a family guy, and I’m proud of it. But that’s not why I own a Volvo. I own a Volvo because my father has been a Volvo technician for six years longer than I’ve been alive. We always had Volvos when I was growing up because my father had easy access to cheap or free parts, and hey, he knew how to fix the things himself.

The reason this is relevant is that, like home theater, cars used to be simple. The shade tree mechanic could accomplish much, if not more than the “grease monkey” at the local service station. But these days cars are built to be serviced by specialized tools, computers, and techniques that no shade tree mechanic could ever hope to discover.

Unlike most people, when my technician (also known as “dad”) works on my car, I get to stand there and watch. You don’t get to do that because of insurance purposes. But hey, I slide in the side door with a BBQ sandwich and onion rings for the technician. That and a little family tree go a long way toward bending the rules.

With my inside perspective, I know that Volvo technicians attend university level courses several times a year just to keep their skills current. If you add up the credit hours of a technician as experienced as my father, they earn something like ten Ph.D’s over the course of their careers. Dad often jokes, “Your doctor spent eight years learning how to work on just two models—a mechanic has to learn four or five completely new ones every year, and your life depends on us learning them well.” But they don’t issue “Doctor of Interference Engine” degrees, so like a home theater installer, highly trained and experienced Volvo technicians have to put up with people thinking that their difficult and dirty job is something that any high school dropout could master with a few hours of on-the-job observation.

On a recent visit to repair my air mass meter (don’t ask me what an air mass meter is—my best guess would be that it has something to do with counting attendees at a Catholic church service held in a zeppelin), I asked my father about a bizarre looking tool that he has in his toolbox. I called it the “Cerebral Bore” because the tool looks like some spare part fallen off one of the "squids" from the Matrix films. (And the name “Cerebral Bore” came from a cool video game, so I’m all about that.) You look at this thing and it's impossible to imagine what it does. Or how it does it. Or how you're supposed to use it. My brain hurt just trying to imagine how to use it. So Cerebral Bore kind of made sense.

My father explained that it's a custom tool, available only to certified Volvo technicians. It comes in a brown cardboard box with no instructions of any kind. But... since my Volvo technician has access to Volvo technical training, he already knows that this tool is designed to do something that is effectively impossible to do if you don't have it: it mounts to a specific spot inside the engine compartment of a specific year-model of Volvo, then attaches to a ratchet with an extender, enabling the mechanic to adjust some vitally important setting deep inside the engine. And most importantly, this setting can only be adjusted reliably while the engine is running.

Without the Cerebral Bore, you can try working on your Volvo engine yourself, sure, but you'll have to fire up the engine, get it completely warmed up, check a setting on the plug-in computer (which you also need, and will require training to use), then shut the engine down and let it cool off. This prevents you from getting third-degree burns on your arms while reaching into a tiny space in the engine compartment so you can adjust whatever gizmo the Cerebral Bore adjusts. Then you fire up the engine and go through the whole process again. It generally it takes about 15-20 tweaks of this setting to get the engine running perfectly. Eat a sandwich, because it’s going to take you all night to do what a trained mechanic with the right tool can do in about 15 minutes.

But you can't buy the Cerebral Bore from Volvo. You can't buy it on the internet either, because every last one is serialized. Although mechanics pay for it, they are technically only leasing it from Volvo. Like buying software, the mechanics don't OWN it—they're paying for the right to use it. And the reason you can't buy that the Cerebral Bore from Volvo is that without extensive training on how to connect it to the engine AND how to use the tool, you will destroy your engine, guaranteed. And it's highly likely you'll injure yourself in the process.

Volvo could redesign the tool, or the car, to make it user serviceable. But doing so would increase the cost of the car dramatically. Or it would decrease the overall quality. Or perhaps the safety. Maybe all of these. That's simple economics. For these reasons, Volvo doesn't sell their cars to the general public. They sell cars to Volvo dealers who, you may or may not know, are not owned or operated by Volvo. It's the Volvo dealers who pay for the ads you see on TV and the general marketing of Volvo cars. In some cases the factory does run ads, but they are paid for by the franchise fees Volvo dealers pay.

A home theater is not an automobile. But they share a lot in common. Namely, there’s a history where it used to be a reasonable proposition for do-it-yourselfers to educate themselves and do a good job, even on a complex install. In fact, the handful of real hardcore enthusiasts could sometimes do a better job of feature tweaking than the baseline pros. Home theaters also share a present-day with cars: to specify, assemble, and service them effectively and efficiently, you need a lot of specialized training and tools.

As an insider in two different industries, I get the chance to see everything that goes into hanging up your shingle and calling yourself a pro. And I get to see the lack of respect and understanding for all that preparation and training that the low-price obsessed Ebay culture has for your hard work. So I lift my glass to toast those in every profession who spend untold hours preparing for the day when someone looks them in the eye and questions their ability and truthfulness, just because there’s no prestigious body handing out three-letter suffixes for your name.

Hard work is hard work. Expertise is expertise. And it’s a shame that the world hasn’t yet come to recognize that devotion to your profession is admirable in any field where the general public throws up their hands and turns to people who know the job better.

We can’t always change their perceptions. But we can always take pride in what we do and how we came to be the person that people call when they want that job done right. And if that still doesn’t change their minds, open a brown cardboard box and send them running by dangling the Cerebral Bore in their faces. That thing is scary. Really.

The Informal Form of Formal

2008-10-24T12:14:00.001-04:00

I'd like get one thing out of the way first: I love to write. So when I was approached to write a blog for URC Control Room, I immediately and excitedly said, "Yes!" Or rather, that's what I stopped myself from doing. In reality, the invitation came in a big company meeting, so I put on my best hide your excitement and pretend to be professional face and casually said something like, "Sure, I'll write one."

In a former career I was a technical writer for dozens of products (one or two of which you may have actually used). Like many tech writers, I’m a would-be novelist who finishes books but never spends the time to find a publisher (horror is my genre, if you’re wondering—see the connection to technical writing?). I served as the author or editor of half a dozen newsletters. And I was the original Admin and webmaster of URC Control Room. Blogging here should come naturally, right?

Well, it didn't really turn out that way.

Blogs are easy writing. As formal writing goes, they're the informal form of formal. The key to writing a worthwhile blog is to be both entertaining enough for the reader to enjoy and informative enough to be interesting. I've blogged before, so I know that once a writer finds his "voice" for a blog, it flows fairly easily. If you're a writer, you know what your "voice" is. If you're not a writer, it's okay to think that "voice" is just another one of those stupid things artists and writers say to make themselves sound intelligent or inspired. You can gag if you want to—Go ahead, I'll wait.

Blogs also generally have a theme which is only loosely clung to. Since this is URC Control Room, it makes sense that in some material, implied, or esoteric way, my blog should have something to do with home theater control. And that’s where my problem started.

Normally, once you find your direction on a writing project, the actual writing part comes easy. The hard part is knowing what to write; how to start. I had this idea that my first blog post should be an introduction of who I am and what I do for URC. That makes sense, right? But try as I might, everything I wrote sounded like a formal, but desperate essay in the "qualifications" box of a job application. And believe me, I'm about as far from formal as you can be and still keep a steady job. As for desperate, well, I'll let you decide.

Before starting the particular bit of prose you're reading now, I sat down several times on nights and weekends to try to recapture the "voice" I used in my previous blog. That blog was about my wife's pregnancy with twins. My wife and kids cannot be controlled with any known remote, so absolutely nothing carried over. Every time I tried to write this post, I came off sounding like the description of your instructor for some boring home theater installation and programming class. Who wants to listen to that guy? Not me—and I’m him.

And then it hit me. Instead of trying to introduce myself through the stuff I know, I decided to let you get to know me through the stuff I don't know. There's a whole lot more of that, so that gives me mountains more material. And for purposes of this blog, the most important thing I don't know is how to get started. Problem solved.

So for today I've decided to forego the histories and examples of why URC decided I was allowed to come back for a second interview and instead focus on what a dolt I am. In the future I'll be writing about experiences and examples of things sometimes related to control systems. But for today, all you need to know is that, wow, that Dale guy likes to write. And he's willing to admit when he's gone off in the wrong direction. (Much like this whole post.)

That's what's cool about a blog. The wrong direction, most of the time, is exactly the right way to go. It gives you, the reader, a much better opportunity to get to know the writer (that's me) and then by attrition, you pick up some of what the writer knows. Some of it will be informative. Some of it will be entertaining. Hopefully a good portion of it will be worthwhile. But hey, there's no way to know until we get started.

I'll talk if you'll listen.

I'll write if you'll read.

I'll blog if you'll... um...

Let me get back to you on that, okay?

Behind the Curtain With Jim

2008-10-16T17:42:00.001-04:00

Inside views from the product development team

Optimizing RF Range

a) Set the wheel on the bottom of the Base Station to any VALID ID Number (anything other than ID 0 TESTING MODE). Do not leave a job site with any RF base station set for ID 0.

b) In the MX Editor Software program select the RF Settings for the remote control:

1. Set SIGNAL to RF

2. Set the RECEIVER ID Number in your MX Editor software to the same ID Number you set on the rotary wheel at the bottom of the RF Base Station, located under the sliding mounting plate.

3. Turn the Front IR Blaster (Front LED) OFF. That’s the big window on the front of the RF base station. Almost all professionals never use this blaster, although in some jobs it can help. If you forget and leave it on you run the risk of severe IR overload.

4. Trace the emitter lines back to the RF Base Station and mark them with the correct line output number. This way you won’t have to rip apart your rack to find the correct emitter wire. Make sure that you set each device for the actual IR Line Output that you used for that emitter connected to the specific device. Do NOT use the ALL setting, using ALL will add to the nightmare of troubleshooting. If you use ALL you will likely cause severe IR overload and you will think that you have an RF problem, when in fact you will be flooding the devices with too much IR. If your system operates correctly when using RF, but one device acts sluggish or inconsistent, you have IR overload. TiVo, DVR’s, SAT and Cable boxes are all easily overloaded with too much IR output.

5. Now you can download from your PC into the remote control.

100 Words From Julie Jacobson

2008-10-16T17:14:00.000-04:00

Try the new MX-450 universal remote

I've tried to program universal remotes before, but I don't want to mess with PC tools, and the on-screen programming drives me bonkers (more bonkers than I usually am). Trying to create macros is a nightmare because I never get it right the first time. And who knows how many seconds to figure in for delays if you can't test it in real time? Finally, I think I found a remote that I can actually program myself: the MX-450. Not that it's for DIYers, but I'd rather pay a modestly trained technician to program the unit instead of an uber-custom programming genius.

MX-3000 custom template

2008-10-14T13:31:00.000-04:00

Make your MX-3000 custom template fully compatible with our IR database.
1. Open one of our templates. (exp. Metal, Alpha, etc)
2. Select a device.
3. Select the corresponding button in the template that matches your custom button. (exp. Default Play button goes with Play custom button)
4. Delete the after/1 state of the button. Note: This will enable you to import a different size button.
5. Import your custom button in the Before/0
6. Import your press custom button in the After/1
7. Now your custom button is linked to our IR database.

This means every time you change the IR code in that device; it will change the text and also the IR code on that button instantly. Enjoy

Try the new MX-450 universal remote
I've tried to program universal remotes before, but I don't want to mess with PC tools, and the on-screen programming drives me bonkers (more bonkers than I usually am). Trying to create macros is a nightmare because I never get it right the first time. And who knows how many seconds to figure in for delays if you can't test it in real time? Finally, I think I found a remote that I can actually program myself: the MX-450. Not that it's for DIYers, but I'd rather pay a modestly trained technician to program the unit instead of an uber-custom programming genius.