A recent remodel of a 3,000-square-foot home in Fayetteville, Arkansas, included powerful new home theater and whole-house audio. For the homeowner, one of the biggest concerns with the new audio system was the fact that her two young daughters would also be using it, making simple, intuitive control a high priority. To achieve this, she wanted to have control over the entire system from the convenience of an iPad^®, while allowing her daughters to have varying levels of interaction with the system via their iPod^® touches. To ensure reliability, easy-to-use handheld remotes would also be needed throughout the home. To meet these needs, integrator Linked Audio Video turned to RTI.

"While this installation has the look and feel of a small audio system, it's actually very powerful. Providing intuitive control over it for two young children made for a fun challenge, and RTI was the natural choice to meet it," said Justin Dysart, owner of Linked Audio Video. "For control via an iPad, it just doesn't get any better than the company's RTiPanel. In addition, we've found that RTI's SURFiR companion remote is a very simple and reliable control solution that our customers are comfortable with."

The control system at the home is powered by RTI's XP-6 control processor, which offers a variety of communication options in addition to a built-in astronomical clock. The processor offers RS-232 and IP for control over the system's Marantz home theater A/V receivers and stereo receiver, while Cisco cable boxes, an Apple^® TV, Samsung Blu-Ray player, Samsung DLP TV, and a Panasonic plasma TV are all controlled by routable IR. Linked Audio Video incorporated a ZM-24 transceiver module to provide bidirectional communication between the Marantz components and system controllers.

Both the homeowner's iPad and children's iPod touches are equipped with RTI's RTiPanel app, which offers unique features such as full two-way feedback, dynamic scrolling lists, a completely customizable user interface, and more. Using the iPad, the client can control every part of the system and quickly see what is happening in each room of the house. One iPod touch provides 90 percent system control, while the other only controls equipment in the home's "kids" room.

Three SURFiR companion remotes are utilized in the home: one in the main living room, one in the kids room, and one that floats around the home and is dedicated to control over the music system. RTI's SURFiR is designed for use with the "iDevices" in the home running the RTiPanel app. Providing an affordable alternative to dedicated touchpanel controllers, the SURFiR allows the family to incorporate their touchscreen devices as the graphical interface for their control system, while adding the convenience of “instant on,” tactile control with hard buttons, and eliminating the numerous screen swipes needed for control tasks that require frequent interaction.

With RTI, Linked Audio Video was able to provide the homeowner with a number of unique functions. With the XP-6's astronomical clock, setting limits on A/V use in the kids room is a breeze. For example, she can tell the kids they have 30 minutes to watch TV, set the system to turn off in 30 minutes, and then not have to worry about keeping an eye on the clock. The system automatically shuts off and stays off until the homeowner allows it to turn back on. In addition, the children's iPod touches can be disabled using the iPad. When disabled, an overlay appears on their device that says "Control Disabled." If a SURFiR gets lost, a "Find" feature on the iPad helps locate it. And for get-togethers, a single tap syncs up all audio systems to the same source so that the same music plays throughout the house.

"Our client has been very pleased with the control system, in particular the one-button sync functionality and level of control she has over the kids' interaction with the equipment. The custom backgrounds we created for each iDevice were also a big hit. We came up with several options based on each user's tastes and then let them choose their favorite. With RTI's Integration Designer^® programming software, it was simple to customize the interfaces. And with the SURFiR, the kids and guests have been able to pick up the remote and begin operating the system with no problem."