CSR and Universal Electronics enable control of existing home entertainment products with Bluetooth Smart remotes

CAMBRIDGE, UK & SANTA CLARA, USA: CSR plc and Universal Electronics Inc. announced that CSR is collaborating with Universal Electronics Inc. (UEI) to add Infra-Red (IR) setup and control functionality to remote controls based on CSR µEnergy Bluetooth Smart platforms.

With the capabilities enabled by UEI’s QuickSet, manufacturers who use the CSR1011 chipset can deliver remote controls that offer consumers long battery life and are compatible with their existing entertainment products like DVD and Blu-ray players, cable boxes, stereo systems and other AV devices, removing the need for multiple remote controls.

“Most consumers have a variety of remote controls in their homes that utilize Infra-Red LED technology to operate products that they have accumulated over time such as digital media players and sound systems,” says Anthony Murray, senior VP, Business Group at CSR.

“Working with UEI, CSR offers customers an important competitive differentiator for their remotes and a ‘best of both worlds’ solution. Consumers can control all of their existing devices with a single remote; gain the low power benefits, increase responsiveness, and interoperability enabled by Bluetooth Smart; and establish a gateway to additional Internet of Things devices.”

The UEI QuickSet IR command upload capability will be integrated into CSR1011 platform based remote control SDKs. Selecting the QuickSet option in the CSR remote SDK enables end TV and set-top box suppliers to take advantage of UEI’s device control database of entertainment devices, which gives users access to many of the control functions for virtually all digital entertainment electronics devices in the world.

This simple solution emulates an IR device on top of enabling a Bluetooth Smart remote control. By adding low-cost IR LEDs in a design, CSR1011 based remotes can now seamlessly work with the QuickSet application to detect, identify and control compatible devices traditionally operated via IR remotes with minimal, if any, user setup.

QuickSet integration with CSR1011 means that OEMs can achieve a lower BOM, reduced complexity and engineering time, eliminating the need to purchase secondary IR blasters.