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Learn and Earn with the NEW URC University!
The best training in the industry just got better with the launch of our new online educational center: URC University!
At URC University, you can track your training progress, take self-paced classes, sign up for webinars, even sign in electronically for live events! All of your learning experiences will be documented, creating a transcript that provides an archive of your completed courses. Certificates of completion are easily downloaded for any and all completed courses, and remain available any time in your transcript. You’ll find course materials in one place, and you can easily download handouts, manuals and related items.
And how’s this for even more incentive to attend URC University? You can earn BlueBucks by successfully completing the quizzes that are offered for many of our self-paced classes. Like frequent flier miles, BlueBucks can be accumulated and redeemed for gift cards at hundreds of national retailers and restaurants.
You can access URC University via The URC Control Room. So visit our online campus soon and get certified for our Network Series online. And stay tuned for more, as we’ll continually be developing new courses and training tracks for URC University.
URC: The industry’s best training keeps getting better!
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Product of the Month
PSX-2 Personal Server
Everyone’s trying to do more with less these days. With that in mind, URC’s PSX-2 Personal Server is one of the signature products of our times. At $399, the PSX-2 delivers an incredible amount of bang for your client’s buck.
With the PSX-2, URC provides another chance for you to be a hero to your customers. The PSX-2 enables you to turn their iPods into awesome, easy-to-navigate, customized, very personal A/V servers. The PSX-2 is such a potent combination of power and simplicity that CE Pro editor Julie Jacobson called it “ Best Product of CES 2009: URC’s Magical iPod Server.” And the accolades don’t stop there. The Consumer Electronics Association this winter named the PSX-2 a 2010 Mark of Excellence Awards finalist in the Media Server of the Year category, along with products from Crestron and LG.
Unlike other mere iPod docks, the PSX-2 takes the iPod to the next level, adding features most iPod users never imagined possible. Of course, the PSX-2 enables 2-way, on-TV browsing with cover art. But URC also developed an advanced alpha search feature that gets users to their music fast. “Smart shortcuts” vastly simplify navigation of content; users can find their favorite music with just a couple of clicks. A fully configurable, plasma-loving TV screensaver continually displays cover art, artist and track info.
With one button-press from any URC remote, your customers can do things that might take dozens of presses on the iPod alone: operations like “Play more from this Artist” or “Shuffle this Genre” are only one touch away. They can even add songs to a jukebox playlist on the fly; try doing that with just an iPod!
How is all of this possible? In an industry first, URC powers the PSX-2 with a bank of 250 discrete IR commands. These discrete codes, a hallmark of URC, enable you to automate the operation of an iPod like never before. You can offer your clients “one touch to music” programming.
For example, if your customer is a fan of a certain artist, you can create a macro that automatically searches and finds the artist and launches a selection. The same macro can even select one of the iPod’s 24 EQ settings and activate it—all automatically and all from one button press.
That’s not all the PSX-2 can do. The PSX-2 also includes the very powerful PSXLink Software for both Macs and PCs. Any new content that is added to the user’s iTunes library on the PC or Mac can be synchronized to the iPod in the PSX-2 without touching it.
The PSX-2 is compatible with all iPods (except for first generation). And the firmware can be updated through the home network for ongoing compatibility. It can be controlled by any remote that can learn IR codes, so it can be included in the system you’re installing today.
Of course, there are advantages to using URC remote controls with the PSX-2. Templates and button layouts (optimized for six-button remotes) are built into CCP, URC’s universal programming platform; the software can be downloaded by authorized dealers from URC’s password-protected, installer-only website, The URC Control Room.
When used with URC’s flagship MX-6000 two-way WiFi IR/RF color touch screen controller, iPod metadata (including cover art) is displayed on the MX-6000’s huge 4.3-inch LCD screen, so it’s not even necessary to turn on the TV to use the PSX-2. The MX-6000, by the way, utilizes dual RF transmitters: 802.11 b/g WiFi for network control and instant Narrow Band RF for traditional control.
If your customer has an iPod, your customer should have at least one PSX-2. Be a hero and reap the rewards!
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What the Freq?
We all know that advanced remote controls use radio frequency (RF) to communicate. But sometimes the frequency they use is shared by other transmitters, which introduces the problem of local interference, or RFI.
RFI can ruin an otherwise great installation. Fortunately, URC provides two great solutions that can make this problem go away.
URC offers most remotes in your choice of 418MHz or 433MHz. Changing from one frequency to the other will solve most RFI problems.
However, RFI can become an issue even when the airwaves are clean. If two people in close proximity (like in an apartment complex) press buttons on their remote controls at exactly the same time, the RF can collide, crash and cause conflicts.
How can you avoid RFI and RF collision? Install URC’s MX-880Z ZigBee Remote Control and MRZ-260 ZigBee RF to IR Base Station.
The MX-880Z is a color LCD remote control that uses ZigBee RF technology to provide unlimited addressing, which enables any number of simultaneous users in MDU installations. Some other features of the MX-880Z, which, as you may guess, is a ZigBee version of our popular MX-880 remote:
• Fast, simple PC programming software that includes URC’s extensive IR database
• Powerful customization and labeling for up to 48 devices (8 pages each)
• Advanced If/Else logic that enables tracking of power status, users, etc.
• Motion sensor that detects movement and activates the MX-880Z’s backlighting feature
• Rechargeable Lithium Ion battery and wall charger included
The companion MRZ-260 is an addressable ZigBee RF Base Station with integrated antenna. It offers four independent IR engines in one MRZ-260 (it works as though there are four base stations in one— really!). One MRZ-260 enables up to four MX-880Zs to simultaneously control four IR components. The MRZ-260 includes a built-in front panel IR blaster, mounting bracket and power supply.
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Catalogos de toda nuestra linea ya estan disponibles en Español
El mes pasado URC lanzó su completo catálogo de productos en Español por primera vez! Nos gustaría dar las gracias a Renny Voss y a nuestros amigos Distribuidores en Europa y África, BMB Electronics, por facilitar la traducción. Usted puede descargar el catálogo aquí. Ya esta disponible.
(For our English-speaking readers...)
URC Full Line Catalog Now Available in Spanish
URC last month released its full line product catalog in Spanish for the first time! We’d like to thank Renny Voss and our friends at our Master Distributor for Europe and Africa, BMB Electronics, for facilitating the translation. You can download the catalog here.
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URC Sponsors D-Tools “PROJECT: Success” Contest; You Should Enter!
As a D-Tools Premier Manufacturer Vantage Point (MVP) member, URC is proud to co-sponsor (with fellow Premier MVP member Atlantic Technology) the D-Tools “PROJECT: Success” contest. If you’re a user of D-Tools’ SI5.5 software, it’s definitely worth a look.
D-Tools seeks users’ greatest success stories about how its SI5.5 software has affected their businesses and ROI positively. Winners, to be selected by the D-Tools Executive team, will be judged on a number of criteria, including originality, use of D-Tools’ software, and which stories best communicate the system designer’s grasp of the software. They want to hear how SI5.5 increased your profitability on a project, saved a project, or any other ways it has helped you in general.
Now to the important stuff: the prizes! First prize is Atlantic Technology IWCB-52 in-wall speakers. Second prize is URC’s amazing MX-5000. Third prize is a $50 Amazon gift card.
You must enter by May 1. D-Tools customers can submit their entries by visiting www.d-tools.com and by sending an email to Jill Reddy at JillR@d-tools.com.
Good luck, and tell ‘em URC sent ya!
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URC’s PSX-2 and MX-5000 Named CEA Mark of Excellence Award Finalists
Two more URC products have been recognized by the Consumer Electronics Association’s Mark of Excellence Awards program.
Our PSX-2 Personal Server was chosen as a 2010 TechHome Mark of Excellence Awards finalist in the Media Server of the Year category. Our MX-5000 Remote Control, meanwhile, was selected as a 2010 TechHome Mark of Excellence Awards finalist in the Human Interface Product of the Year category.
It’s not just becoming a finalist that excited us. It’s the categories in which we were finalists that accurately reflect how our company is growing and changing with the times.
Some people look at the PSX-2 and call it “an iPod dock.” But CEA recognized it as what it truly is: a personal A/V server. The PSX-2 goes far beyond what most iPod docks can do in terms of the richness of its functionality, its ability to sync with iTunes content on Macs and PCs, and more. Never before has there been an iPod dock with the PSX-2’s level of incredible 2-way functionality and hundreds of discrete IR commands. The PSX-2 is not just a place to dock an iPod; it essentially allows the iPod to serve as a honest-to-goodness, highly affordable media server—and a media server you can natively control with any of our remotes.
CEA also recognized the remarkable haptic touch screen of the MX-5000 as a significant development in the annals of CE user interfaces. The MX-5000 makes a touch screen user feel like he or she is using hard buttons. Many of our dealers have told us that their customers love the MX-5000’s look and feel as much as its phenomenal functionality.
We couldn’t be happier that the industry has honored these two innovative products! And we plan to receive more recognition in the future. Stay tuned!
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Josephine Marmo, URC Controller URC Team Member of the Month
Josephine Marmo, URC Controller
Josephine Marmo is one of those indispensible people who make any great organization like URC work. From office management to HR, from payroll to corporate strategy, from dealing with architects on URC’s office expansion to serving as surrogate “company mom,” Josephine plays an integral role in URC’s operations every day.
A graduate of Iona College with a degree in accounting, Josephine joined URC seven years ago. Ever since, she has worn whatever company hat has been necessary at any given time. “I know this sounds ridiculous, but URC is really like a family,” she says. “We have group get-togethers. There’s a lot of team building. We sometimes have fights, but we get over it. What I really like is that our company places such a high value on communication. No matter at what level someone is here, if they have a good idea or a concern, management will hear it.”
Josephine resides in White Plains, N.Y., with her husband Maurizio and their children Nicole, 13; Joey, 9; and baby Michela, who will turn 1 in June. She loves to travel, although she happily describes her life as “work and kids.”
Every holiday season, Josephine goes to a post office close to New York City and asks for children’s letters to Santa Claus, in the hope that she can make the holidays better for some kids in need. “I don’t answer the ones from kids asking for PS3s, Xboxes, TVs for their rooms,” she says. “I look for the letters where the kids are asking Santa for school books, jackets, scarves, underwear. You read some of those letters, and your heart breaks. So I send them what they need, along with a letter from Santa. You know how much stuff you can get for $50 or $100 that would make the holidays better for a child? It also teaches my kids how spoiled they actually are. They ask, ‘Do people really live like that?’ And I say, ‘Yes, they do. These people don’t have heat, they don’t have food.’ It’s a valuable lesson to all of us.”
For everything Josephine does, we are proud to present her to you as URC’s April 2010 Team Member of the Month!
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URC’s Mitch Klein Rocks EHX
Our own Mitchell Klein, URC’s director of business development, not only attended the Electronic House Expo (as many URC employees and dealers did), but he also rocked out on the bass with the CE Pro All-Star Band. He files this report:
To paraphrase Mark Twain, “The reports of EHX’s death are greatly exaggerated.” Yes, there were some comments about the show floor being smaller, and some exhibitors complained about a lack of traffic. But at the URC booth, we were far too busy to notice!
All 11 of our classes were packed, many of them standing room only! Dealers flocked to our sessions to hear the best trainers in the industry deliver useful, insightful and entertaining information. And those who chose not to come to EHX missed the premiere delivery of “Marketing with Mitch,” in which I delivered practical tips to an energized class on getting their company’s word out effectively and on a low budget.
For me, and hundreds of EHX attendees, the best part of the show was the CE Pro All-Star Band event. Filled with food and imbued with drink, revelers were entertained by a high-energy concert consisting of two sets of well-played rock ‘n roll, all performed by fellow industry associates. Performing on stage with such incredible talent was clearly the highlight of EHX for me (even though sending my prized Fender Precision Bass through baggage check-in was the low point!).
 The CE Pro All-Star Band performs at EHX. Left to right: Bassist Mitch Klein (director of business development, URC); drummer Jim Garrett (director of technical training, CEDIA); guitarist/vocalist John Cruz (master guitar builder, Fender); guitarist Victor Baut (East Coast regional sales manager, SpeakerCraft).
It was an impressive performance, considering we had little to no practice together! We sent around a set list to each other a couple of months prior to EHX, and agreed to meet for a short rehearsal the night before the concert. As luck would have it, we found a local club in downtown Orlando ( Club 57) that was happy to have us come and jam for the night. That’s where we all first met and played together. It was 10 musicians just having a good time and getting to know each other’s styles and skills.
With only a couple of hours of rehearsal under our belts, we hit the stage the next night. The high energy in the room really helped, and so too did having such fine equipment! We played some Cream, ZZ Top, Three Dog Night and Lynyrd Skynyrd; it was a real blast. Best of all, though, was our amazing rendition of the soulful Santana tune “Europa.” With a guitar solo played by Fender Master Guitar Builder John Cruz, and the great bass line performed flawlessly by yours truly, this was the hit of the show.
Many thanks go to CE Pro, not only for providing such outstanding equipment and a great stage, but also for arranging and hosting the event. And thanks to Innovolt and Somfy Systems for sponsoring!
As it turns out, this gig wasn’t a one-shot deal. Watch for the CE Pro All Star Band at CEDIA EXPO! We were invited to play and we are all looking forward to it! I hope to see you all there. And thanks again to all of the dealers who visited our booth and attended our training at EHX. Together, we’re bringing this industry forward.
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Where you see this icon you'll find
important technical information. Technical Alert
Attention KP-4000 Network Keypad programmers. The current CCP LiveUpdate maximizes KP-4000 and MRX-1, supports 1-Way IP Database and 1-Way IP Commands in Macros and includes the all-new Help/Programming Guides. SPECIAL NOTICE: After this LiveUpdate, program files created with this version of CCP cannot be opened in OLDER versions of CCP. What this means to you is this: after you run LiveUpdate and get the latest version, make sure everyone else in your shop does the same thing. Everything will be fine from that point on—the only time a problem will occur is if someone with an older version tries to modify a file you built with the new version.
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Your Peers
Dan Paulson
Sales Manager, Paulson’s Audio & Video
Paulson’s Audio & Video, “The Toy Store for Grownups,” has been a fixture in Metro Detroit since 1992. With its showroom in Farmington Hills, Mich., Paulson’s prides itself as a family-owned business with a knowledgeable, caring sales staff.
Around 1997, Paulson’s began doing custom installation, and it’s been a large part of its business ever since. “We needed to satisfy our clients,” says Sales Manager Dan Paulson. “We started off as a pure retailer, selling TVs, then stereo systems and so on. Customers started asking us to mount speakers on walls, and we were subcontracting that work. Then flat panels came out, our customers’ demand for mounting their equipment grew, and we started doing those installations in-house. Our custom business just continued to grow from there.”
Paulson’s operates with a common sense approach rooted in family values. “I know it sounds cliché, but our specialty is customer service,” says Paulson. “We are a family business. I was born and raised on the idea that if you take care of others, they’ll take care of you, and that’s how we run our business.”
Paulson is a firm believer in the power of using vignettes to sell lifestyle solutions. “We show our customers the full experience,” he says. “We’re a hybrid retail/custom store, with a 9,000-square-foot showroom and 11 vignette theaters in lifestyle settings. We let our clients visualize their systems in our store. We demonstrate. But, as we tell every customer, the best part of dealing with Paulson’s is the customer service after the sale.”
Paulson’s has been a URC dealer since about 2004. Like many dealers, Paulson’s saw a solution to a common problem in URC. “We used to sell a lot of Sony remotes, but our clients were demanding things the Sony remotes couldn’t handle, stuff like the TiVo ‘thumbs up, thumbs down’ feature,” explains Paulson. “We couldn’t label buttons on the Sony remotes we were selling, and that’s what led us to URC. We can label buttons on-screen, and we can customize URC products to replace all of the client’s remotes, including the TiVo remote.”
Paulson reports that the MX-5000/PSX-2 Personal Server combo is a hit. “Clients tell us how awesome the MX-5000 is,” he says. “The thing we hear most is that they love to use it for two-way communication with an iPod, to see their cover art and control their system while an iPod is docked in the PSX-2. They are so amazed by these capabilities. One customer put five MX-5000s in their house. It’s especially good for those customers who have complicated systems, but don’t want whole house control. They just want a robust operating tool to control everything, and the MX-5000 fits their needs.”
The ability to customize the MX-5000 greatly appeals to Paulson and his customers. In addition, he says, “All of my staff are amazed by the MX-5000’s professional, sleek, refined look. The screen is nice, and we like that it’s a one-hand wand touch screen. I like the haptic feedback, too. It addresses a common complaint about touch screens: fat finger disease. With most touch screens, customers often feel they push too many buttons at once, or don’t know if they’re pushing the right one. The haptic feedback on the MX-5000 removes that issue.”
Paulson says the RF capabilities of URC remotes in general allow Paulson’s customers much-appreciated flexibility. “In one of our vignettes, we have the gear behind solid wood doors,” he explains. “We tell customers that our remotes can work through walls, doors. So they don’t have to do glass doors. They can have a remote that works through anything.”
Overall, the challenge of each individual installation keeps Paulson’s batteries charged. “No two jobs are alike,” he says. “You approach them having similar ideas, similar concepts, building blocks, but they always turn out different. It’s always a new adventure every day. You’d like to make each job as cookie cutter as you can, but you also have the ability to bring solutions to individual clients that they didn’t even know were possible. That’s the most rewarding part of the job.”
The recession, combined with the decline of the Big Three automakers, has made Michigan one of the hardest-hit economic areas in the country. But Paulson’s continues to succeed. “Business is between OK and good,” says Paulson. “We live and die by the auto manufacturers. But I always say, we don’t participate in a recession. We talk positively, and we take care of our clients. We’re making money, and we’re moving forward.”
Part of the reason that Paulson’s is succeeding is that it’s changing with consumer tastes. “We’ve opened and extended our services,” says Paulson. “We’re more open to installing products that were purchased at big box stores, for example.” Indeed, the Paulson’s showroom is surrounded by an ample number of competitors. “Within a five-mile radius, there are three Best Buys, two Sears, three ABC Warehouses, two Costco's and two Sam’s Clubs,” says Paulson. “Our clients have a lot of options.” Paulson’s knows it can’t compete on price alone, so it’s doing its best to show the marketplace that it strives to go above and beyond. That’s proven to be an especially effective strategy.
The Paulson’s showroom is also surrounded by seven restaurants in its parking lot and across the street. Paulson’s benefits from a lot of walk-in traffic during the lunch and dinner hours, so it focuses on the “wow” factor. In addition to the vignettes, “we show them the 103-inch Panasonic plasma, the 11-inch OLED TV,” says Paulson. 3DTV figures to offer similar walk-in sizzle, he says.
Like many URC dealers, Paulson’s generates customers through word of mouth, but it’s also doing some radio commercials. The messaging plays into its openness to working with “bring-your-own” products. “Our ad essentially says, ‘Get yourself a TV, but if you want to make that TV the best it can be, have a Paulson’s person set it up right for you.’”
URC wishes Paulson’s Audio & Video and its employees all the best for continued success!
Share YOUR story with us and we’ll share it with your peers. To set up an interview, contact editor@universalremote.com.
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Your Business
By Glenn Gentilin
URC Regional Product Specialist
Stay Connected with your Clients to Stay Busy
Not so long ago, your phone was ringing off the hook and your install calendar was booked out for at least two months. More recently, thanks to the popping of the real estate bubble, new home sales are nearly non-existent, and you’re lucky to have jobs to send the guys to next week. Some of your colleagues even have been forced to close their doors.
Given this difficult environment, how can you grow our business? At times like these, you need to revisit your old clients.
Some customers are truly ideal clients. They pay when the bill is due, never complain unless there’s a real issue, and call for new work every year or so. When I ran a shop, I thought of these clients as annuities: They just kept paying off every few months. Obviously, you don’t need to do anything out of the ordinary for these people. Just keep them satisfied and they call whenever they need something. Then there are those clients who dispute every charge, add new requirements after the project starts, and never remember to send the check. Fortunately, this group makes up the minority. (In a future article, I’ll share some insight on how to deal with these clients fairly, even when they seem to be behaving unfairly.)
The bulk of your clients likely fall in between these two extremes, and it’s important to know how to approach them for new business. Good preparation and accurate record-keeping make future success easier. Hopefully you’ve kept good notes on the work you did on every job, and know where you can offer new features or products. Cold-calling a former client and forgetting his wife’s name or the equipment you installed will kill the deal pretty quickly. But offering him a product that adds a clear advantage over what he already has will generally be well-received.
Of course, this depends on the client and his perception of how long the gear he bought should stay technologically relevant. Some people feel they paid for “State of the Art” and that by definition it should never need to be upgraded. These are the guys who have an extensive library of LaserDiscs and Betamax movies.
But most people understand that electronic products have a relatively short lifespan and, sooner or later, their stuff will become outdated. With tact and planning, you can approach them with something new that clearly enhances the purchases they’ve previously made.
I know what many of you are thinking: That’s easy to say, but I have no experience doing this. So how do I go back to my customers for more work?
The first step is to establish and maintain a good relationship with all of your clients. This may seem obvious, but, truth be told, many small business owners treat clients like yesterday’s newspaper as soon as the final check arrives. This isn’t because they are inherently mean people. In many cases, it happens because they are too busy to offer truly personal customer service.
After you’ve installed a system, stay in touch. If you’ve fallen off a client’s radar, you need to revive the relationship. Call to check on their system. Ask if everything is working properly, and if they’re pleased with their investment. Don’t approach them with anything new at this time. Just listen to everything they have to say, including any criticisms they may have. It’s very possible that some small-to-you but important-to-them aspect of the job was forgotten. Take care of those things and, remember, just reconnect at this point.
What’s nice about this approach is that it doesn’t feel like a sales call to the client. And they may bring up the subject of adding equipment to the system. They may ask about the latest technology (Blu-ray, HDMI, etc.) or be ready to upgrade an old TV. Just knowing that you are available often gets them thinking. But even when they don’t ask about adding something new, make sure they’re happy with the work you’ve already done and follow up on any loose ends.
Reconnected customers—and those customers with whom you have an ongoing relationship—are ready to hear about new options for their systems. Check your notes and confirm the equipment you’ve already installed. Then contact these clients with ideas to improve their current experiences. You know how they currently watch TV, listen to music and control their equipment, so offer them an improvement over what they already have. But you need to know (and be able to explain) why it’s an improvement.
Offer some upgrades based on each client’s situation. Upgrade from standard DVD to Blu-ray. Add video games to the system (not just plugged into the front input of the TV). Are they ready for true HDTV? Many people have an HD signal coming into their homes with no way to actually view the content in high definition, and most of them don’t even know it. Inform them!
Some dealers are calling all of their former Philips Pronto clients to present our MX-6000 to them. Again, many, if not most, of these end users understand that technology has generated newer, more powerful alternatives to the products they purchased four or five years ago.
Remind your clients about options that were available but, for whatever reason, weren’t included at the time of the original installation. Perhaps you wired for sound in a few extra rooms. Maybe volume controls were put in, yet the system is wired for a multi-zone keypad system. Maybe you talked about adding surround sound to the master bedroom. What about that basement room that would be perfect for a small home theater? How many of your customers would benefit from simply adding lighting control? All of them, right? Now that you’ve reestablished communications with these people, you can revisit these projects.
All told, getting new work from old customers requires a number of things. First, you need to be in good standing with them; they need to be happy with what you’ve already done for them. Second, know exactly what’s in their existing system; hopefully you have a good record of what you put in, but don’t be afraid to ask them if they’ve added anything on their own. Finally, present products or features that will benefit them and improve their experience.
A little bit of new work from a lot of old clients will fill up your install calendar and bring in some much needed revenue. It also gets them talking about you to their friends and coworkers again.
So go ahead and call a few old customers. You just might be surprised how productive this can be!
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Hank's Absolutely Free Tip of the Month
By Hank Eisengrein
URC Regional Training Manager, East
The Sales Secret of “Future System Expansion”
Hello again to everyone from your friend Hank. In my travels across North America, I’ve been teaching dealers several key “Hank” concepts that I’ve developed from my years of experience. Some of these aren’t just remote control-related, but designed to help you build your business while making happier customers.
This month, I’ll explain how you can use URC’s CCP whole house software as a sales tool.
I want to expand on the idea of writing a short paragraph into every proposal you create. For every job, you should include a section at the bottom of your estimate that says “Future system expansion?”
Here’s why. Let’s say you’re bidding to install a home theater in a customer’s home. Why stop at that one room when you have an entire house you can design?
URC’s CCP software program is a whole house platform. Right up front when you open CCP, there’s the House Designer tree view. Now, instead of showing your customer only the home theater, you can create a path for “future system expansion” that will allow you to generate repeat business.
In today’s economy you’re seeing fewer jobs. To grow you business, you must sell more products and services to each customer, so use CCP not only to design today’s job (the home theater), but also to help the customer see a path for using URC throughout the house. Show the home theater first, and then add additional areas of the home featuring different systems in other rooms.
For example, show a downsized version of the home theater planned for the master bedroom. This way, you can say to your customer, “After we finish the theater, we can come back and do something like it in your master bedroom.” Now you’re setting the stage for more business with this client by showing how your company can expand entertainment and control into other key areas of the home.
Another example: More people are working from home, and have an area that acts as a home office. So propose designing a system related to the home working environment.
Gaming is very popular, so don’t overlook that in a family room or a kid’s bedroom when using the House Designer feature of CCP software. I’d add a light almond KP-900 in the kitchen and even by the back door to show ease of operation of a whole house system with a tie-in to the main system that you are installing.
By setting up a plan for expansion, your customer will see how forward-thinking and visionary you are about the family’s needs for system control. By using House Designer, you can move your company away from competing on price alone.
Today, everyone looks at falling prices, especially with video products. As a specialty dealer, you can’t compete on price any more. Every week, the big box stores and warehouse clubs show lower prices on flat panel TVs. Some URC dealers lament that the advertised prices on video products are at or even below their cost, either from a distributor or direct from the manufacturer.
Some of you have even stopped selling video all together, telling the customer to buy their own TV and you’ll install it. I’d stay away from that approach since you’ll end up with a TV that has no discrete codes for operation. Instead, offer video as a part of a complete room package that you design in CCP software, room by room.
Now some of you may be wondering just how a software platform used to program custom professional remote systems can be a sales tool. The answer is to get everyone in your company to start thinking of every job for more than just one room. The installers and programmers can help the sales team remember URC’s other remotes and products such as the PSX-2 Personal Server and URC Lighting.
By introducing the whole house system design concept in every one of your jobs, you can ensure repeat business. Many customers don’t think about the other things you can offer to them to control their entertainment experience.
Let’s say you have a house with guest bedrooms. With CCP, you can show a system with a remote, lighting control and even a PSX-2 for that room.
URC offers you a wide range of remotes and RF or ZigBee base stations, so use the CCP software House Designer tree view to lay out a plan for each area of the home. A small package system for each of the children’s rooms can stop fighting among siblings, helping the parents while making you more money.
The choice and types of remotes you have at your disposal can set you apart from a dealer who is working out of his parents’ basement and selling on price alone. Different family members like to use remotes in different ways, so install remotes tailored to their preferences. Some customers like the high-tech look and features of a color touch screen remote control. Others like a wand-type remote, especially older people who are used to pushing a physical button on a remote. You can use all the tools available to you in the broad URC product line and sell different remotes to different family members in the same system, sometimes even in the same room.
Our Midwest sales rep, Robert Wheeler from Central Sales and Marketing, uses two different MX-980 RF remotes in his master bedroom. They’re programmed the same, but one sits on each night stand. One is for his wife; the other remote is for him. Stop and think about this for a second. If you get into the habit of making a “Mom” remote in every system, you don’t have to change the program, but you sell more hardware and programming, adding profit while making for happier customers. Your competitors won’t do this. This sets you apart from selling on price alone.
For the young unmarried guys, messing with Mom’s remote usually results in Dad sleeping on the sofa. Now, as a custom installer, you can add profit while creating marital bliss for your customers...
If you get everyone in your company (or if it’s just you in a one-person company) to use CCP to show an upgrade path to every customer, you’ll make a positive impression on potential customers while having a positive effect on your bottom line.
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Tech Tips
By Joe Salvatore
URC Technical Support Manager
Get the most out of the PSX-2 Personal Server!
March’s Tech Tip touched on the importance of updating drivers, so it’s only appropriate to outline an example this month using our PSX-2 Personal Music Server.
When installing a PSX-2, it’s imperative to always update its firmware. Assuming that you have the PSX-2 and your PC hooked up to a router, proceed with the following steps:
- From within Complete Control Program (CCP), select the PSX module from the TOOLS menu.
- Once the setup is running, select Search to find the PSX unit on the Local Area Network.
- After locating the PSX-2, select the Configuration button.
- Once your configuration is set, proceed to the PSX web page interface. Here, you’ll see information such as iPod and system status, as well as your configuration settings. Under the System Information tab, you’ll find the Firmware Update option. Select this option and browse to the file location using this path: C:\Program Files\Universal Remote Control, Inc\Complete Control Program\Tools\PSX-2\PSX-2 Firmware
Note that every time there is an updated firmware patch, it always automatically installs to this location on your PC when you update CCP.
Since we’re on the subject, here’s another quick tip for you: Did you know that you can sync your iPod to any PC or Mac on your network? You may already be aware of this extremely useful feature, but if not, here’s how to do it:
- Make sure you have the PSXLink software installed on the intended PC or Mac.
- Turn on the PC or Mac and click the PSXLink app icon.
- Choose the PSX-2 to which you wish to sync and click “connect.”
Just like that, your iPod will sync with the most recent updates to the music and photo libraries from the specified machine.
For further support on this tech tip, please email us at techsupport@universalremote.com.
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Under the Hood
By Jeff Wagner
URC Technical Training Manager
By now you’ve likely seen or heard a few discussions about our new network keypad. Hopefully you’re planning to pick one up for an install soon. When used with the matching MRX-1 base station, the KP-4000 is pretty easy to install: You just plug them both into the same router. But what if you want to install our keypad in a location that has no network? It’s nearly as easy to install, but you’ll need a few additional, inexpensive parts to complete the job.
Power. The KP-4000 must be powered, of course. In a network, you’d just use a POE (Power Over Ethernet) router, or add a POE injector, which is basically a switch with power. You can also power the KP-4000 with a dedicated DC power supply that generates 12 volts at 1 amp. You probably have a few of those in your truck that will do the trick; otherwise, we recommend that you stop by the local RadioShack, Fry’s or similar gadget supplier and pick some up.
IR control. The KP-4000 doesn’t have an IR emitter like a regular remote. What it does have is an IR connection on the back. You can feed this to any IR repeater or connecting block to achieve IR control of your system. CAT5 works for this, although any 2 conductor wire works as well.
Lighting. Do you want to be able to control URC Lighting by Lutron from the KP-4000? URC’s RFTX-1 ($40) connects directly to the back of the KP-4000 and gives you the RF output you need to talk to our lighting products. The RFTX-1 is small (it could hide beneath a business card), so you can easily hide it in the wall behind the KP-4000.
RF control. The RFTX-1 also enables the KP-4000 to communicate with any of our standard RF base stations (MRF-260, MRF-350, MSC-400) just like a handheld control. This gives you a very powerful tool that makes it easier to add a color touch-screen keypad to existing systems, especially ones in which you can no longer add control wires.
Network router (for programming only). As I’ve explained, the KP-4000 operates and controls most systems just fine without a network connection. But you must download your programming through a network connection, so you’ll need to keep a simple router on hand to use for programming purposes. Bear in mind that this router is used only for programming, so it doesn’t even need to have functional Wi-Fi.
So that’s it. Program the KP-4000 in CCP, then connect it to a power supply and the router. Download your programming, plug in your IR repeater system and RFTX-1, and you’ve successfully installed our new KP-4000 as a standalone control.
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URC Tool Box
App of the Month |
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RocketGUI Total Music(TM) for the URC MX-6000
RocketGUI’s Total Music for the URC MX-6000 app provides complete multi-zone access and control of music for residential distributed audio systems. When used with one Logitech Squeezebox Receiver (MSRP $149), or other Squeezebox product per zone, plus a network PC running Squeezecenter, the app supports eight or more completely independent audio zones.
The RocketGUI module provides cost-effective, true music-server capability to browse, search, play and create custom playlists from your locally stored music collection, plus full access to Rhapsody, Pandora and a wide array of internet radio including sports, talk and local radio channels.
The version of Total Music that can be downloaded for free from the URC Tool Box works with full capability for a five-minute trial without a valid Activation Code. An Activation Code can be purchased for $149 ($299 MSRP) through Tool Box; simply download the Total Music Activation Link from the 2-way module page.
Settings in the module allow users to selectively include, or not include, specific services. For example, if the user does not want or have a subscription to Rhapsody, simply deselect Rhapsody in the setup page and the module's other capabilities can still be enjoyed. Multiple touch panel interfaces can control a single zone, or one touch panel can control multiple zones, or any combination.
The possibilities this app opens are many.
With Rhapsody, your customer can:
• Search and browse the entire Rhapsody database and play Rhapsody channels
• Add music, comedy, entertainment and more to their own custom Rhapsody library
• Create, store, recall and edit custom playlists
With Pandora, your customer can:
• Create, play and store Pandora music stations
• Select stations by genre
• Enjoy thumbs-up and thumbs-down song control
With local hard-drive music, your customer can:
• Browse their music collection by artist, album and genre
• Enjoy full search capability
• Create and edit custom playlists
• Not worry about where music is stored: the app supports iTunes, Windows Media and other databases
With Internet radio, your customer can:
• Browse and choose from local channels, music, talk, sports and more
• Store favorite stations for quick recall
• Search radio by keyword or location
• Directly tune a radio URL
To access RocketGUI 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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