Looking for suggestions for remote IR control for A/V

[Mango Jerry]

We are in the process of building a new home, and one of the items we are planning on is upgrading the A/V including having the house wired for speakers in both the kitchen and great room where the TV is going to be located. Unfortunately, the only practical place to locate the A/V receiver, is in a network rack in the basement, so we will need some type of IR remote control. A whole house control system like Savant, Crestron or Control4, is overkill for us, especially to control just the A/V system. Are there any reliable solutions out there under $ 1k, and that are easy to set-up, and easy to use?

 

[WaynePflughaupt]

You need an IR repeater system. Xantech makes some good ones. Basically, IR emitters are placed on the componenents. An IR receiver will be located where ever it is you would normally point your remote (like above or below the TV).

Keep in mind, the emitters will have to be stuck to the component, direclty over its IR receiver. So you’ll have to figure out where it is behind the faceplate.

You will probably also have to run an extension cable for the IR receiver from your TV to your equipment rack.

Home

Xantech DL85K LCD/CFL Dinky Link IR Receiver KitSurface-mount design with standard range up to 80 ft. Works with LED, LCD & plasma TV's and CFL lighting. For use with all types of cable boxes, satellite boxes, remote controls and TVs - IR modulation frequency bandwidth: 25-60 kHz. White, silver...

www.parts-express.com

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[lovinthehd]

Is wifi control an option with your avr?

 

[Bryce_H]

I did this twice (two different houses) with an Buffalo Electronics system. I ran 4-22 wire in the walls from the front to the back of the room. The repeater (IR-350) sits just under my center speaker and then the distribution block (IR-100) and distributes the flashers (IR-E1). In my old theater I even daisy chained two distribution blocks since I had more than 4 components (I had IR lights as well).

Worked great!

 

[Mango Jerry]

Thanks for the responses and suggestions! We are having the electrician run two Cat6 cables from the TV down to the home run area of the Network and A/V receiver. Can one of them be used for remote control? If not, should I run some 16/4 myself following the same wiring path?

The receiver is a Denon AVR-X1600H, and is bluetooth enabled for Alexa, Google or Siri control, but I assume that isn't going to turn it on and off.