Specifications

Maestro
tm
Phone [phone] • Fax [phone]
®
Integration with Automation
Section 5-1
Integration with Automation
Introduction
Part of the joy of a great home theater is that you don’t
have a tray of remote controls staring at you whenever you
want to watch a movie. Hidden away behind the scenes is
a workhorse that takes care of the mundane tasks of turn-
ing on all the components, lowering the curtains, dim-
ming the lights, popping the corn, etc. This faithful ser-
vant can take the form of a simple learning remote control
or a system as capable as a whole house automation sys-
tem with touchscreens. There is a wide variety of theater
controllers available.
There are two means of remotely controlling the Maestro:
With Infrared (IR) Remote control and with the RS-232
Serial Port. Both of these methods feature a very extensive
library of commands. It is really up to the system designers
choice of user interface as to which of these methods will
be used. It is possible to use both of these in the same
installation depending on your needs.
Infrared Control versus RS-232
Infrared remote control systems are typically less expensive
than RS-232 controllers. Their main limitation is that
Infrared is strictly line-of-sight. That means that there has
to be an unobstructed view between the controller sending
the infrared commands and the IR sensor or front panel of
the Maestro. When you try to send long groups of com-
mands (macros) such as: Turn on the TV, Turn on the
Maestro, Turn on the DVD, Select the DVD Input on the
Maestro, Play the DVD; everything can easily get out of
sync if you sit down the IR controller or somebody walks
in front of you before all the Infrared commands have been
sent. Infrared is also typically a one-way communication.
There is no way for the IR remote to know if the command
was received correctly.
RS-232 Serial control is a hard-wired connection. There is
usually a wire connecting the user interface (keypad or
touchscreen) to the controller system. Then another wire
connecting the controller system to the Maestro. RS-232 is
also a two-way communications scheme. This allows the