AMSTERDAM and RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA, CALIF., FEBRUARY 2, 2017 — With the emergence of voice control as the hottest new trend in AV, AVPhenom will be introducing a new voice control product at ISE 2017.

“Ever since Alexa’s debut at CEDIA, I have been obsessed with voice control as the future of the user interface and believe that in the future EVERYTHING should be controlled via voice,” says AV Phenom.

With that thought in mind, the AV Phenom quickly integrated his whole home with Alexa to control all of his electronic devices. The experiment created a unique opportunity for the InfoComm CTS-D holder to invent a brand new product that makes voice control even easier to implement and use in any application.

“It was my ‘Aha’ moment,” said Phenom. “I was using Alexa to channel surf through Direct TV and I said:

‘Alexa, Channel Up, Channel Up, Channel Up, Channel Up, Channel Up… Channel Down… Channel Up, Channel Up, Channel Up… Open List… Scroll Down, Scroll Down, Scroll Down, Scroll Down, Scroll Down, Select, Play.‘ ”

“After I was done choosing a show, I actually needed a drink of water.”

It was at this moment that the light bulb went off, says Phenom.

“I realized that I was giving many commands over and over again to change channels, surf my DVR list, or choose a Netflix movie. I knew there had to be a way to reduce the amount of voice commands I had to give, thereby saving me from potential laryngitis. Then a light bulb went off, so I said, ‘Alexa, turn that light back on,’ and she did’.”

Phenom immediately went to work building his voice control device. The new device is designed specifically to work with voice control apparatus like Alexa, and reduces the amount of voice commands a user physically has to give. The device resembles an IR remote control, but instead of using pulses of infrared light, which can be unreliable, need line of sight, and are potentially dangerous to people with really, really sensitive eyes, this remote control utilizes a speaker and a microphone.

To program the device, you simply hold down a command button and then say the voice command you wish that button to execute. For example, holding down the “Channel Down” button and saying “Channel Down.” Then when you would like to control your system with voice commands, you can simply press the channel down button and “Channel Down” will be audibly played through the remote’s speaker, allowing Alexa to seamlessly hear the command and then execute it.

“I used to have a Netflix button on my old IR remote”, said Phenom. “So I included some extra programmable buttons for these applications. I can now press a single button and my new voice control remote will say ‘Alexa, launch Netflix.’ I’ve taken voice control to a whole new level.”

“It’s truly amazing!” said someone wandering through AV Phenom’s living room eating a bowl of Fruity Pebbles cereal.

AV Phenom is already working on the second product in this category, an app for iPhone that will allow the user to press a button on the iPhone and then Siri will tell Alexa what to do. The app will reportedly launch at InfoComm in June.

The new voice control remote, named VoiceSaverT™, is sure to save users undue stress on their vocal chords while providing all the benefits of the voice control user experience.  

It will retail for $299 and will debut at ISE 2017.  

For more information, say “Alexa, call AV Phenom”, (or press the “AV Phenom” button on your VoiceSaver remote and it will say it for you.)